Today, GetJar announced its virtual currency program for Android apps. GetJar’s virtual currency is based on the existing GetJar Gold program, which enables users to download specific premium apps for free.
This is how the GetJar virtual currency works:
- A user who downloads a non-sponsored Android app can earn perhaps 5 coins and for a sponsored app, they can get about 30 coins. For now, they’ll only get rewarded for downloading content. The money goes into a wallet and can be used to buy premium apps, which could sell for 20 to 50 coins. Or they can use their money to buy in-app content in games that have incorporated the GetJar Gold SDK. The coins can also be used in apps on other app stores such as Android Market and Amazon Appstore if the developer enables that in their apps.
- Developers will be able to accept gold coins for additional content and they’ll be able to encourage downloads of other sponsored apps with a GetJar reward page inside their app, which features promoted apps from GetJar. They’ll be able to exchange the gold coins for cash at a rate of 1 coin for a penny with GetJar taking a 10 percent cut. (via GigaOm)
The SDK for developers to join the GetJar virtual currency program is available and can be downloaded here.
For GetJar this is a very important step to enable developers to monetize their content within GetJar, while circumventing the lack of a global billing system. It will be very interesting to see the impact of this program on download volumes of Android apps within GetJar, since it incentivizes consumers to download any app from the store. We’ll be monitoring closely.
Vincent Hoogsteder