Tapjoy teams with Kakao Games to provide in-game advertising

Software platforms drive the mobile gaming market around the world. Now, one of the biggest ad firms is collaborating with one of the largest social companies to boost profits for both.

The mobile advertising firm Tapjoy is partnering with Korean company Kakao Games to offer ads to the developers on the platform. Kakao Games, which centers around the company’s KakaoTalk social app, has 90 million users. Tapjoy will begin targeting those players with in-game ads for other games and services.

“Kakao has enjoyed tremendous and rapid growth over the last year,” Tapjoy chief executive Steve Wadsworth said in a statement. “With its KakaoTalk and Kakao Games platform, Kakao is at the forefront of emerging trends in the industry, and we cannot wait to help them and their partner developers grow even further.”

The Tapjoy implementation should help Kakao’s developers generate more cash from its players. The monetization firm points to games like shooter Madfinger, which increased its revenue by 66 percent on Android and 48 percent on iOS with Tapjoy’s ads.

“We are excited to join hands with global advertisement platform Tapjoy to provide our game partners with an additional source of revenue,” a Kakao spokesperson said. “The partnership will provide developers with a stable source of revenue, while heightening user’s game experience by providing new game items that can be earned through Tapjoy’s rewarded advertisements.”

Tapjoy’s ads usually work by giving players in-game currency or items for installing new games. The developers of those installed titles then pay a fee to Tapjoy and the originating developer for bringing it a new user. This kind of advertising ecosystem requires a massive pool of potential players. Tapjoy already has 340 million players within its platform — Kakao’s additional 90 million will help pad that number.