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How does an iPhone developer like Rovio make any money with a free app

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My understanding is that Rovio is using the location data it obtains when you play Angry Birds along with the time you are playing Angry Birds and is monetizing that as information regarding the location of restrooms as well as the general conditions in that restroom.

That information is very valuable to the right vendors when seeking to sell their restroom cleaning services.

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What an excellent insight! Do you have any references as I am most curious to know the details. – David Mar 28 '11 at 9:39
I couldn't help but to thumbs up this answer. – Nick Mar 28 '11 at 20:29
up vote 4 down vote

Angry Birds wasn't free, it cost me $1.19 AUD and I think it's $0.99 USD. The lite version of Angry Birds is free, but you don't get nearly as many levels. Quick fact: Angry Birds cost $140k to develop and has made around $70 million in profits.

I know they make a lot of money via endorsements and whatnot these days as well.

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I think your estimate of profits may be a little high. When they announced their most recent VC round they said revenues for the six months ended 12/31/2010 were $6 million and profits around $3 million. The VC's put in $40 million at a $200 million valuation. – Mike Walsh Mar 28 '11 at 3:04
My $70 million value was from this article: gamerant.com/… - not sure how accurate it is though. – DigitalSea Mar 28 '11 at 7:18
up vote 3 down vote

I believe it isn't free on the iPhone but is on Android and for Android there are ads all over the place. The advertiser pays to put those ads up.

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Actually the basic app for Angry Birds is free on the iPhone but I see they have some paid versions for the the iPad so they at least get the 70% cut of the paid versions. – Mike Walsh Mar 28 '11 at 1:31
The full version is 59p, the free version (with less features) is free. – Kieran Senior Mar 28 '11 at 8:29
The Android version is the full version, and it's free and ad-supported – Nick Mar 28 '11 at 20:29

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