Odnoklassniki is going to pay developers only 10% of the Bonus Shackles spent by network users in games.
The head of the Odnoklassniki gaming platform, Artur Shakalis, today, on September 7, in his letter to the partners of the social network announced a new policy of deductions to developers.
Odnoklassniki had a single currency – Oki. Recently, it has started to be divided into two – Just Okies and Bonus Okies. The first are the standard Oki that the user receives when transferring funds to his account on the network. The buyer receives bonus Oks for the purchase of Simple Oks and during various promotions.
Both currencies go into the same basket. The user can spend them on making any purchases on the social network, including IAP in games. The Odnoklassniki partner receives 50% from any purchases in their games. It does not matter whether the payment was made with Just Okami or Bonus Okami.
From November 1, the situation will change. Developers will receive only 10% of those payments that were made by users with Bonus Oks.
Shakalis explained such an innovation by the fact that the appearance of Bonus Shackles led to a situation where the company often had to pay developers out of “their own pocket”.
In addition, he noted that “this situation limited our flexibility in what discounts and what bonuses we can give to the user. For example, we could not give a 100% bonus, because then if the user had invested all these Okies in the game, then paying the developer his share, we would have remained in the red.”
In other words, first Odnoklassniki introduced bonuses to stimulate payments and activities within the platform, and then faced a situation in which they were forced to pay developers previously non-existent amounts that users spent on content worth real money.
Of course, there will be no unilateral transition to a new payment. On November 1, users will no longer be able to pay for game content with Bonus Points. But the developers, if they have such a desire, will be able to conclude a new agreement, according to which Odnoklassniki will pay them 10% of those IAPs that are made with bonus currency.
It is still unknown how exactly the Oki will be spent in those projects that decide to support the use of Bonus Oki, whether the user will be able to choose which Oki to pay with, and so on. However, Shakalis promises that “those games that sign an additional agreement will be specially marked in the catalog so that users know that in these games you can pay with Bonus Oks.”
At the moment, the initiative looks very controversial. It can cause resentment, both for users who are likely to be confused in the Eyes, and for developers, the transparency of work with whom is called into question by the new conditions.