JH Digital Solutions was founded by Finnish developer, Jari Huomo, and is the creator of hit Amazon Underground app, Zen: Coloring book for adults. Jari Huomo is an indie developer and self-proclaimed “coffee addict” working out of his home basement to build apps for all ages. After hearing about Amazon Underground on social media, Jari published his app, Zen: Coloring book for adults, to Amazon Underground, and now makes more on Underground than on all other platforms combined.

“My Amazon Underground experience has been superb so far! Zen: Coloring book for adults is now published for Amazon, Mac, Windows 10 desktop, iOS, and Google Play devices. The Amazon Underground version is the most downloaded one and Underground has currently made more money than other platforms combined!”

GETTING INTO AMAZON UNDERGROUND

JH Digital Solutions has adopted a business slogan of “Apps for everyone,” building everything from storybook apps for kids, to tax calculator apps for entrepreneurs. In 2015, what began as a kids coloring app evolved into an adult coloring app with coloring pages created by artists from around the world.

You spoke and we listened. We are excited to announce the launch of the Amazon Mobile Ad Network (AMAN) Adapter for MoPub. If you use MoPub to manage your ad monetization, it is now easier to add the Amazon Mobile Ad Network (AMAN) to your portfolio. This is a custom adapter that is solely supported by Amazon. Please contact Amazon for any questions.

Increase Ad Monetization Using Mediation

A great way to increase your ad earning is to partner with multiple ad networks. Ad mediation services such as MoPub help you request ads from networks that provide the highest eCPM (earning per thousand impressions) to maximize your earning, and the new adaptor builds compatibility between the AMAN SDK and the MoPub SDK. AMAN serves displaying ads to iOS and Android apps in the US, EU and Japan. See how these developers increased their ad earning using AMAN.

Coffee Stain Studios is a developer based in Skövde, Sweden and creator of the blockbuster game, Goat Simulator. We recently sat down with the CEO of Coffee Stain Studios, Anton Westbergh, to learn how an idea to build a game about a destructive goat could lead to over 7 million paid downloads worldwide since its creation, and become one of the top grossing games in Amazon Underground since launching in August of 2015.

The Beginnings of Goat Simulator

Coffee Stain Studios started in 2010 with 9 students from the University of Skövde working on a game project that would become the prototype for their first hit PC game, Sanctum. In 2014, during a company brainstorm about their next game, the idea to build Goat Simulator was born. After posting a YouTube video of an early prototype of Goat Simulator that received 3 million views in the first week, Anton and his team knew they had created something customers were going to love. This has proven to be true, as 2 years later, Goat Simulator, which can be played for free with no in-app purchases on Amazon Underground, has topped the charts on almost all major platforms.

“We were hesitant to put Goat Simulator in Amazon Underground because when you have a really good, working monetization model, it’s scary to move into a new platform and try something different. We worried that this would affect our sales on the other platforms, but it has not. It’s definitely a platform that has worked for us and we’re going to have other titles in Underground in the future.”

Spanish Footballer Gerard Piqué founded Kerad Games in 2012 and went on to create and distribute popular football games. In December 2015, Gerard Piqué launched Final Kick in Amazon Underground making the game 100% free for Amazon Underground customers. Final Kick is a freemium game where customers pay for in-app purchases on all other platforms, but those in-app purchase are 100% free on Amazon Underground. We recently sat down with Piqué to learn about Final Kick and how they have seen an increase in downloads and revenue since launching in Amazon Underground.

“The mobile game industry moved a few years ago from paid to freemium. I see the Amazon Underground model as the new big movement for the mobile game industry,” said Gerard Piqué, owner of Kerad Games. “We saw immediately that Final Kick was perfect for Underground so we decided to join the Underground program and become a launch partner. We are very happy to collaborate so closely with Amazon.”

More Downloads, Increased Usage, and Higher Revenue

Amazon Underground helps attract more users with the promise of 100% free content that customers have to pay for in other Appstores. Kerad Games has experienced this growth first hand. Since launching Final Kick in Amazon Underground, they have seen a 900% increase in average monthly downloads. 

