It's usual for the media to use the 100 day period as a thermometer with which to gauge the success of incoming presidents and prime ministers.

Given the situation inherited by Glu Mobile CEO Niccolo De Masi at the start of 2010 however, 12 months seemed a more sensible option.

After all, this was the job labelled the most poisoned chalice in the mobile games industry, and that by senior ex-Glu executives.

But January 2011 sees the NASDAQ-floated company in a very different place. As De Masi himself puts it, "The share price is double what it was when I started, but more importantly our market capitalisation is over triple.

"That's good going for the first year but we're looking to do even more in 2011 and beyond."

Paid to free

The reason for the turnaround was the early decision to switch from premium games sold mainly via carriers to free-to-play games running on smartphones such as iOS and Android devices, and monetised by in-app purchases of virtual items.

"We called the pocket accurately in terms of freemium being the business model of the future. Many larger companies are now standing up and taking notice of mobile social gaming, but we feel we've done pretty well in the first year," De Masi says.

"I think we have a lead over companies such as EA and Gameloft when it comes to free-to-play social games, which we didn't have a year ago.

"But the market is changing fast. Six months is a long time. You can go from zero to hero or hero to zero very quickly."

Cash balance

While Glu has demonstrated early success with freemium games such as Gun Bros., Deer Hunter and Toyshop Adventures all being downloaded over a million times (three million for Gun Bros. and two million for Deer Hunter), it takes time for micro transactional revenues to build up to meaningful amounts.

And it's this transition from revenue generated by millions of $3 transactions to that from ten of millions of 99c transactions which has been De Masi's second key issue during 2011.

With Glu still posting quarterly losses on declining sales, a $13.5 million refinancing plan in the summer of 2010 provided basic stability. An additional deal worth up to $16 million in early 2011 will provide opportunities for quicker growth.

"The primary goal [of the new issue] was to address new growth opportunities that have emerged since the last fund raise," he explains.

"The first was to strengthen the balance sheet to ensure we have a funded transition plan."

New horizons

Such areas include developing Glu.com as a consumer portal, creating direct to consumer channels, developing the backend infrastructure required by freemium games, and exploring third party developer partnerships.

"We're not looking to acquire studios. It's about co-development," De Masi says of the latter.

"We bring interesting distribution aspects, and our producers and product teams are leading the pack for freemium games.

"We'll be looking for co-development partners with whom we can mutually refine ideas and put in the time, sweat and cash to come up with high quality products. Glu will be releasing 25+ games per year. Maybe we'll be add one per month on top of that in the longterm from co-development, but most of our content creation will come from our internal studios."

Machines work

As for the reason of working on proprietary technology, when so many free platforms are available, De Masi says it can provide vital advantages.

"We recognise you need proprietary server-side technology which will enable features such as logging into Glu games without using a new Glu log in, but with existing Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or Game Center accounts.

"Features like this minimise barriers so we can attract the maximum number of consumers and are a valuable part of the value proposition we offer."

This all boils down into a simple plan for 2011. Release games and learn from them.

"We're going to keep putting out games at a rate of four or five a quarter," De Masi says.

"We're learning from the things that did and didn't go well so we'll get better every quarter in terms of improving audience capture, retention and monetisation."

And, of course, as a publicly owned company, we get to see all those details on a quarterly basis as the company announces its financial figures. The next set - due early February - should be particularly interesting too, given that they cover the crucial Christmas holiday period.