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MGF 2012: Glu Mobile is working on subscription-based business model reveals EMEA GM Bernard

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MGF 2012: Glu Mobile is working on subscription-based business model reveals EMEA GM Bernard
The final morning session at Mobile Games Forum was entitled 'What are the best revenue and distribution models for mobile game publishers?'

The conversation flowed around the free-to-play model, although Connect2Media executive chairman Nick Alexander pointed out that, "We're still making good money from paid downloads."

Olivier Bernard, Glu Mobile's general manager, EMEA, also said that, although the company now makes the majority of its revenue from F2P games, paid downloads drive solid revenue too.

Recurring revenue

Taking a different view was Andre Costa from Spanish content company Zed.

It takes more of a subscription approach, but is having to adapt to the new conditions.

"The market is easier for monetisation but it's a high volume, low margin business now," he said.

"The users can choose from different types of revenue model. Subscription doesn't have to be expensive. You can have a $2 subscription model with additional IAP."

Glued together

"Subscription is the next big thing coming. We're working on it," Olivier then revealed.

Although when questioned to provide more detail about Glu's plans, he declined.

However, he did highlight that operators would have to sort out their billing systems; carrier billing being a monetisation method that remains hard to make profitable because of the difficulty of multiple integrations and the high margins taken by the operators.

Still,Olivier thought some carriers were up to dealing with the opportunity.

"But they are Korean," he said.
Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.