Greystripe
by Leena Rao on October 26, 2009

A few months ago, we wrote about mobile ad network Greystripe’s study that placed “iPhone moms” (mothers of young children who own iPhones) as one of the new and growing mobile advertising demographics on the street. In August, Greystripe claimed that iPhone moms made up 29.5% of all iPhone users. Today, the ad network is releasing a follow-up report which offers detailed behavioral characteristics of moms in their iPhone ad network. Similar to the “soccer moms” demographic, iPhone moms are a consumer segment that has vast potential for advertisers and app developers.

The report shows several interesting patterns. For example, over 59% of iPhone moms surveyed say they let their children use their iPhone. And 41% of moms who own iPhons download apps specifically for their children to use.

by Leena Rao on September 2, 2009

Greystripe, the mobile brand and game advertising network has secured $2 million in an extended series C funding round from General Electric and NBC Universal’s Peacock Equity Fund. The startup originally raised $5.5 million in the series C round in March from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, Incubic Venture Capital and Michael Chang tells us that the most recent funding will be used to expand the company’s sales team and efforts to work with publishers. Greystripe capitalized on strong growth in its mobile content distribution and monetization business, particularly with the iPhone.

by Leena Rao on August 20, 2009

According to a recent study done by mobile ad network Greystripe, there’s a relatively new mobile advertising demographic on the street: iPhone moms. Similar to the “soccer moms” demographic, iPhone moms could be a new consumer segment that has vast potential for advertisers and app developers. Greystripe says that “iPhone moms,” which constitute women (with children) who own iPhones, currently make up 29.5% of all iPhone users.

Greystripe says that in the past, “soccer moms” has not been a group that advertisers
could reach through mobile applications because they tended to be late adopters. I’m not so sure about this assertion, considering the rapid growth of “Mommy bloggers” over the past few years. But as the iPhone becomes central to moms to manage finances, family budgets, to-do lists and vacations, it’s sure to become a valuable and portable personal computer and too for the Mommy demographic. There’s even a blog that’s popped up devoted to iPhone Moms. And Moms use the iPhone not just for themselves, but to download kid-friendly apps for their children to use.

by Erick Schonfeld on June 24, 2009

Google is moving into the mobile ad market with AdSense for mobile apps. Over the past few months, Google has been testing both text and graphical ads with ten mobile app developers, including Shazam and Urbanspoon. Today it is opening the private beta to more developers who meet certain criteria.

These are contextual ads for iPhone and Android apps. To qualify for the public beta, the apps must be free and generate at least 100,000 pageviews per day. The program is only for iPhone or Android apps. Developers must be ready to go live with the ads in four weeks and participate for three months.

by Leena Rao on June 24, 2009

There have been questions as to whether iPhone developers can make significant revenue from ads on the iPhone, mainly because the supply of advertisers can’t keep up with the demand for iPhone apps. Others say that developers actually can make quite a bit from ads on free apps. Mobile game advertising network Greystripe is in that camp and it is launching a new CPM Protection Program designed to guarantee ad revenue to iPhone app developers.

Greystripe says that the various mobile ad networks, including competitor AdMob, are undercutting each others’ CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) when competing for advertising dollars, thus leaving iPhone app developers with lower CPMs overall. Greystripe’s CPM Protection Program offers to beat any other ad networks’ eCPM by at least 25% for 60 days.

by Leena Rao on March 11, 2009

Mobile game advertising network Greystripe secured $5.5 million in Series C funding led by Incubic Venture Capital, Steamboat Ventures and Monitor Ventures. The company previously received a total of $10.1 million in Series A and B funding, with the same investors participating. Greystripe develops “advergames,” mobile ads that have game-like characteristics designed to increase the chances of consumers clicking on them. Greystripe has delivered 180 million ad-supported game and app downloads to date.

Greystripe has capitalized on strong growth in its mobile content distribution and monetization business, particularly with the iPhone. Greystripe is now trying to integrate mobile-centric ad campaigns with industry-accepted online media buying software. This unified integration allows for ad agencies to easily add mobile ads with one click and also allows for Flash advertisementsto appear on the iPhone (a technology that Greystripe developed). Ads can be used for both online and mobile purposes.

by Leena Rao on January 29, 2009

Mobile game ad network Greystripe has hit 140 million ad-supported game downloads thanks to iPhone users. In the fourth quarter of 2008 alone, it supported 30 million downloads. All of these ad-supported and Greystripe says that over 50 percent of ad impressions are from iPhone games. The ads themselves have game-like characteristics designed to increase teh chances of consumers clicking on them and playing with them, hence “advergames.”

