Amazon Underground anyone?

iKandyiKandy Imagineer of Crazy ShitNew York CityMember Posts: 310
in Miscellaneous

Is anybody doing Amazon Underground?

_Introducing Amazon Underground. A New Way for Developers to Get Paid.

Amazon Underground is a new app for Android phones. It has all of the functionality of our regular Amazon mobile shopping app … plus an exciting addition: over ten thousand dollars in apps, games and in-app items that are actually free for customers.

Amazon Underground includes a new monetization model where Amazon pays developers based on the amount of time your app is used. With Amazon Underground, you can turn 100% of your Android users into revenue generating customers. You get paid starting from the very first minute your Amazon Underground app is used, and you will continue to be paid for every minute of use by every customer. With Amazon Underground, you can focus less on monetizing and more on creating great user experiences. Most Android apps are eligible for Amazon Underground. Getting started is easy. Just create a developer account and submit your app today._

Comments

  • jonmulcahyjonmulcahy Member, Sous Chef Posts: 10,408
    edited August 2015

    awesome! I'm going to submit a long way home :)

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  • jigglybeanjigglybean Member Posts: 1,584

    It's an interesting concept. I had the email earlier today and thought 'hmm'. My games currently do well on Amazon in terms of ad revenue. However, the possibilities this has are pretty unique.

    Amazon Underground could see the next generation of 'Lite' versions of a game but of course the content has to be there to keep them hooked!

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  • LovejoyLovejoy Member Posts: 2,078

    So from reading up on it, your app will be made free, it can't have ads, and if you have in app purchases they will be made free as well. So games with iap for lives/upgrades become like a cheat copy of the game where everything is free.

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  • LovejoyLovejoy Member Posts: 2,078

    @jigglybean said:
    Amazon Underground could see the next generation of 'Lite' versions of a game but of course the content has to be there to keep them hooked!

    The full app has to be the one used, can't submit "lite" versions to underground.

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  • jonmulcahyjonmulcahy Member, Sous Chef Posts: 10,408

    and you game has to actually be good since you get paid by the minute. so if it sucks people won't actually play it and you won't get paid. should help keep the bad out of it :)

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  • jigglybeanjigglybean Member Posts: 1,584

    @Lovejoy said:
    The full app has to be the one used, can't submit "lite" versions to underground.

    It can still be a full app, but there's nothing to stop you releasing a paid version and a version with ads. I've taken this insert from someone who has done the math -

    _At $0.0020 per min, to earn $1000 you would need to grab 500K total mins. Let's say on the best case you can get 15min per session (which is quite high when dealing with averages excluding outliers), that leaves us needing at least 33K, 15min length sessions.

    If you were to show a full screen interstitial ad every single minute (which is bad practice), you probably won't make as much as that. But if you done it well, and the ads were good, you could make a lot more via conversions._

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  • robertkdalerobertkdale USAMember Posts: 912

    I am going to use it for an App that I am working on now for Fire TV. Thanks for sharing!

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  • iKandyiKandy Imagineer of Crazy Shit New York CityMember Posts: 310

    ugghhh!

    "At $0.0020 per min, to earn $1000 you would need to grab 500K total mins. "

    The math doesn't work. You're better off with in-app and/or chartboost.

  • DigiChainDigiChain Member, PRO Posts: 1,288

    I don't like the sound of it at all.
    It seems like a bad deal for developers - and a great deal for Amazon!

  • ChunkypixelsChunkypixels Member Posts: 1,114

    Yup... seems to be devaluing the work of game developers even further.

    Great for Amazon and the customer... not great for the people trying to make a living...

  • goonergooner Lancaster, PAMember Posts: 135
    edited December 2016

    for those publishing to Amazon Underground, how has the experience turned out? how are downloads, exposure, and money compared to IAP and using ads?

  • freneticzfreneticz SwedenMember, PRO Posts: 774

    @jonmulcahy do you earn anything on underground with your game?

    Homepage: freneticgamez.eu/

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=FreneticGamez

  • jonmulcahyjonmulcahy Member, Sous Chef Posts: 10,408

    @freneticz said:
    @jonmulcahy do you earn anything on underground with your game?

    Yea, but I have the same problem with my underground games as my free games... discoverability.

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  • DigiChainDigiChain Member, PRO Posts: 1,288

    I have one game on Underground:
    In the past 12 months it's had about 20,000 downloads.
    Minutes engaged during period = 1,071,849.
    Earnings about $1800 (estimate because earnings are a mix of dollars, sterling, euros etc.)

    Overall not bad but you do need good engagement numbers. I'm not planning on putting any more apps on Underground though.
    Hope thats helpful!

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