StartApp's Android monetisation platform tops 150 million downloads

Less than six months after StartApp announced total downloads of its monetisation tool for Android had hit 40 million, said total has almost quadrupled to its latest tally of 150 million downloads.

The platform, which installs a bookmark for its search engine onto the home screen of any device downloading an app using its SDK, is now built in to around 4,000 releases on Google Play, with daily SDK installs topping 1.25 million.

TechCrunch reports that, thanks to the cut developers receive every time a user makes use of the search engine, some studios have seen their Android revenue jump tenfold since implementing StartApp.

"In-app ads, which is the most popular monetisation option out there, delivers little revenue to the developer - unless you're Rovio," StartApp VP Itay Rokni told us back in September.

"So we started looking for an alternative to cater all app developers, no matter what app you have or how many downloads you generate, we wanted to offer the highest revenue to devs."

Critics have claimed, however, that while StartApp clearly generates revenue, it damages developer relationships with consumers.

Many users unlikely to be all too keen on apps installing bookmarks on their phone's home screen, some suggest.

However, Rokni countered such suggestions last year, telling us that there hadn't "been much bad vibe" from consumers so far, with StartApp constantly "tracking the apps utilising our solution."

[source: TechCrunch]