Independent multi-platform GetJar today announced a pilot project called GetJar+ that will provide millions of free mobile games to customers who visit the company homepage at GetJar.com. The promotion, launched in partnership with mobile game publisher Glu Mobile, will offer premium mobile games with no ads, registrations or “any other catches,” says the company. The games will be available for free for a 2-week period only.
GetJar claims to be the number 2 app store in the world, with over a billion downloads to date across 200 countries. The store now hosts over 70,000 mobile applications for all major platforms, including Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and others.
The company says it can afford to offer millions of games for free through promotions like this one because it doesn’t rely on the sale of apps to generate revenue like the official app stores do. Instead, GetJar charges publishers for sponsored app placements on its site. However, making those app placements worth their price requires GetJar to keep site traffic high. Offering millions of free game downloads is an easy way for GetJar to get the traffic it needs.
The free games from Glu Mobile will be available in the “Recommended” section of the company homepage and will include the following titles: Brain Genius 2, Stranded: Mysteries of Time, Build-a-lot and Race Driver Grind.
What Developers Should Know
GetJar CMO Patrick Mork explained in an interview that this sort of promotion is designed to open up a new channel for developers. “Selling premium content to consumers is a tough proposition. It works a little bit on iPhone, but when you look at premium content across the board, and carriers and handsets, it’s been a tough slog,” he told mobile news site MocoNews.
Developers can’t give away their applications for free, Mork said. So instead, they pay Glu Mobile a one-time licensing fee for their apps which allows the company to give the app away for free for a limited time only.
“As far as [developers] are concerned, they are accessing a new market…the 25 million consumers that have never downloaded premium content before, unless they ripped it off somewhere,” he said.
If the business model proves successful, GetJar could establish itself as a top spot to discover premium, high-end applications for free, a niche that should appeal to those who can’t afford to – or simply doesn’t care to – download paid apps.