On November 3^rd 2015 300+ attendees, two tracks about monetization and gaming, 13 sessions, multiple guest speakers and the Amazon Appstore evangelists animated a very successful developer-focused conference: the Amazon Appstore Developer Summit 2015, which took place at CodeNode, London.

The Amazon Appstore Developer Summit focused around unique insights into the Amazon Appstore ecosystem, emerging user interfaces and devices that are driving new user behaviors, like Fire TV and Amazon Echo, and new business models like Amazon Underground and Merch, which are opening up opportunities for customers and the developer community.

Here you can find the recordings of all the sessions, complete with slides, organized by topic:

Amazon Underground has extended availability to customers on 2nd generation 2012 Fire tablets, giving developers the opportunity to reach another large and active group of customers with their Amazon Underground app or game. Amazon Underground is a new app for Android phones where customers can access over $20,000 in apps, games and in-app items 100% free – that’s over 2,000 apps and games that would normally cost money to download and play. As a developer, Amazon will pay you for every minute your Amazon Underground app is used, by every customer. You can monetize 100% of your Android users, and starting today, that includes customers using Amazon Underground on 2^nd generation 2012 Fire tablets. These customers will now find an Underground tab added to the Appstore on their device giving them access to 100% free apps and games on Amazon Underground.

Developers are Successful in Amazon Underground

Amazon Underground launched in August of 2015, enabling developers to get paid for every customer, and generate revenue for every minute of usage. With Amazon Underground, developers have seen their download numbers and their revenue on Amazon increase as a result. We recently sat down with Halfbrick Studios, and GIANTS Software to discuss their success since launching on Amazon Underground. 

With Advertise Your App, you can promote your app to millions of users on Fire tablet wakescreens and mobile placements on the Amazon Mobile Ad Network. Getting started is easy; you can create an Advertise Your App campaign in less than 90 seconds, and launch a campaign with as little as $100. And the best part? You only pay when a user clicks on your ads.

Previously, the only way to track Google Play conversions was to integrate our Mobile Ads SDK. Recently we added a new feature to help developers track and improve campaign performance: the Google Play referrer tag. With the Google Play referrer tag, you can now use a referrer tag to see the number of users that installed your app from the Google Play Store.

The all-new Fire tablet was the #1 best-selling, most wished-for, and most gifted product across the millions of items available on Amazon.com this holiday season, and all of these tablets come pre-loaded with Amazon Underground. The 2015 holiday season was the biggest holiday ever for Amazon devices-up 2x over last year’s record setting holiday. With this record setting shopping season, millions of customers are lighting up their new devices this month and downloading their first 100% free Amazon Underground apps and games. With proven success for developers like Halfbrick Studios and Rovio, and millions of new Fire Tablet customers, now is the time to get your apps and games published to Amazon Underground.

Halfbrick CEO Shaniel Deo Discusses Amazon Underground

In 2015, Amazon introduced a new monetization model called Amazon Underground in its continuing effort to make mobile developers successful. Instead of charging for each download or encouraging in-app purchases, developers can earn revenue through Amazon Underground for every minute that their app is actually in use by every customer.

By removing the usage friction associated with pay walls and in-app selling, Amazon Underground leads to a more engaging user experience, helping you attract more users to your app with the promise of 100% free content. We recently sat down with Shaniel Deo, founder of Halfbrick, to talk about the results his company has seen with Amazon Underground.

Halfbrick’s Colossatron

Creator of blockbuster games like Jetpack Joyride and Fruit Ninja (which Deo says have worldwide downloads of more than 500 million and 1 billion, respectively, across all platforms), Halfbrick has released many popular mobile games over the years using traditional monetization models like premium, freemium, and ad-supported. According to Deo, “We had varying degrees of success. [Amazon Underground] really piqued my interest when I heard about it. This is something that I think is innovative, and allows us to reach a different audience, while at the same time generate revenue from that audience.”

Colossatron was the first game Halfbrick published to Amazon Underground, and Deo has been pleased with the customer response.

