Shape Keeper Scales Mobile Revenue with Playtime

Founded in 2012, Shape Keeper is an app publisher based in Chengdu, China.

Shape Keeper describes its start as a beautiful accident, with initial intentions to publish fitness apps before the publisher found its way into gaming.

Today, Shape Keeper has published over 20 international apps – an additional 10 apps in China – and has reached over three million DAUs playing its games.

Given the adtech industry’s dynamic nature, Shape Keeper sought to find a new ad monetization solution that would not only increase revenue but also lower its dependence on other monetization platforms.

After recent policy changes at one of its most important monetization partners, Shape Keeper found itself with a performance gap. adjoe’s time- and event-based rewarded ad unit Playtime proved itself to be the perfect solution to stabilize and subsequently grow Shape Keeper’s revenue.

Playtime offers users a fresh and fun way to earn in-app currency without impacting the gameplay of Shape Keeper’s apps.

adjoe’s independence from the traditional mobile ecosystem and long-term expertise in user privacy made the Playtime ad unit an attractive option.

How does it work? Playtime rewards users in the currency of Shape Keeper’s apps for the time they spend and the events they complete playing third-party games.

When a user earns a reward, they receive a notification of their earnings, which drives them back into Shape Keeper’s apps to continue playing.

By introducing Playtime into Shape Keeper’s apps, adjoe has grown to become part of their top-3 monetization partners. Shape Keeper achieved its goal of revenue diversity and achieved an overall revenue increase of 10%.

adjoe is already integrated in half of Shape Keeper’s internationally published apps, and Playtime generates one-third of the overall revenue for Shape Keeper’s main app, Spin for Cash.

Shape Keeper traditionally limits the number of rewarded ads shown in its games. However, it found that, with Playtime, letting users access the ad unit without limitations was a good thing, as reward notifications increased engagement within Shape Keeper’s apps.

Business and Publishing Manager Becky Zhang states: “Playtime has become one of our core monetization platforms, thanks to its ability to engage users without adversely affecting the Shape Keeper gaming experience. Playtime’s power is seen by the strong user interest and high ARPDAUs for the users engaging with the experience.”

These high user engagement rates is seen by apps, such as Spin for Cash, where as much as 50% of its users visit Playtime every day.

Shape Keeper intends to continue growing its portfolio of apps by publishing more games in different app categories, expanding on its real-prize games, and increasing its number of casual game titles.

You can expect to see more titles launched in the company’s home turf in China as well as new titles overseas.

adjoe’s partnership will meanwhile continue to grow as a core part of Shape Keeper’s monetization strategy.