Sanlo, a fintech startup that helps gaming firms manage their funds, announced on Wednesday the launch of the closed beta of its webshop tool, offering select game developers and studios a plug-and-play solution that works with their existing tech stack works. Gaming firms can Sign up for a demo Start today.
With Google and Apple charging a 30% fee for in-app purchases, it’s harder than ever for small and medium-sized gaming firms to run profitable businesses. Gaming giant Epic has complained for years about Apple’s revenue cuts and accused the corporate of being predatory toward smaller firms.
As a result, many mobile game developers are not any longer counting on app stores for monetization and are as an alternative turning to external web stores, a growing trend in gaming where firms open stores for a much lower fee (around 4-10%) can operate their very own web sites. . Web shops are also believed to extend sales because players buy directly from the gaming company, as opposed to buying from app stores, which suffer a loss in sales. According to Sanlo, developers may even achieve as much as 25% more sales with an internet shop.
“A web store is one of those super tactical moves that has actually shown that you can generate revenue from it,” Olya Caliujnaia, co-founder and CEO of Sanlo, told TechCrunch. “The reason for this is that it is usually the most dedicated and loyal players who visit the webshop and receive special offers that allow them to get better at the game.”
Photo credit: Sanlo
Sanlo’s latest webshop tool provides game developers with a variety of promotional mechanisms comparable to exclusive digital items, bundle packages, discounted offers and loyalty programs to encourage more players to try the sport. Developers also can access player data to watch profiles and buying activity and goal individual users with attractive offers.
Sanlo said firms can test and set prices “without price caps.” Earnings from webshop sales are deposited into the developer’s account once every week.
One downside to webstores is that Apple and Google don’t allow mobile games to advertise them within the app. As an answer to this problem, Sanlo offers marketing tools comparable to: B. In-game prompts to advertise the online shop, sending emails to returning visitors and tracking ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) attribution.
Sanlo has integrated an unknown variety of gaming firms into its webshop platform, including Fusebox gamesthe developer behind mobile titles inspired by the Love Island IP.
“The biggest appeal for me was the plug-and-play nature of the Sanlo tool and the convenient service they provide,” Terry Lee, COO at Fusebox, told us. “We are a small company that doesn’t have the internal resources to cover all the bases when it comes to supporting an entirely new technical capability.”
Sanlo plans to officially introduce the brand new product to all developers this summer.
Caliujnaia and William Liu (CTO) founded Sanlo in 2020. The company’s team touts previous experience at Capital One, Earnest, Electronic Arts, Facebook, SigFig, Sony PlayStation, Visa and others.
To date, the corporate has raised a complete of $13.5 million and is backed by Initial Capital, Index Ventures, Portage Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, London Venture Partners and Konvoy.
Webstore solutions have been around for years, from more established firms like Xsolla to newer providers like Appcharge. Popular games that use web stores include Clash of Clans, Game of Thrones: Conquest, Marvel Strike Force and Star Trek Fleet Command.