Amazon Underground allows developers to monetize 100% of the customers using their apps or games. Because apps and games are Actually Free on Underground, including in-app purchases, all customers need to do is download and start playing. Developers are paid by Amazon for every single minute their app is used by customers—rewarding player engagement and retention, rather than monetization effectiveness.

Millions of customers will be opening new Amazon devices this holiday season, so there has never been a better time to publish your app or game to the Amazon Appstore. According to statistics just released, Amazon device sales over Black Friday and the following weekend tripled those of the year before. The number one best-selling product across all of Amazon.com was the Fire tablet, followed by the Fire TV Stick.

The Fastest-Selling Amazon Tablet Ever

Much of this sales growth may be attributed to Amazon’s new 7” Fire tablet, launched just this year. At only $49.99, it has become the fastest-selling Amazon tablet ever, with millions sold since launch. This may be the first tablet you can buy in a “six-pack,” and costing only $250, that option has been popular. According to Dave Limp, SVP, Amazon Devices, “We’ve reached a tipping point with Fire—it is our fastest-selling tablet ever. We’ve already built millions—and we’re ramping up production to build millions more.”

For Fire OS and Android developers, this is exciting news. With each Fire tablet sold, the potential audience for your app or game grows larger, even if you’ve never developed for an Amazon device before. Most Android apps we’ve tested work on Fire with no code changes, so bringing your existing product to these new customers can be as simple as submitting it to the Amazon Appstore. Getting started is easy.

We’re excited to announce that Amazon developers can now monetize their apps using Supersonic, a leading mobile monetization and user acquisition platform. The company works with publishers of all sizes, from indie developers to large game studios, helping maximize ad revenues and acquire quality users. Get started here.

We are excited to join the Application Developers Alliance for the New York App Strategy Workshop on November 5, where our own Dave Isbitski will share best practices and analytic data from the top 50 in-app purchase grossing games in the Amazon Appstore. Dave will be joined by experts from companies like Tumblr, Twilio, AT&T, Pollen, Millennial Media, Branch Metrics, and more for innovative sessions that explore tips, tricks and advice on app monetization, discoverability, and user acquisition. Join the event for free using code AMAZON. Register today, space is limited!

Date: Thursday, November 5 | 2:30pm to 6:30pm
Location: The Standard Downtown | 848 Washington Street 

Register here: Bit.ly/NYC-ASW

FREE promo code: AMAZON

The App Strategy Workshop is part of a 15-city tour proudly presented by the Application Developers Alliance, a non-profit global membership organization that supports developers as creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs. They promote the continued growth of the industry and advocate on behalf of their members on public policy and industry issues. Membership includes a global network of more than 60,000 developers with diverse skills, expertise, and interests; and hundreds of companies that depend on and work with developers. Learn more at http://www.appdevelopersalliance.org/.

Corey

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With Advertise Your App, you can promote your app to millions of users  through ads on Fire tablet wakescreens and mobile placements on the Amazon Mobile Ad Network. Getting started is easy; you can create an Advertise Your App campaign in less than 90 seconds, and launch a campaign with as little as $100. And the best part? You only pay when a user clicks on your ads.

Recently we added a new feature to help developers improve campaign performance: custom creative. With custom creative, you can upload your own ad creative and use different images and copy for each ad size. You now have several options: you can continue to use the auto-generated ads that we create, you can create custom ads based on your own creative and copy, or you can combine auto-generated ads and custom ads in your campaign.

To create a custom ad, login to the Developer Portal and in the “Ad Preview” section, click the “Customize ads” button and upload your creative from there. Not sure how to get started? Below are 5 tips to help you create engaging custom display ads.

The mobile game development community is chock-full of vibrant developers such as yourself, with amazing creativity, innovation and passion for games. Chartboost can help get your amazing mobile game in front of millions of players through the Amazon Appstore across Amazon and Android devices.

To do that, Chartboost created the GameOn program. Together we’re offering $100 in free Chartboost ad credit to 500 qualified Chartboost users. You can use these credits to promote all your games for which you’ve implemented the Chartboost SDK across multiple platforms –Apple Appstore, Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore.