Sponsored Feature: PapayaMobile CEO questions mobile funding models

Author: by Staff

In a new sponsored Gamasutra feature, PapayaMobile CEO Si Shen suggests incubators and venture capitalist investment may lead to "the exact opposite of the innovation and commercial success that they are meant to generate." "The over-supply of risk-free funding available to developers actually creates less pressure to innovate and to develop high quality apps, leading to an increase of average-to-good content or existing games ported to yet more platforms," says Shen. "With close to a million apps already on the market, do we really need more versions of the same thing?" she asks. "Perhaps the issue is that too often revenues are seen as the only benchmark for success. This has a tendency to create a view that the acquisition of a proven hit is a safer bet than launching a new and unproven product." Shen's company, PapayaMobile, operates a social games network for iOS and Android which competes with Ngmoco/DeNA's Mobage and GREE's OpenFeint. The full sponsored feature article, in which Shen offers a potential solution to the questions she raises, is live now on Gamasutra.