Flurry chief: Mobile gaming still has plenty of opportunity

SAN FRANCISCO — Gaming has taken on rock-star status on people’s mobile devices, and the revolution will of mobile gaming should only get bigger if you trust the latest data from Yahoo-owned app-analytics company Flurry.

Gaming takes up nearly one-third of the time people spend on mobile devices in the U.S., Simon Khalaf, the president and chief executive of Flurry, said today at GamesBeat 2014 conference.

“It’s about 51 minutes per day in the U.S.,” he said. “If you look at the population 13 years and older, it’s a significant amount of time spent.”

That makes mobile gaming a potential threat, at least in the U.S., said Khalaf, whose company’s technology sits inside 570,000 applications to monitor use. That’s especially true as different types of games attract different types of people in different geographies.

For better or worse, women now spend more time and money than men in mobile games, Khalaf said.

As for game genres, some have proven more appealing than others.

“It’s very clear arcades and action and casual are the ones that are crossing every border,” Khalaf said. Sports games, by contrast, tend to be much more fragmented. Card and casino games, too, tend to stick around the countries where they originate.

Average daily engagement in the U.S., which trumps that of several other countries, lasts longer than two sitcoms (which run 22 minutes an episode), making it worth attention for marketers, not just companies seeking revenue through in-app purchases.

“That’s something even TV advertisers, print, and online cannot ignore anymore,” Khalaf said. “That’s going to be very healthy revenue for gamers.”

Another advantage: Most games circumvent user-generated content, unlike social networks, even though companies like Facebook and Twitter have turned into become popular advertising venues.

“Gaming is actually more brand-safe,” Khalaf said. “They’re safer from a brand perspective.”

And with game quality and engagement on the rise, companies should be able to capture way more mobile revenue in the future.

“There’s a massive opportunity that’s still left to be had on the mobile-gaming side,” Khalaf said. “We’re very excited about this [opportunity], we’re very excited about the market, and we’re very lucky to be part of this ecosystem.”