Offerpal Media Acquires Tapjoy, Gains Beachhead For Mobile App Monetization

In late 2009 we wrote about Tapjoy’s evolution from a mobile app developer to a mobile app monetization platform.

Tomorrow, Offerpal Media, one of the giants in social gaming monetization, will announce the acquisition of Tapjoy. That gives Offerpal a beachhead into the mobile space, an area they have only dipped their toes into to date.

The company helps applications like Tap Tap Revenge monetize users. The vast majority of revenue comes via pay-for-installs on other mobile apps, meaning users are paid virtual currency to download other mobile applications (on Tap Tap Revenge 3, it takes about 3 installs of free apps to get enough credits for a free song download). Developers have access to turnkey software to easily add monetization and analytics tools to their iPhone, Android and other mobile apps. Tapjoy keeps between 1/3 and 1/2 of the revenue, passing the rest on to publishers.

They are “very profitable,” say the founders.

Tapjoy “dovetails nicely” with Offerpal’s existing offers and monetization platform, says Offerpal CEO George Garrick. Tapjoy, founded Lee Linden and Ben Lewis, has been integrated into apps by “more than 1,000” developers and reaches 25 million mobile consumers.

Offerpal isn’t saying what the size of the transaction is, or how much revenue Tapjoy is generating to date. It’s growing fast from a small base, though. Tapjoy says “annual installs, user base and revenue is expected to quadruple this year.” Our guess after asking a few of their customers is that revenue is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per month.

Tapjoy raised just one round of funding – $600,000 from Tugboat Ventures in early 2009.

The Tapjoy founders dropped by our office at about 11 pm for a quick video to talk about the company and the acquisition: