Auckland

Outsmart co-founder Mitch Olson says the time was right to have a crack at creating games for mobiles.

Kiwi game development company Outsmart, which created global hit SmallWorlds, has “dipped its toes” into the mobile space for the first time.

Five members of the 35-strong Karangahape Rd studio dedicated themselves to creating Gopher Launch, which went live on iTunes and Google Play on June 13.

Although the game is free to download, Outsmart will generate revenue through advertising and by charging players to access an ad-free version of the game.

Outsmart will launch a second mobile game called Roost Raiders in the next six weeks, Olson said.

Both new games are based on the ‘freemium’ model, where users play for free but can then choose to pay for add-ons to enhance the game.

“These games cost between $250,000 and $1 million to make. If you’re giving it away for free you have got to make sure your monetisation models are robust,” Oslon said.

Although Outsmart had managed to survive before now without going into mobile, delaying the move any longer would have been unwise, he said.

“We haven’t been affected to date. We continue to grow and that’s been supported by shifting into other markets like Brazil.”

Outsmart last year launched a version of SmallWorlds in Brazil, calledMiniMundos, which now has four million signed-up users.

SmallWorlds - an online environment where users create personal virtual spaces and share experiences with other players – has in the meantime attracted bigger audiences and now boasts 10 million registered players.

SmallWorlds’ backers include Disney’s venture capital arm and Trade Me founder Sam Morgan.

First published in the New Zealand Herald on Thursday July 4 2013

Photo / Sarah Ivey

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Discount scheme that does away with loyalty cards was conceived during convalescence from motorbike smash.

Every cloud has a silver lining, so the cliche goes, and for Enis Bacova it was a road accident, which nearly killed him, that led to the establishment of an internet start-up.

“It took me six months to recover and Rippr came out of those six months of thinking,” he said.

Rippr was launched in February and is a web-based system that grocery retailers, restaurants and cafes can use to offer rewards to customers.

Instead of getting yet another loyalty card to put in their wallets or lose in a drawer at home, customers give their mobile number to the retailer to join up for free.

After activating their account online they earn “Rippr dollars” with each purchase (usually 5 to 20 per cent of the purchase price) that can be earned and redeemed on subsequent visits by entering a pin number at the store.

Users can also earn extra rewards based on the total amount of Rippr dollars that build up in each retailer’s “pool”. They are also encouraged to promote the service – and subsequently the businesses that use it – through social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus.

Ten companies are offering Rippr so far, including Dante’s Pizzeria in Ponsonby and the Covo restaurants in Fort St and Grey Lynn, as well as a number of grocery stores.

Around 3000 users are signed up, Bacova said, adding that he was focused on lifting the number of retailers using the technology to 100.

At that point Rippr – which charges a weekly subscription fee to its business clients – would become profitable, he said.

Bacova, whose brother Remion developed the technology that powers Rippr, said it was a challenge convincing companies to introduce the loyalty scheme because it was a “new thing”.

But it encouraged repeat visits from customers, as well as providing a database of clients that retailers could target in their marketing.

“Eighty per cent of revenue comes from 20 per cent of customers so these loyal customers who repeat business are very important,” Bacova said. “It’s much easier to keep a loyal customer than to bring a new customer in.”

Bacova graduated with a degree in political science from the University of Auckland in 2005 and gained an MBA from AUT after returning to this country following the motorbike crash.

“My move to New Zealand was a good thing … I feel alienated in Albania,” he said. “The way I see it is I want to give something back to New Zealand – I got educated here.”

Auckland business incubator The Icehouse owns a small stake in Rippr, while the other shareholders include members of Bacova’s family.

First published in the New Zealand Herald on Thursday June 20 2013

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