Distributing your app to China --> Appborgs???

phamtastic

I just found these guys online http://appsborg.com/
Appborgs

They supposedly help get your game to China app stores for $99/$249. Anyone work with these guys or anyone else with success?

smith.mariusz76

Hi phamtastic,
We also think about running our app in Chine. We found the same guys. Were you able to find any information about them? did somebody used their services?

Thanks!

phamtastic

@smith.mariusz76 said:
Hi phamtastic,
We also think about running our app in Chine. We found the same guys. Were you able to find any information about them? did somebody used their services?

Thanks!

I'm currently talking with them now and they seem very knowledgeable about the Chinese market as well as a few others regions. Interesting thing is they have their own ad service wrapper for the Chinese regions as Chartboost won't generate any revenue in China unless users have Google Play on their phone which is only supported by 5% of Chinese Android devices. Also Revmob ecpm is very very very low in China. However, they will take 30% profit sharing for that service and promise to work even harder to get your game Feature with their ad-service.

Still too early to tell but so far everything we been discussing sounds on the up-and-up. I will circle back in a few weeks to provide on the actual results

If you do use them then please message me and we can compare some more notes
Good luck!
Phamtastic

gingagaming

I would intersted to hear how you get on with this @phamtastic‌ Please post back here how you get on and ill bookmark the thread. Thanks for your input.

phamtastic

@gingagaming‌
Yes, I surely update my experience with Appborg on this forum. My biggest fear is they sneak in some viruses in their ad-service wrapper which seems to be what some other Chinese partners (ie. Le Teng) have done. Hopefully, this is not the case with them but I'll be GS first guinea pig

yattamove

@phamtastic‌
Did you send them your unsigned apk? Otherwise, I once thought to believe Google has already updated their signing certificates not to be hacked into by apk tools any longer? At least back when I was customising stock phone apps to my liking (or for guys at xda-dev). I got busy for years & I lost track. Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm excited about your feedback.

OT:
BTW, I feel Roshambo needs multiplayer. Via wifi adhoc or nfc, I don't know. But definitely not online as it will be laggy. I don't know how you'd implement it but it sure is awesome to play high-tech rock-paper-scissors to a friend beside me.

phamtastic

@yattamove
I sent them my signed version but not sure if they have wrapped their local ad apk yet. I'll double check with them.

Regarding multi-player, i really want to add this feature as well but don't think GameSalad has that capability as it's purely asynchronous. I might be wrong but don't think it's possible with GS.

yattamove

@phamtastic‌
What's this wrapping apk stuff? It's new to me. I've published my games in a lot of other third party stores out there. They report a couple of thousands of installs as well. And Chartboost reports only a couple of those installs. (Sorry I removed inappropriate language)

phamtastic

@yattamove‌
B/c GS only support CB and Revmob which aren't viable options for China AppStores.
Reason being Chartboost will only display ads but you can't get installs unless they also have Google Play services on their phone (which is only being supported by 5% of the Chinese android market) and Revmob ecpm is very low especially in China.

So the alternative they suggest is using their local ad parnters that they can embed onto of your apk. It's optional but i think it's better than the current alternatives.

phamtastic

"Google gets a very rough ride in China, and many of its services are blocked or throttled by the Great Firewall to make them slower. As a result, the Google Play store is often painfully slow in China"

from article.... http://www.techinasia.com/10-android-app-stores-china-2014-edition/

yattamove

@phamtastic‌
I know it's quite technical but how do you think they do wrapping? They create a new apk package on top of your apk?

I visited their website and quite interested as well. But I don't see where the 30% cut is presented? So they charge you $99 or $249 per year upfront, then 30% of earnings thereafter. Is the Chinese market really that profitable or just to break even?

jigglybean

Having taken a look, it really doesn't seem like a great deal. $250 for their top 'package' 'Free' translation of marketing text - which is pointless unless your app has actually been localised too.

The key to breaking China is to ensure that your app has the current localisation so I would rather use that money and hire a native speaker to translate, then submit the app myself.