Last summer, TechCrunch reported that Greystripe turned its attention to the iPhone, and is subsequently seeing an increase in downloads and ad impressions. In fact, Greystripe’s Top 10 Total Games (by ad impression) are all iPhone games. In December, the company created its own version of Adobe Flash for the iPhone, which Apple currently prohibits on the iPhone, that would allow advertisers to use rich media flash ads. The company is making the iPhone market a “priority for the foreseeable future,” finding that the device is a much more successful ad platform for gaming than Java devices.

Greystripe Monetizing iPhone Games With Ad Platform
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by Calley Nye on July 18, 2008

iphone

The current iPhone App Store revenue share model – a 70/30 split for the sale of apps, generally in the $0.99-$9.99 range – doesn’t exactly reward developers for producing addictive games. Greystripe, an advertising network for mobile games, has stepped in to compensate developers for every time their games are played, not just for when those games are initially sold.

Greystripe has actually been distributing free games and applications for about 1,400 handset models since 2006, mainly through its consumer site GameJump. The site offers mobile gamers a catalog of 800 games from 120 game publishers that can be downloaded directly to phones through mobile browsers. GameJump has experienced 75 million downloads so far, a big jump since last summer when they reached 14 million.

Now the company is turning its attention to the iPhone by providing developers with pre-, interstitial and post-roll ads from advertisers like Best Buy, eBay, Yahoo!, New Line Cinema, the US Army, Wal-Mart and Subway. Greystripe claims it will deliver a 10.1% click-through rate (CTR) when other mobile advertisers are averaging a 1-2% CTR.

To begin competing in a competitive mobile ad market, Greystripe is offering iPhone developers 100% of their in-game ad revenue until they reach $10,000. If you’re an iPhone developer, you can register for the network here.

Other iPhone ad networks include: AppLoop, a recently launched location-based iPhone ad network; AdMob, a browser-based ad network with iPhone-specific advertisements that has served almost 250 million ads; and new-comer Medialets.

Playyoo Offers Peek Of Its YouTube For Mobile Games
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by Duncan Riley on October 1, 2007

playyoologo.jpgLondon, England based Playyoo will today announce the launch of its Playyoo Game Contest and give a sneak preview of its community-based platform for mobile casual games at the Adobe MAX event in Chicago.

The Playyoo Game Contest is open to independent mobile game developers using Adobe Flash Lite; prizes include cash and promotional goods. Winners will be selected by Playyoo members based on download popularity and user ratings as at February 28, 2008.

Officially launching in December, Playyoo will offer a sort of YouTube for a mobile gaming that offers free games for mobile phones, user-generated content, social interaction and personal expression. Features will include:

  • A “Easy discovery and download process” that will allow mobile phone users to find games of interest through the Playyoo platform. The site will provide personalized recommendations based on each user’s preferences and those of friends.
  • Game creation tools that will allow users with no experience to design their own games
  • Social networking features that will allow developers and users who interact with others

Playyoo promises an interesting offering that in part seems to be a logical, interactive step forward from the tried and million times cloned YouTube model. Playyoo will compete directly against Greystripe, another company offering free mobile games, but with licensed product as opposed to UGC (see our previous coverage here). I suspect there will be room in the market for both models, the interesting part to watch will be seeing which model becomes the more popular over time.

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Greystripe Hits 14 Million Downloads Of Free Mobile Games
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by Duncan Riley on August 21, 2007

gamejump.jpgGreyStripe has passed the 14 million downloads mark on its free mobile gaming content site Gamejump.com in just over 12 months.

Gamejump.com’s model provides downloadable mobile gaming content ad supported and free in a market where paid downloads are the norm. Ads are displayed before and after each game.

Greystripe took $8.9million in Series B funding in May, in a round led by Steamboat Ventures, the VC arm of the Walt Disney Company; good credentials for a gaming content provider.

Gamejump.com features 800 games by 70 publishers and includes a variety of genres to appeal to different users. Gamejump has seen users download an average of 3.4 games each and the number of females users downloading games has been fairly close to the number of male users.

Greystripe recently signed a deal with Konami, the publisher of titles including Frogger and Dance Dance Revolution, that will see Konami’s extensive catalog of games being provided for free to Gamejump.com users. The paid mobile download industry likes to label free game services as delivering inferior quality; the provision of Konami content would seem to suggest that this isn’t the case, and certainly it’s a positive sign that the free ad-supported model of mobile gaming may actually be a winner.

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