Mobile game developers drive in-game payments via PayPal

Mobile game developers Gamesoul Studios and Pierrox are integrating PayPal to drive in-application content purchases via Android.

The game developers integrated features such as online leader boards and player challenges into their mobile offerings using social gaming platform Scoreloop’s software development kit. Gamesoul and Pierrox monetize the challenge feature by letting players bet on the outcome of matches using virtual currency purchased from the Scoreloop platform.

“The largest hurdle for in-game transactions is accessibility,” said Nicole DeMeo, spokeswoman at Scoreloop, San Francisco. “Once a player makes the decision to purchase a virtual good, it needs to be easy for them to do.

“PayPal is a natural option as many players already have accounts and this makes the process that much more straightforward,” she said.

Scoreloop claims to be the leading social gaming platform on Android, reaching 190 countries and managing over 200 million accounts.

Monetizing social gaming In additon to the challenge features, Scoreloop’s social gaming platform lets developers introduce premium features such as additional levels and virtual goods.

They can monetize these features by requiring players to purchase and use Scoreloop “coins” to unlock the extra functionalities.

Here is a screen grab of a Scoreloop coin-purchasing screen:

Pierrox integrated Scoreloop’s social gaming platform into its Mini Golf’oid game, which lets mobile users play rounds of miniature golf on their handhelds.

Players can hit the virtual golf ball by swiping the screen with their finger.

They can alter the trajectory by altering the direction and force of the swipe.

Scoreloop monetized the game for Pierrox by introducing a challenge mode, in which players can play matches against each other.

Each participant wagers coins purchased from Scoreloop’s platform.

Pierrox said that player challenges were an important part of motivating in-game purchases, and the process should be as painless as possible.

Here is a screengrab of a list of challenges in Mini Golf’oid:

Gamesoul also includes Scoreloop’s social challenge functionality in its Radio Ball 3D game.

The game uses the accelerometer in Android handsets to let users navigate a virtual rolling ball through obstacle courses.

Players earn points by navigating through the courses and reaching the end without losing.

Gamesoul said that PayPal was an important addition to Scoreloop’s platform.

Here is a screen grab of a challenge screen in Radio Ball 3D:

fMonetizing Android gaming appsConsumers are becoming increasingly comfortable with purchasing virtual goods, including games, according to a study conducted by VGMarket and Playspan (see story).

The premium mobile gaming market has been booming in Apple’s App Store, led by developer EA (see story).

However, free games still dominate in Android’s Market.

“Most developers are currently monetizing their games via ad revenues, and if you look at the numbers there’s an unusually high ratio of free to paid games on the Market,” Ms. DeMeo said. “We’re offering an additional revenue stream for these developers by making the freemium model accessible and delivering the whole package – social context, downloadable content and payment solutions.”

Final TakePeter Finocchiaro, editorial assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily, New York

PayPal powers mobile payments for iPhone, iPad app developers

PayPal, a subsidiary of eBay, announced that its Mobile Payments Library is now in open beta and available to developers everywhere the Apple App Store is available.

The Mobile Payments Library is a way to add checkout functionality for physical goods and services sold through applications on the iPhone, without having to take additional measures for keeping customers’ personal financial information secure. PayPal’s Mobile Payments Library currently supports both the iPhone and iPad, and will be available on additional platforms soon.

“Last year we transacted around $71 billion, but we were finding that the number of possibilities of how you could use PayPal were severely exceeding the number of applications PayPal could actually address in house,” said Anuj Nayar, director of global communications at PayPal, San Jose. “So we decided to take this fantastic engine we’ve built up for online payments and package it up to allow developers to build it directly into their own applications.

“That’s what the PayPal X initiative is about, moving from ecommerce to a much, much broader range of applications, from pay roll to mobile phones,” he said. “As part of that initiative, the Mobile Payments Library provides a pretty small amount of code that developers can drop it into their application to make it easy to integrate PayPal into their system to enable in-app mobile payments.

“Consumers can enter their PayPal user name and password to pay instead of entering in their entire credit or debit card number and expiration date on their handset.”

PayPal opened its Mobile Payments Library in closed beta to some U.S. developers at Macworld 2010 and the company claims feedback so far has been very positive.

“This is an incredibly important part of our PayPal X initiative,” Mr. Nayar said. “Mobile is at the vanguard of new uses cases for payments.”

Buy the bauble with BaubletSeveral applications using PayPal’s Mobile Payments Library are already live.

For example, custom charms by Baublet are available in the App Store, letting users buy and ship photo charms directly from their iPhone.

With the integration of PayPal’s Mobile Payments Library, Baublet customers are able to buy these charms with their PayPal accounts without leaving the application.

“Baublet is a great application,” Mr. Nayar said. “The app lets you take a photo and you can create a charm, and in a few clicks you can buy it and send it to your mother or whoever.

“With our Mobile Payments Library, the friction point of payments has been taken care of,” he said.

Other applications that have integrated PayPal’s Mobile Payments Library include Big In Japan’s ShopSavvy and Shutterfly’s Wink.

Application developers can download PayPal’s Mobile Payments Library at https://www.x.com/index.jspa.

The company launched PayPal X six months ago, and it claims that it has already had thousands of developers sign up and hundreds of applications already go live.

From the launch date to the end of the first quarter of this year, March 31, PayPal claims that $30 million in total payment dollars have been processed across all of the PayPal X applications.

While the iPhone and the iPad are attractive platforms for mobile commerce, PayPal sees this as just the beginning.

“The first version of the Mobile Payments Library is for the iPhone, and it works perfectly well as an iPad developer platform as well,” Mr. Nayar said. “A lot of most innovative development seems to be happening on the iPhone and the iPad, but we will be rolling out to other mobile platforms.

“We’re definitely looking at Android, BlackBerry and Symbian,” he said.

College Board announces new digital SAT exams

The College Board, the organization that administers standardized exams like the SAT and PSAT, announced today that tests will be delivered digitally internationally in 2023 and in the United States by 2024.

The change doesn’t mean that the popular and controversial college entrance exam can be taken from home. Schools and official testing centers will continue to offer the exams with a proctor.

“The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give and more relevant,” said Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of college readiness exams at the College Board. “We’re not simply putting the current SAT on a digital platform. We’re taking full advantage of what delivering an exam digitally makes possible.”

The digital SAT will take less time, shortening from three hours to two. The exam will feature shorter reading passages but include a wider range of topics. Calculators may be used for the entire math section, and students will get their scores back within days instead of weeks. Students may also use their own devices like laptops or tablets to take the exam. The exam also will automatically save a student’s progress if they lose internet connectivity.

The new system also ensures every student receives a unique test, making it “practically impossible” to share answers.