Business side of Pokemon Go

Hey everyone, stupid of awesome Pokemon Go is taking the world by storm. Since I have been teaching a marketing class recently, and lately I got asked this question "how do they make money out of Pokemon Go?" a lot, I thought to write something about it and share.
What comes below is just a part of my piece and you can find the rest in my mobile marketing tag.

How can Niantic benefit from such a massive success on a free app? Pokemon Go was not released without a proper marketing plan. In fact the team behind the app has an amazing line-up of products and revenue generation models. First of all, there are in-app purchases (extras you can buy while in the app), although the app itself is free to download and play. The in-app purchases allow you to get better Pokemon, increase your skills as a trainer by buying Pokecoins ranging in price from USD 1.90$ to USD 99$. Apple and Google, take a 30% share of sales through iTunes and Google Play. Nintendo itself, invested in Niantic’s creation of the game and saw a 25% increase in share price on Monday.

There are also advertising plans and click through charges that make money for such a successful app. Pokemon Go also comes with a little device you can purchase online called Pokemon Go Plus. This little device connects to your mobile through Bluetooth and vibrates if there is a Pokemon nearby, so you do not need to through your phone constantly. Pokemon naturally has an online shop for branded merchandise, offering a variety of items from pillow cases to stuffed animals and t-shirts.

Whether a fan or not, there are many things we can learn from such success stories. We are moving to a complete mobile age; it is now dangerous for businesses to neglect mobile devices. Not that every business needs a mobile app but that every business needs to understand mobile and try to fit it into their marketing tactics one way or another, be it a mobile friendly website, mobile advertising campaign or a full on mobile app.

Would be great to hear your side of the story too, do you use it? how would you make money out of it?

 

Hello Mehdi.b,

Absolutely agree with your words, we are getting into complete mobile age and we need to come up with the new marketing plans and innovative ways of marketing which cannot be neglected by buyers and make them to think at least once to buy such product.
They indeed have penetrated in the market with a boom and have spread all over the world as a wild fire.
Hats off to their patience, hard work and dedication to make it possible.

 

Absolutely!!! Telcos just did catch the idea as fast, I watched video last night, on Central Park NYC, over 2000 people chasing a rare Pokemon, amazing.
Oh and by the way now you can pay publishers to place a Pokemon in your store or around your business to get in customers, I believe this will result in some retailer dissatisfaction though but Pokemon Go makes money out of it so nice job.

 

That's so cool...great idea...

 

now that's a good cause.

 

I have seen stores put up signs giving discount to Pokemon Go players that have caught some rare things. This drives some traffic to their storefront.

 

In Italy, some guys offer their time to find Pokemon, price are interesting: like 20$ for 1 hour of hunt

 

Any business to be successful must be popular among its customers the Pokémon Go hit 100 million installs worldwide. That is it increased from 75 million downloads just before the end of July.

 

Wow. that's nice.!!

 

Hi, like the tips. I was hoping the game was still accepting submissions for Pokestops/gyms, but they are actually not accepting submissions for Pokéstops or Gyms right now.