Sayollo today announced the launch of its gComm platform, an integrated shopping platform for mobile games. According to the company, it’s targeting gComm at Gen Z so that they won’t have to leave their games in order to purchase products.
GComm (shortened from “gaming commerce”) is an in-game storefront and advertising system that enables game developers and direct-to-consumer brands to offer products within a game. To give an idea of how it works, a player would see advertisements for a particular item, and at a break in the gameplay, gComm offers to let them purchase that item. If they do, they can buy the item within the game’s storefront using their phone’s built-in payment apparatus, never having to leave the game itself.
Currently Sayollo has partnered with over 20 direct-to-consumer brands and over a dozen game publishers. Both the game publishers and the advertisers can decide which products will be advertised within which games, to maximize the potential revenue. Sayollo has already created in-game video ads integrated with the game’s world, and this is an expansion of that.
Sayollo co-founders Jonathan Attias and Eitan Norel said, in an interview with GamesBeat, that the goal is to reach the Gen Z audience of gamers. As Attias said, “Inside the mobile gaming ecosystem, you have around 3 billion daily active users. This market should have commerce opportunities in-game… This is how people are going to purchase from now on.”
They both reiterated the target audience is Gen Z gamers, who prefer not to leave their apps in order to shop, and who are playing mobile games at an increasing rate. A Tapjoy survey earlier this year reported that 86% of Gen Z gamers play on mobile, and 68% of those surveyed shop on mobile 1-to-4 times a week. According to the data in that survey, they prefer e-commerce storefronts and 53% report engaging with rewarded mobile game ads, a much higher number than any other form of in-app advertising.
As Attias and Norel pointed out, mobile game developers are always looking for new revenue streams, which they can get from these in-game purchases. It’s also an opportunity for brands to reach a very large and receptive audience. Norel added, “Brands wanted to get into gaming, but they didn’t have the right way to do it. It’s one thing to run an ad, and another thing to sell something within a game. Now we’re finally giving the opportunity to brands to promote themselves and see direct results.”