Slopes · B2C · ski tracking app
Sell day and season passes next to the subscription for occasional users
Host cites it as working; no numbers
What they did
What happened
In their words
What Subscription Apps Can Learn About Monetization From Gaming — Mathias Gredal Nørvig, Subway Surfers
Mathias Gredal Nørvig… act that games, because it's been so massive for so many years and we have so many people are players. It's also found its equilibria in the different aspects of this is what players are willing to spend. Where I think apps for me in some aspects I end up spending too much because I have one day's need of something. And therefore, I don't become a user of other than the Stravas of the world because you're a runner or because you do these things.
David BarnardThat's actually where I wanted to take things next is, and again speaking of being so far ahead of the app industry. The idea of a season pass in apps and all the in-app purchases and the rewarded ads. All of this hybrid monetization, I think we will see the industry start to adopt over time where, "Hey, you just need one scan? Okay, five bucks." Just make it happen and you're done. Or Slopes is, we had the founder of that on the podcast and he now does a season pass. It's like, "Hey, if you want-"
Jacob EitingA season pass, day pass, they do a bunch of buy as little or as much as you want.
David BarnardBut then they also have, to your point, they have this subscription for people who are avid skiers and who are going to go out six times a year or whatever. And so they're a good example of making this work however the user wants to pay and how frequently they want to pay.
Jacob EitingThis is the advantage games have, though. You start with a store, you don't start with a single IP, you have a whole store. And so adding a little thing here and slice there, it's just out of the gate games always start with a higher level of sophistication on monetization, which makes this stuff easier and apps. And this isn't something in our mission or anything, what we're exploring now is, is the reason this isn't in apps related to that …
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More from this episode
- Move the game to a new city every three weeksGuest credits it with keeping the game fresh for 13 years; no numbers
- Keep the core game free and unlimited, and never lock content behind paymentTop-5 downloaded game every year since 2012; 1M installs a day
- Have a small in-house team post 5-10 videos a day riding pop culture trendsViral hits of 75M-100M views on salaries only; guest says it lifts app store featuring
- Let anyone use the game in their videos, and repost the cool onesCreators, including a K-pop star, make unpaid content; the game became a meme format
- Put a few hundred dollars behind posts already going viralTens of thousands of dollars total; helps hits spread to other platforms
- Let players watch an ad for a reward instead of payingAds bring in 80-85% of revenue; still the top game in tier-2 and tier-3 countries
- Ask players' age, show kids only child-safe ads, and block gambling and gun adsVery few complaints across a billion ad impressions a month
- Swap characters with other hit games, with no money changing handsBrings back lapsed players and boosts both games; Crossy Road got the bigger bump
Tags: season-pass, day-pass, hybrid-monetization, consumables