Strategic insight from billion-download Amanotes

Recently, Mi Nguyen, our UA & Monetization Manager, has been featured on GamesBeat with Lev Kommisarchik, Director of Mobile Games at Anzu, shedding light on a hot topic of monetization in mobile game.

Music is a strong differentiator between Amanotes and other publishers

Our success is humbly attributed to our music-loving users around the world. We truly believe that music is a strong differentiator between Amanotes and other publishers. Our portfolio also heavily focuses on increasing user value with gameplay improvements, new features, and playlist updates.

At Amanotes, we think doing something extraordinary has to start with doing something you’re passionate about. In our case, it was music. In others’ cases, it could be something you understand or greatly connect with. To the aspiring developers out there, constant testing is key. Not many people can build a hit game in just one try. Launch, market fit, evaluate, optimize. You should repeat this process even after your game becomes a hit. That’s how a music game like Magic Tiles 3 is still going strong four years after launch.

The pandemic has greatly affected the mobile app industry, especially regarding user behavior. We’ve noticed the active time in our games has changed. It is now scattered throughout the week rather than just focused on the weekend. Our competition has also become fiercer, as more publishers are fighting for users’ attention. The pressure is inevitable, yet we believe our musical focus, continuous improvement, and user obsession have done us a great favor, resulting in our second billion downloads milestone, just 14 months after the first!

Our games use a mixture of monetization models, including in-game and reward-based ads, pay to play, and a subscription model

This mixture of monetization models enables sustainable growth for the business. We live in a world of “free choice”, where users have more and more power. If we force them to watch an ad to play games, they can always leave us for one of our many competitors. So instead, we will try to understand them, segment them, and provide different options. This is a win-win for both us and our players.

As part of our strategy, we always want to improve the user experience and grow the business at the same time. In-game ads are perfect for increasing revenue and avoiding user experience interruption. When it comes to partnerships, we prefer to go with well-established partners who can share expert advice. Anzu was the perfect partner in that sense. We also look for both maturity in technology and demand scale, which can help us minimize the risk for integration and grow faster.

We are seeing new innovative gameplay and truly immersive experiences begin to emerge

I believe in-game advertising will be a force in the world of gaming as we move into the future. I think we will also begin to see the presence of diversified formats and content in in-game ads. We should also remember that, as well as the advertising industry, the game industry is transforming and we are seeing new innovative gameplay and truly immersive experiences begin to emerge, which will continue to nudge ad networks to find new ways to fit into this ever-evolving landscape.

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