Categories: Articles

The Big, Massive Business Of Pokemon Go And Apps

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 5 to 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

Terry and Heather are away on vacation. I’m sitting in with Pierre Landry.
Pokemon Go continues to capture everyone’s imagination. This past week, Brooklyn-based Nick Johnson became the first player to publicly confirm that he had caught all 142 Pokémon that are available in the US. It took a lot of work, according to a Business Insider article, including hiring an Uber to drive him in circles to catch one of the last Pokémon he needed. Desperate times call for desperate measure.
Pokemon Go isn’t all fun and games. It’s big business too. Apple could take in close to $3 billion in revenue from Pokemon Go in the next one to two years, as gamers buy stuff like PokeCoins in-app, according to analysts and a report in The Guardian. Apparently, Apple keeps about 30% of revenue from apps like this on iOS. Pokémon Go’s ratio of paid users to total users was 10 times that of Candy Crush, the hit game from King Digital that generated more than $1billion of revenue in both 2013 and 2014. Users in the United States are spending far more time playing the game than they are using Facebook or WhatsApp, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower. So, it’s looking like another cash windfall for Apple.
Our real-like Tony Stark/Iron Man has published his master plan for the next ten years. Last week, Tesla‘s Elon Musk unveiled his Master Plan, Part Deux. He also looked back on his first Master Plan (and the progress was astounding to read). What’s next for Elon, Tesla… And our collective future? 1. Create stunning solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage. 2. Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major segments. 3. Develop a self-driving capability that is 10X safer than manual via massive fleet learning. 3. Enable your car to make money for you when you aren’t using it. And, that’s just for Tesla. Let’s see what’s next for SpaceX!
App of the week: Captio.

Listen here…

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.