Ads that improve your mobile games, not frustrate you. That’s this startup’s play

Photo credit: Pabak Sarkar.

Never underestimate the power of frustrated students.

About two and a half years ago, Arpit Jain and Arink Verma were students at IIT Ropar. Smartphones had shot up in popularity in India, which manifested itself on campus in the form of students playing games. All the time.

Advertisers were basically paying to annoy people.

“People were constantly playing straight 15 hours per day – during classes, during lectures, during everything,” Arpit tells Tech in Asia.

Arpit counted himself as more of a PC gamer and FIFA guy, but he says “a gamer is a gamer.” With phone games, they could play while you were walking to class or commuting. “We used to turn off our internet connections and play,” he remembers. “You used to be able to play games offline back then. Now, you need it.”

He noticed what was going on around him and figured maybe he could make something out of it. He met Arink at Enactus, an on-campus club, and they turned their attention to the ads within games that were quickly becoming the bane of everyone’s existence. Pop-ups were getting in the way of games. Trying to exit the ad banners could mean accidentally clicking on them.

Advertisers were basically paying to annoy people, says Arpit.

How much business were they actually picking up from annoyed people who were exiting the ads as soon as they saw them?

Arpit also considered the viewpoint of the advertiser – how much business were they actually picking up from annoyed people who were exiting the ads as soon as they saw them? He and Arink had some ideas as to how they could help, but they needed to test out their theories. In October 2013, they began their search, building some games themselves before discerning a solution – in-game ads.

They received funding from their university’s entrepreneur cell (e-cell), a type of university incubator that often gives student entrepreneurs access to investors as well as support. They built the software tools that would allow them to insert ads from different companies into games in 2014 – that was around the last time we spoke to them. The following year, their startup GreedyGame started turning a profit.

In-game ads are different than normal banner advertisements. Instead of having to click through or away from something that’s blocking your view of the game, the ads appear as a piece of the game. If you’re racing a car, ads for real companies appear on the sides of the racetrack. If you’re running to get a power-up, the power-up might be named after a real company or come in the form of a real product, like a bottle of Coke. The ads end up enhancing the game experience by becoming part of the universe.

Cracking the ad code

A mission to end frustration