Revolutionizing Mobile Game Monetization A Conversation with Maor Sason

Episode Overview

Maor Sason is the founder and CEO of Appcharge, a revolutionary platform aimed at helping mobile game developers retain more of their revenue by offering direct-to-consumer stores. With a background in in-game advertising, Maor has been at the forefront of mobile gaming innovation since 2016. His work focuses on empowering developers by reducing the dependency on major app stores like Apple and Google, which take a significant percentage of in-game purchase profits. With Appcharge, developers can keep up to 95% of their earnings, allowing for greater control over their revenue and a more flexible gaming experience for users.

Before launching Appcharge, Maor had an extensive career in the mobile gaming space, working closely with major studios and advertisers. He played a significant role in the free-to-play revolution that transformed the gaming industry, where users can enjoy games for free while being offered paid upgrades, bonuses, and extra content. Maor has collaborated with top-tier game development companies like Coin Master and Play , helping them scale their operations and increase profitability through innovative monetization techniques.

Maor’s work has been instrumental in shaping the mobile gaming industry, particularly as new challenges, such as Apple’s iOS 14 privacy updates, change the way games are marketed and monetized. His deep understanding of user acquisition strategies and the economics of gaming has positioned him as a thought leader in the field. With Appcharge, Maor continues to drive the industry forward by offering developers the tools they need to build successful, sustainable gaming experiences in an increasingly competitive market.

Episode Transcript

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Hey, welcome to Pay Pod, where we bring you conversations with the trailblazers shaping the future of payments and fintech. My name is Kevin Rosenqvist and thanks for listening. Maor  has been in the mobile game space for almost a decade. He started with in-game advertising and now he’s built Appcharge, a platform for mobile game developers to monetize by offering players chances at bonuses, rewards, and in-game purchases. And the best part for gaming studios is that they keep the majority of their revenue, rather than having to kick up to 30% back to Apple and Google. Maor Sason and I talk about mobile gaming. We reminisce about the Game Boy, and I get his take on what gaming in the metaverse might look like. So please welcome Maor Sason. I enjoy some mobile games, particularly card games like Euchre. I like to play euchre. My first question for you is very, very important. Can you make them give me like a million coins? So I’m set for a while.

Maor Sason: Easy. I’m gonna give him a call tomorrow. Okay. Yup. Yay!

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Kevin needs some coins.

Maor Sason: Yeah, this is gonna holler at you. Yep.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: That’s right. I remember when mobile games first take off and I first took off. And I remember the first time I discovered sort of the model of offering the game for free and then having the option to pay for upgrades, extra lives, coins, etc. at first it was kind of like what? I thought this game was free. But then you think about it and you’re like, wow, that’s a that’s a brilliant like that’s like a brilliant way to to to do a game like offer it for free and then then you can upgrade with within it. You’ve been in this space since 2016. Have you found that players are more likely to spend in-game than they used to.

Maor Sason: Of course, mobile spending goes up like the average spending per paying users in all platforms are going up, especially in mobile. Free to play is actually, I would say, the only way to build a proper game and monetize it in mobile nowadays. There’s no other way to do it and it’s proven itself. It’s kind of like gave birth to some of the biggest titles in the industry. You probably know of them. Also here in Israel we have a great team. Games like,  studios like Coin Master, Playtika Plari, all the Israeli based. So we’re pretty familiar with that.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: What type of games are the ones like the most successful? The biggest ones? Are they Maor Sason of the, you know, card games or are they more of the building worlds kind of games? What’s really the hottest thing right now?

Maor Sason: Oh, there is no one category to rule them all. You know, it’s not a it’s not a Sauron Ring, but starting from a puzzles the all kinds of social casinos  RPGs every niche has some MVP’s and they can generate tons of cash and entertainment for their users. So mobile mobile is a star and it’s taking all the categories up with it. , yeah.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: It’s funny because like, I think about my Game Boy that I had as a kid, you know, this little tiny.

Maor Sason: What were you playing?

 Kevin Rosenqvist: What’s that?

Maor Sason: What were you playing? I was planning to add. Like my Game Boy color the purple one. What was your favorite?

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Well, I had the original, like the white game boy. That was just the green.

