Unity selects Kindred as its first ever app monetisation partner

Leading 3D creation platform, Unity Technologies, has selected Kindred as its first ever app monetisation partner. Aimed at mobile developers, Kindred’s ‘third way’ offers an alternative in-game economic model that creates an emotive bond with users and boosts in-game spend by as much as 400% per active player annually — or $28.34 with no impact on a game’s core functionality.

Kindred’s patent-protected technology works by securing savings for players of mobile games when they shop across its network of merchants, without needing to take any actions in the game. It then enables them to use the vast majority of those savings as in-game currency. At least 5% of the cashback they earn is also donated to charity (either one selected by the gaming app in question or by individual players from a pool of 22,000 charities) or carbon offsetting initiatives.

For a typical mobile game, developers also receive a passive revenue increase of $6.75 per active player annually. To date, two-thirds of players offered the feature have enabled it and click-through rates are 10x higher than typical display advertising options.

Crucially, Kindred for Business operates with total anonymity. No data is ever collected and it never knows the identities of the user. Kindred uses a combination of random tokens and IDs to track purchases and provides developers with an API to display credits/savings earned back to their players.

Mike Gadd, COO at Kindred said, “If there’s one thing that keeps mobile game developers up at night, it’s striking the balance between generating maximum revenue from users while maintaining a positive UX. We believe we’ve solved this key challenge in a way that is free to integrate and frictionless to run. Importantly, it’s not just the developers that benefit but the users themselves, the communities they live in through the charitable donations they make, and the planet as a whole. For mobile game studios, Kindred improves loyalty and stickiness, increases revenues, and creates an end-to-end experience that resonates with young people today.”