mStore

Q. Why would ZGroup Mobile create its own appstore when Google Play and Apple Store are offering lot of games/apps?

There’s currently a huge demand in mobile games/apps worldwide and it was fueled by lot of factors such as the cheapness of the smartphones (a smartphone is costing now $60 or less) and the spread of social apps. But the market is faced with lot of challenges among which are:

• High prices: the prices in the global Appstores are not suitable to most users! A $1 game is not so cheap all around the world!
• Fixed payment method: currently pay-per-download is the traditional and the standard method used in most appstores. Flat subscription is being used in similar cases for music/videos. Why not for Apps/games?
• No easy payment mechanism: most appstores would require payment through a credit card which is not available to all users!

To overcome all of these challenges, we have developed mStore which is a brandable and customizable Appstore that allow us to:

• Be flexible in the way we are approaching the end-user. The store can be part of a bigger service that is offered in a localized and attractive way to end-users.
• Pay-per-download method is replaced with flat subscription (Users can download as much as they want during the subscription period), freemium titles and others. We can also offer capped subscription (i.e. a user has 10 downloads per week for example).
• Our store integrates with different payment methods: Premium SMS, USSD payment, credit cards.

Q. Why are you creating a store when there are already Google Play and Apple Store?

Our Appstore is:

• Customizable
• Rebrandable
• We can customize the selection of content in the store we are building
• We can customize payment method to include Premium SMS or IVR.
• We can offer alternative methods of payment (that can replace pay per download) such as flat subscription fee.
• The store can become a hub for local developers to provide apps for their local community

Q. What are the platforms the Appstore cover?

The Appstore covers all platforms: Android, IOS, HTML5, Windows Phone.

Q. What are the advantages of the flat subscription Appstore?

• Eat-it-all model appstore is offering something new in the industry (the offer allow the users to get the access to thousands of games after paying something around $0.25 weekly) If the user need to download the same games on pay per download model he need to pay at least $1000. If he can find it free from piracy sites he might force some viruses or he won’t get full versions of games as we are offering.
• The store has customized content that suits different cultures.
• The Appstore will be accessible from the web and mobile.
• The store would be hub between local users and local developers. Where the users can post their ideas and developers will read and build apps depending the users requirements.
• It integrates with different payment methods: premium SMS, USSD payment, credit cards ..etc.
• The store has a local category that might be interesting/relevant only to people in one country.
• All mobile app will be automatically updated to the last version.
• Store’s content will be updated on a weekly basis.
• A wide variety of content of multiple categories, such as: Sport, Kids: 4-10 years old, Education and much more.
• Easy to use.

Q. Why Flat subscription model is important?

• Pay per download as a model was successful when smartphones cost $500 or above because purchasing an app will cost 1$-2$ which is pretty affordable. The same model can’t be sustained nowadays when most smartphones (or new smartphone owners) are purchasing handsets at $60-$200. It would be illogical to expect they people will be spending $1-$2 per app. So we need a new model.
• The solution is with flat subscription. We change content ownership to content access which is much more affordable and controlled by the end-user. It should be as low as $1 per month for a full access of the store.

Q. So what are the advantages of your store against Google Play?

Mainly are:

• Flat subscription vs pay per download models. Flat will be more affordable and appealing.
• Our store is available for one country and thus selection of content can be better done with the target audience in mind.
• Our store will be localized and “culturalized” with the country culture/language/slang in mind.
• Our store has easier payment methods since it integrated directly with payment methods of Mobile Network Operators available in the country or any other payment alternative that is available.
• We are the ONLY STORE WORLDWIDE that is offering content on flat subscription basis.

Q. How can we integrate social sites (facebook, twitter) with the store?

• The store has already social widgets to allow the user to share any app or the store itself with their friends on social websites.
• We can also reward users who shared the stores on their facebook timeline with extra points.

Q. Can I test the store live on my phone?

Please check a demo of the store here. You can find in the list on the left (download mobayle app) it will allow you to download demo APK to your Android handset.

Q. What other important modules that your store has?

Pointing system:

• We convert all user’s payment in the store to points to allow them to purchase subscriptions or other items. Our store already has its own API for in-apps purchase that developers can start using immediately.
• The pointing system is a good way to compensate users in case they sent invitation to others who subscribed, shared the store on their timeline on facebook or got a high score in a specific game. In all of those cases the user can be rewarded with points that they can later use within the store.

Q. What do you need in order to integrate payments with the mobile network operator?

Our store supports Premium SMS or USSD payments. In order to integrate the MNO payment with our store, we need to get the API for SMS gateway from the operator and understand:

• How we will be notified when a user has subscribed.
• be able to reply to that user with a specific code (through SMS) that they have to enter within the application
• Get notifications when the user has cancelled their subscription.

Q. What about the payment methods that the store support already?

We support mainly SMS, USSD payment from operators. We also support creditcard, paypal and voucher cards.

Q. Tell me more about Voucher Card option?

• The distributor can print voucher cards that will be distributed directly to users. When users scratch the cards and enter the number then they will either get a specific plan (with discounts) or fill their accounts with points that can be later used to purchase subscriptions.
• Scratch cards offer a better way to collect money and in such case we don’t have to share income with the operator. Their only disadvantage is their availability vs the direct payment by sms by the operator.

Q. Can the store support more than one payment solution?

Sure it does. You can enable SMS and USSD on the operator (or multiple operators) plus voucher cards in city centers.

Q. How will the end-user subscribe?

The end-user will subscribe for a week/month (or other plans in the future like quarterly or yearly) by sending an sms to a premium number of by paying online. A confirmation will be returned to the user and then they will have access to the store. The store will charge the user automatically on each billing cycle unless the user cancelled their subscription.