Maor Sason: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: No, I’m I’m, I’m old man so I, I’m old. But yeah, I had I mean Tetris was the obvious one that was like super, super big. And then, uh. God, there was another game that I can’t remember. It was like an adventure game. I don’t know if it was a Zelda, but it was something in that realm where you kind of walk around and stuff. But I think about that, and I think about what I’m able to do with my phone now, and it’s just startling how far we’ve come. Yeah.

Maor Sason: People still play these games, by the way. Like, so Pokemon was my first game on the Game Boy Color. It was the red like a Charizard. And by the way, the logics and the interest for Pokemon. Have you ever played? No, it’s based on Zelda, actually. So like the whole game mechanics is just a Nintendo took it from Zelda, brought it to Pokemon, and they did it the same now on the new console. And it’s working really well.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Wow. It’s just the same even on the new console.

Maor Sason: On the switch?

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Yeah, on the switch, it’s the same. That’s interesting. That’s really interesting.

Maor Sason: Yeah, yeah. With the open world. Zelda, if you had a chance to play. Yeah. Breath of the wild.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Yeah. That sounds awesome. I have a three and a half year old. So pretty soon he’s gonna start when I hand him a video game controller. Now he just mashes the buttons. But pretty soon he’s going to start beating me at stuff. I know it’s going to happen.

Maor Sason: Yeah. Or it’s gonna, you know, it’s just going to be very polite and it’s going to manipulate you to let them play every day, the whole day. That’s what usually happens.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Don’t tell me that I don’t know.

Maor Sason: Yeah. They’re getting more sophisticated.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: It’s incredible even watching him with his tablet, I’m just like. I didn’t even know he could do that, you know? Like, he’s like, wait a minute. Are you buying something? Like.

Maor Sason: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. They they’re they’re like controlling the the consoles, the iPads, the iPhone. It’s like, you know, they’re like yeah.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Yeah, it is like Spock. That’s a good analogy. Yeah. So mobile gaming is a huge market in 2023. The global mobile game market generated $76.7 billion, and it’s expected to grow to over 100 billion by 2028. I also saw that mobile games accounted for over 55% of consumer spending on mobile devices in 2023, which really blew me away. But what a lot of people didn’t realize is that a lot of the revenue is taken by Google and Apple. Like if you more fees for having their stores and stuff. How much do they take? As a general rule.

Maor Sason: First of all, about the numbers. I know that I’m affiliated with a bit different numbers. Nowadays, mobile games in-app purchase spending should be around $110 billion and will account for like, I think it’s going to be 200 billion by the end of the decade. Wow. Okay. Insane numbers. Okay. Yeah. Apple iPhone. Yeah, Exactly. Increased and increased expectations. Apple and Google’s business model is that they’re charging 30% for all digital goods. It means it’s not like a tangible like shoes, food, clothing, anything that you can hold. They’re taking 30% unless it’s a subscription. If it’s a subscription first purchase is like 30%. Then the recurring ones are 15. So it’s big money. Yeah, that’s a lot for quite a service, but not the best, you know. Not a lot of competition to incentivize, to give a better service. So it’s a lot deep down in the developer’s pocket. And it’s kind of like taking the industry down in a sense. Ios 14 with a updated privacy. Are you familiar with the update of iOS 14?

 Kevin Rosenqvist: No.

Maor Sason: No. So in a nutshell, a few years ago, I think it was like for Apple updated the iOS 14 update. And then in terms of privacy, you’re able to opt out when you install an app and they recommended to you instead of like they opt you in automatically in order to get out of the system and not to have the data saved, you need to go to the settings and go to like a complicated funnel. What it led to is that most people don’t want to have their data saved, and then they were not tracked. And then it’s harder to target you as a user. And that led to way higher prices to target you as a user, which led to a higher user acquisition cost for every user. And that’s kind of changing the game and the strategy for all game developers. So it really shakes the economy. On the gratitude of Apple. And I think that that’s going to take us to the direct to consumer strategy. That’s going to be like the savior for this whole mess. We’re helping mobile game developers to maintain or even increase their user acquisition strategy and capabilities even prior to iOS 14 update, saving the mediator the mediation costs. Let’s call it like this. It’s taking back like sane margins. And that’s where we aim to.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: And so yeah, if your company is Appcharge and you allow companies to build custom stores, but they retain far more of their revenue. Correct. Yeah.

Maor Sason: More on the on the neighborhood of like 95% 5% rather than 70%.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: That’s substantial. That’s a big difference.

Maor Sason: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s more than 30% if you look at. That’s crazy.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: I mean the 30%. That’s a huge number that they take. I mean, I didn’t realize that until I started digging into what you do and, , you know, that that blew me away. So, tell me how does Appcharge work? So I have a cool new game. It’s going to take the world by storm. I know it will. And I want to monetize by offering daily bonuses, chance for people to buy upgrades and whatnot. So what’s my first step? How do I do this with Appcharge?

Maor Sason: Let’s zoom out for a minute. But are you familiar with Shopify?

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Yes. Of course.

Maor Sason: Okay, so imagine Shopify, but just for mobile game developers with all their unique needs and integrations and payment processing capabilities that we’re providing to mobile game developers. So we are a white label solution. And we’re the platform for mobile game developers that want to monetize outside of the platforms. And we build them the store straightforwardly. So if you’re a game, Kevin, and your domain is Kevin Combs, and you want to facilitate the shop on kevin.com/shop, you’re going to use the arbitrage platform to assemble the exact look and feel store that you have in game with all the necessary features that the ones, the cool ones that are getting retention, the ones that are the users are lusting for alongside with the service and the capabilities and the the integrations that you need in order to function and to work in harmony with your game. So that’s like in a nutshell, what we do, but it’s way more fun. It sounds complicated. It’s way more fun than that because it gets the people excited, like in their organizations and internally in the studio, so they can finally offer like cool bundles that they were not offering, not able unable to offer it to to gain to their users, and also is going to lead them to later on to buy more users and increase the gain and you know to find the more features and and more studios later on.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: That’s awesome. That’s really, really cool. And so how would someone do it with Google or Apple? Like, would that just be like, is that sort of built into their functionality? Do they have to set it up the same way?

Maor Sason: No, no, it’s it’s a totally different platform and system that’s not connected to Apple and Google. It’s it’s oh, it is not even advertised. No no no no no. It’s a web store. It’s not the only thing that Apple is doing upcharge. We’re providing with comprehensive solutions right for direct to consumer. But if we’re talking about the web shop it’s external to Apple and Google. So imagine you have Apple, you have Google and you have your own shop on online on the web, just like if you would sell anything else on the web. And it’s not connected to Apple and Google, it’s not advertising in the game itself.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Okay. Yeah, yeah. And it’s like the user doesn’t even realize they’re going somewhere else. They just feel like they’re still in game, right?

Maor Sason: No, no, they’re totally aware that it’s,  developers web shop. They see it as them helping the game developer that they love and are invested in. And they’d like to cut the mediator and invite direct from the developer, essentially. So let’s say you love a certain brand, and instead of going to the department store and get it, it’s like, hey, I love this brand. I’m gonna look online, what’s going on there? And the brand’s website, and you’re just going to buy directly. Probably you’ll see more products. Probably you’ll have a loyalty program that’s going to let you know with the newsletter if you’re really into the brand and you’re going to get like a better offering, it works like that. And every commerce in every industry, why not in gaming?

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Mhm. Yeah, yeah. And you, you’ve been in this business for a while And you, you’ve been involved in the in the marketing and or advertising world within games as well, connecting advertisers to mobile games and showing video ads and and you know, as much as I dislike commercials when I’m watching TV, I tend to be someone who watches the ads in a mobile game rather than paying to go ad free. Am I in the majority, would you say? Or am I in the minority? From what your data has.

Maor Sason: I would say you’re not. You’re not a minority and you’re not a majority. It’s somewhere. Somewhere a fair split. Okay.  yeah. Yeah. Depends on the category of the game, obviously. But there are so many ad based,  revenue games that you can choose to to upgrade. I did my my first venture with advertising and it’s interesting. It’s obviously now I got familiar with what’s going on besides me,  loving games and gaming. Imagine, just like I said, for improving the the economics in order to improve scale. So it’s interconnected, the marketing and the margins. So once we are empowering the developers and we’re expanding their margins, we’re, let’s say letting them own the users and control their marketing spend way better than they were. They can plan it differently and they can they can plan it more long term. And once I don’t want to talk like an industry terms, but when an average rate payer is changing, so, so does your whole marketing strategy. So it’s it’s funny that, you know, I got to this crossroads.  I wasn’t expecting it, but, you know, when the penny dropped, it’s connected. So we’re also,  being some kind of, like, advisory for some studios and how to improve their marketing strategy and and GTM.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: So you offer a lot more than just a web store, then.

