Angry Birds Shows Advertising Model For Games Works

Angry Birds, the hilarious game originally developed for the iPhone, is the fastest selling paid iPhone game to date.

The game, which sells for $0.99c was released in December 2009 with sales only really taking off when it was featured by Apple in February 2010. The game has now sold more than 12 million copies (paid downloads) and in addition it generated over 30 million free downloads.

Rovio, creators of Angry Birds, launched an Android port of its bestselling game in October this year. Hampered largely by the fact paid apps on Android are not available in every country and through every carrier, Rovio made the Android version available for free, introducing an advertising model as its main form of revenue on that platform.

Surprisingly, the advertising model has been shown to work extremely well for games, the Android app is already generating over $1 million each month in advertising.

“The future will hold many more apps based on advertising revenue. It very well complements TV and radio ads.” said Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio.

He must be right. The company is “very very” profitable and has have grown from the 12 people working for them at the beginning of the year, to nearly 40 employees.

Until recently, Rovio was focused on developing Angry Birds for many different smartphone and tablet platforms; focusing on the iPhone, iPad and Android applications. Now, the company is looking into Windows Phone 7, the Chrome Web Store and Facebook.

Furthermore, they are building their brand through merchandise: the Angry Bird Toys are sold out until January, Loic le Meur even took to the stage at the LeWeb Conference in an Angry Bird suit today!

Mikael announced that Rovio will be looking at developing new games very soon, also moving Angry Birds to consoles and handheld gaming devices, possibly following the same model; first a paid version, then free version and then releasing merchandise.

And now for your entertainment, watch the angry birds peace treaty: