Swiss software licensing platform Lotaris anticipates boom in Asia; grows presence in the region

Here’s a story line so often repeated it gets nauseating: It’s boom time in Asia. But of course, we should all be thankful that the region’s economies are being propped up by countries like Philippines and Indonesia, which are experiencing a wave of optimism that makes them attractive to investors.

Tech companies too are moving into Asia in droves, attracted by long-term opportunities despite the precariousness of the banking sectors in Vietnam and China, which could drag the world into another recession.

Lotaris, a Swiss company that specializes in helping app developers monetize, fits into this larger narrative. It sees Asia as a big growth market, and as such, has shifted its project management, quality assurance, and strategic elements into the Singapore office.

With about 5 staff in Singapore, the company plans to expand to more than 10 next year, with more emphasis on actual development work.

The company also has an office in Japan as well, where it serves clients like Sega and Capcom, and is looking to set one up in South Korea, where it is in talks with major OEMs.

In a nutshell, Lotaris makes it easy for developers to monetize their products through licensing and in-app purchases. They can manage the licenses they distribute to users and then analyse them. Instead of having to create their own solutions, developers can plug into the Lotaris platform by paying an initial fee plus a cut of subsequent transactions.

According to Lotaris CEO Robert Tibbs, Asia is looking to be both a prime consumer and creator of mobile content.

“There’s a lot of exciting content being developed in Asia. The region’s mobile content usage is one of highest in the world as well,” he said in a phone interview.

Besides serving large independent software vendors, which in addition to the Japanese companies mentioned above also include Symantic and Digital River, Lotaris is targeting independent software developers as well. They will be launching a self-service model that allows app developers to use their APIs and download SDKs which they can implement on their apps.

Whether or not it can adapt its lucrative large-scale monetization platform for smaller developers remains to be seen. But success in this area is crucial if it wants to capitalize on the potential of Asia’s content creators by capturing them as customers early. After all, today’s indie developer may become tomorrow’s Capcom.