Are no no areas for me, are just 1 single update a year, 30% from sales + whatever taxes you will need to pay - so essentially, you could be losing out on over 40%+ in terms of revenue.

A quick search on Linkedin or google can be a big help. http://appflood.com/blog/top-10-alternative-app-stores-from-china-2013

Sure it's time consuming but do you really want to hand over 30% just for someone to submit YOUR app?

I also see that they claim they had a Noodlecake Studios app reach the top 5 - so I would reach out to them and ask. They are already a huge publisher on google play and it would be interesting to see what they say.

phamtastic

@jigglybean‌ - I picked the $99 package to submit to the top 3 app stores in China. However, if you can do the submission and translation yourself then that's great but I had a tough time submitting to these store on my own because it's all in Chinese. I was only able to successfully submit to 1 out of 10 app stores on my own. Maybe I didn't try hard enough but it was a pain submitting to these local stores in China. I went back and forth with app store support emails for help and most of them only responded in Chinese if at all so that's why I decided to save me the headache and go with Appborg.

As for the 30% profit-sharing, that's only if you use their ad-server wrapper. You can use Gamesalad options with Revmob or Chartboost and keep the 100% profit HOWEVER Revmob Ecpm is much lower in China that it's not even worth it and Chartboost isn't even an option b/c you can't generate revenue without ppl having Google Play/Amazon on their phone. I wished we have other monetization ads option like Admob but we don't with Gamesalad at the moment.

phamtastic

@yattamove said:
phamtastic‌
I know it's quite technical but how do you think they do wrapping? They create a new apk package on top of your apk?

I visited their website and quite interested as well. But I don't see where the 30% cut is presented? So they charge you $99 or $249 per year upfront, then 30% of earnings thereafter. Is the Chinese market really that profitable or just to break even?

Like i mentioned above, the 30% is only if you use their ad-service wrapper which to me is a perfect solution since Gamesalad is very very limited in their ad-support option. Appborg said this is not officially out to the public yet but willing to offer to me since they think my "Roshambo Fighter" game would do well in China. Of course, if GS had other ad services like Admob then I wouldn't even considered sharing any potential profit

As for their apk wrapper, it's added to the outer layer of your apk file. It's a timer-based ads that launch every minute or so... it depends on how often you want to set it.

Is it worth it? Well it depends on how good your game and if you think the Chinese audience would like it. It's a different gaming culture out there so I wouldn't throw all your titles over there unless it's already been proven on GooglePlay to be a hit. Just my two-cents

yattamove

@phamtastic‌
Since you already bought it, all I can do is to wish you goodluck! I think you really did your homework. Please don't forget to update us on the result ok?

phamtastic

@yattamove said:
phamtastic‌
Since you already bought it, all I can do is to wish you goodluck! I think you really did your homework. Please don't forget to update us on the result ok?

Sure will.. They said it should launch in 3 of the major apps store in about a week.. maybe even featured so crossing my fingers. Hopefully in a month, i report back a million downloads or NOT

Approw

@phamtastic‌ I have an android app that is getting popular in China, around the 200+ (and still growing) downloads per hour. The weird thing is its not even trough google play, but they ripped it and dropped in on some websites or something. Anyway, I use chartboost but it barley generates any revenue. Do you think Revmob will make some money like you mentioned above this post? I know it has low eCPM's, but if it makes 10$ a day I would be happy.

phamtastic

@‌Approw - From what I understand, you won't make any money from Chartboost unless these users also have Google Play on their phone which is roughly 5% of the Android market in China. Yes, I would try Revmob for a few weeks since low ECPM is better than NO CPC (or 5% of the CPC). But then you would also need those website to pickup your new Revmob build so I'm not sure how you'll handle that.
BTW 200 dl/hour is nice
Goodluck and let me know how this work out for you.

Approw

@phamtastic‌ Thanks for the advice:)! So revmob actually can generate money per 1000 impressions without people having google play on their phones? I know they have like 200 different appstores around. Thanks again

gamevicci

Hi guys, any feedback or postmortem for your experience with appsborg.com?
It looks very interesting but with a "too good to be true" vibe