‘Rewarded products’: Google wants Android developers to make money by showing video ads to users

With Google’s new ‘rewarded products’ scheme, Android developers can monetise apps and games by showing video advertisements to users.

Google allows developers to increase earnings with new ‘rewarded products’ (Reuters)

Google has launched a new programme which will help developers make money from non-paying app users. Called 'rewarded products', Google will help developers monetise apps by showing ads in a video format.

Users can choose to watch the video advertisement and after completion will receive in-app currency. The virtual money can be used for paying for in-app content or apps via Google Pay. Google also shared an example where users who watched the video ad received 100 coins.

"Developers are increasingly using multiple methods to monetize their apps and games. One trend has been to reward users for a monetizable action, like watching a video, with in-game currency or other benefits. This gives users more choice in how they experience the app or game, and has been an effective way to monetise non-paying users," said Google in a blog post.

The new tool may see an instant adoption by developers as the process of integration is fairly simple. Google says developers can do so with a few additional API calls and don't need any extra SDK integration.

Google's latest programme comes amid growing demands from developers to reduce the 'app store tax'. Google currently has 30-70 split which many developers deem too steep. The app store tax has also compelled several top developers to launch their apps bypassing app stores.

Recently, popular game Fortnite was made available on Android directly to users instead of getting listed on Play Store.

"There's typically a 30/70 split, and from the 70%, the developer pays all the costs of developing the game, operating it, marketing it, acquiring users and everything else. For most developers that eats up the majority of their revenue. We're trying to make our software available to users in as economically efficient a way as possible. That means distributing the software directly to them, taking payment through Mastercard, Visa, Paypal, and other options, and not having a store take 30 %," Fortnite CEO Tim Sweeny had said.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, however, has made it clear the company was not considering any change in 30-70 split.