(9 May 2007 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Handygo has launched mobile games on “Pay per play” model for the first time in India with mobile operators Airtel and Hutch.

‘Pay per Play’ model facilitates mobile users to pay for only those games they play. User is informed about the charges and upon user’s acceptance, authentication is done. User is charged in advance for pre paid and billed for post paid connections. The price to play games under this model is attractively fixed at Rs 5.

Handygo COO Gopal Krishna says, "We want to popularize mobile games so that users can play these games and yet pay a very minimum cost. We have priced the game at Rs. 5 per session to bring more and more users to play these games. It should indeed make the mobile gaming even more popular among the mobile users because of its price attractiveness unlike fixed price game download usually starting at Rs. 50."

The firm adds that the magnetism of this model is that users have multiple games to choose from, play any or all of them whenever and in whatever sessions they want. User is only charged per session irrespective of the time duration.

Handygo CEO Praveen Rajpal says, “We have even ensured that users do not have to pay if they exit the game or if the session is inactive for 5 minutes. This would ensure better price practice.”

The idea is simple. With ‘Pay per Play’ model user gets to play multiple games for a fixed price. For example, under this model, user can play 10 games at Rs. 5 per session as against Rs. 50 per one game download. User can come back and play whatever games they like again and again.

“What is very striking about this model and the price point is that we have numerous users playing the same game or other games repeatedly, giving us recurring revenues” says Krishna.

Handygo has plans of going global with this model. “Successful launch of this model is a combination of handygo’s technology expertise, extensive research on gaming price models and understanding of Indian mobile users” adds Rajpal.