Maor Sason: Oh, yeah. We’re a full service. Your wish is my command.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: All right, well, give me the million. You’re one to talk.

Maor Sason: Exactly. Were you planning your revenge, red alert?

 Kevin Rosenqvist: No, I was playing. I was just playing a card game called Euchre. I just keep losing, I guess, I guess I.

Maor Sason: I need to play with you. You heard of it? Yeah. I heard you like hiking.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: I like what you like.

Maor Sason: Hiking.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Hiking? Yeah, I do like hiking. Yeah. Yeah I do.

Maor Sason: You guys have good, good spots there in Colorado.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Oh, yeah, I’m in Colorado. It’s just like. Yeah, if you like to hike, this is. This is the spot for sure. This is about as good as it gets.

Maor Sason: Definitely in the bucket list.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Is it really? Have you come to Colorado?

Maor Sason: Yeah yeah yeah yeah. Like the the bouldering there is great. Yeah.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Uh huh. Yep yep. Very good. Yeah. So tell me what games you got. What are the what are the big games that you zap charge that that people might know.

Maor Sason: So we work with top studios.  top 15, 20 studios in the world where there are some categories where, let’s say 60% of the studio is working with us, and I cannot disclose the names, but.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: That’s all right. What would you say the what’s the most popular type of mobile game? Like what is the one that’s the most, you know, the one that’s the most popular.

Maor Sason: Popular?

 Kevin Rosenqvist:  like the type of game. Like what kind of games? What kind of games are people downloading the most? Would you say? Are they Cod games? Is it RPGs? Casual? Hyper casual I.

Maor Sason: Think like in terms of numbers. Mhm. Mhm. Of uh of active users. Not not in terms of revenue.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Okay. Besides active users. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. That makes sense. Mhm. I was curious to get your take on, on something. And I don’t know how deep in the weeds you go in this. But you know we hear so much about the metaverse and all that and, and specifically how it relates to gaming. You know, one of the use cases for blockchain technology and NFTs that get a lot of people excited is how they will work within the metaverse, being able to exchange digital assets. I’m curious, do you do you think that is the future of gaming? Is the metaverse going to be the future of gaming as we know it?

Maor Sason: Metaverse is going to be the future of gaming as we know it. I think metaverse is definitely gonna play a big part in gaming as we know it. But I don’t think it’s gonna make all other ways to interact disappear. Like today. Like before smartphones. Mobile gaming wasn’t big, right? But they didn’t annihilate the console. And in a way, it’s like a compliment. It was reinforcing. Definitely. I see a bright future for the metaverse once the technology is going to be a bit more advanced. We can already witness it. You know, the capability of Apple. Wow. Have you tried.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: It? I have, I tried. No, I have not actually tried it.

Maor Sason: You should, yeah I should. The vision for something. Yeah. Yeah, something. Something else.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: I just feel like, I don’t know, I feel like, I don’t know if I would like having that thing on my face. I mean, it seems like it’s kind of cumbersome.

Maor Sason: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Not for a daily walk. Like, you see, like these crazy people driving with it, but more for a living room. Office. You said entertainment.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Yeah. Are you excited about it? Like, is it as a whole? Do you think it’s. Do you think it’s pretty cool technology that you’re excited about?

Maor Sason: Definitely. Yeah, I’m excited about it. It’s making me wander, taking me to some, like, dystopian movies and books that I like. It’s there. Mhm.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Do you think you think you’ll, you know, try to try to move out, charge into, into that realm if it, if it takes off. Is there if you thought about that at all.

Maor Sason: No I don’t think that it’s, it’s there yet. Commercially there is only the beginning. There’s a lot to do there. Like in terms of, like, you know, in the industry doesn’t exist yet for us to help out. And it’s being controlled by the platforms essentially. Yeah, yeah. Apple and Oculus. Meta. But once it’s going to get big enough. Definitely. Yeah. Aperture has room to comment.

 Kevin Rosenqvist: Awesome. Well, that sounds pretty cool. Hey Mary, thanks so much for being here. The company’s Appcharge. And,  yeah, best of luck to you. And,  continue, continue. Best. Best of luck with continued growth.

Maor Sason: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much, Kevin.