See Crusty Sea: Money Making

Andy Rubin, the VP of engineering at Google responsible for mobile, has revealed that the company’s rapidly expanding Android operating system would be profitable if it was broken out as its own business.

Asked by The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference in San Francisco if the division is making money for the search giant, Rubin responded affirmatively with a “yes.”

Mossberg pressed on the issue, noting that class='blippr-nobr'>Google’sclass="blippr-nobr">Google mobile revenue still primarily comes via ads from Google mobile search — searches that occur both on class='blippr-nobr'>Androidclass="blippr-nobr">Android devices and iPhone and other platforms (i.e., Google would be making that money with or without Android).

Rubin conceded that “there’s no way would’ve ever been profitable as a startup company,” (Rubin sold Android to Google in 2005) but says that the resources provided by Google’s enormous advertising revenue streams and the ability to offer Android open source have allowed Android to pursue a business model that’s become profitable.

Although Rubin wouldn’t break out exactly how Android makes money, he did reveal that there are now 172 phones on the market running Android, the latest of which, the Nexus S, was revealed earlier today. That’s a lot more smartphones that drive a lot more mobile searches, and presumably, that’s how Rubin’s math adds up.

Rubin credited Android’s success to its open source model, making it easy for any manufacturer or carrier to offer devices, saying “It’s … frictionless for OEMs no matter where they’re doing the manufacturing … without a contractual relationship or having money change hands.”

He did concede, however, that the Nexus One business model — offering unlocked phones direct to consumers via the web — was not a good business one for Google to pursue and that the provisioning and activation of mobile phones is best left to the carriers. “We thought it would be better to spend our resources on things like Gingerbread,” (the latest Android OS) he said.

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Social game platform MindJolt said today it is releasing new tools to help third-party game developers make money with its new ad platform, AdJolt.

The new monetization tools include a virtual currency product that developers can use for power ups, virtual goods, and other things. AdJolt essentially maximizes revenues for game developers who put their games on the MindJolt platform, which reaches 20 million users across the web and on Facebook.

MindJolt will use the tools to attract more developers, who benefit because MindJolt can cross-promote their games across all of its titles on Facebook. On Facebook, gamers can access a bunch of MindJolt games as if they were visiting a portal.

MindJolt chief executive Chris DeWolfe, co-founder of MySpace, told Techcrunch that the company remains profitable and has retained its user numbers despite Facebook’s policy changes in the spring, which drastically cut back on game communications — an act that slowed growth at all Facebook game makers.

Adam Jones Productions, a game company that is using AdJot, said that the tools have dramatically increased revenues, which are shared 50-50 with MindJolt. Adam Jones Productions was able to increase its revenues by 50 percent to 70 percent over its past ad solution. Techcrunch says that MindJolt’s revenues are around $20 million and that the company will expand to the iPhone and iPad shortly.

We also hear from the company that revenue has doubled in the last three month. MindJolt raised around $20 million or so from Austin Ventures in order to acquire a bunch of social game companies. Talks are ongoing with a number of possible acquisition targets.

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Money Making

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