Yesterday, Google announced that they will be retiring their Google Checkout service in late November in favor of their Google Wallet product.  Google Checkout was Google’s go to product for payment processing and payment, not just for in apps, but websites as well.

While  website merchants have been given a few options to transition to a new payment processing option,  app developers who use Google Wallet for in app purchases will be able to use the new Google Wallet Merchant Center.

We are very excited to write this post for you because it introduces our latest product type.  While you are very familiar with our out of app monetization offering, we have decided to expand our product line by entering INTO the app.  We are pleased to bring you a new in-app solution with the EXIT AD!

The Exit Ad introduces StartApp developers to the rev share model, providing continuous income and great eCPM, all while keeping the seamless user experience that users expect and value.

StartApp is undergoing some major changes.  Just last month, we moved into new offices, today we released the latest version of our developer portal and very soon we are coming out with another brand new ad type that supports the new exit ad.  All these changes and growth is very exciting for us, but we cannot forget the original StartApp product that started it all, the Search Icon SDK.

Nowadays, app markets are saturated, making it hard to accumulate high amounts of downloads.  Only 1 in 6 smartphone apps exceed 500 total downloads.  We looked at top developers on the Google Play Store to find out what sets their apps apart from the rest.  Check out the infographic to find out.  Click the infographic to read the small print

You have finally finished coding your application and uploaded it to the Google Play store.  You cannot wait to experience the rush of downloads (and the big rush of money too) that comes with a new application.  But every time you refresh your app store dashboard, the big rush looks more like a slow trickle.  Where are all the downloads?  Where did you go wrong?  What did you forget?  Here are the top 3 marketing aspects that you might be forgetting about when developing an application

So you have spent hours and hours learning how to code for Android and it is now time to start your first application.  So many questions begin to flood your head.  Where should I begin?  How can I have a solid first app that will start my app empire?  How long will it take to earn my first million downloads?

Before you can answer these questions, you should answer the questions below.  These questions will help you to focus your attention on the most important aspects of starting an app and put you well on the road to building a solid first app

1. Who is my customer/end-user?

In order to make a successful app, you have to define exactly who the app is for.   You should conduct your own market research to find exactly who you are targeting your app towards.  Once you know who they are, you can focus on their issues and communicate to them what  problem your user has that your app can solve.  Start by finding out what websites and places they go to online.  You can learn a lot that way.

2.  What is my product?

After you have focused who your user will be, you need to focus on the product.  Even before writing the first piece of code, you can research your possible competition and attend conferences to build credibility.  In order to have a strong product, you need to code it well AND market it well.

3.  How do I promote my app?

The only way to get high download numbers is if you promote your product in a way that will appeal to your target user.  Choosing a great name for your app is key here.  Try for something fun and memorable that mentions the problem it solves (think Evernote, or GetTaxi).  Your app name …

Few days ago we found out that Google+ has moved up to second place in social networks what makes it the fastest growing social network ever. Over 500 million people have upgraded, 235 million are active members across Google and 135 million are active in just the stream.

Google+ communities launched in December with the purpose of bring people together around particular topics.
The types of Communities available to the Google+ members seem endless. The members can find communities on every topic. Interested in reef keeping? There is a community for that. Need you daily dosage of dog pictures? There is a community for that as well.

The past 6 months have been an exciting time at StartApp.  We have grown to 40 employees spread over 3 offices across the world.  Our innovative out-of-app monetization solution landed us on the list of Top 5 Monetization Tools for Apps as well as one of the fastest growing startups of 2012.

You can also see this growth expand within our developer dashboard.  Earlier this week, we introduced a new payment system, powered by Tipalti.  Like our company, our payment options have been expanded to give all of our developers the ability to choose  most convenient pay method.

Existing Payment Methods

We will continue to offer developers the option to receive payment via PayPal and bank wire transfer.  These convenient methods will continue to be reliable options for all of our developers.

New Payment Methods

While Paypal and Wire transfer are great options, they may not be as flexible and as easy for our developers in all countries.  This is why we added 3 additional options that developers can choose.  Stick with one, or change your method every week, our new system can handle the flexibility.

Check

You can choose to have your payment sent via check to an address of your choice.  You can choose from 30 different currencies to fit with your local currency, as well as the name the check can be made out to.

Western Union

Who says that telegrams are old fashioned?  We are bringing Western Union to the modern age with this payment option.  Just generate a Money Control Transfer Number (MCTN) in our system.  We will automatically take out the Western Union fee from your earnings.  Simply take this number to your nearest Western Union branch and take your download revenue home.

Hold your payment

Want to build up your revenue before you have it sent to you?  No problem! …

We are very happy and proud to announce that we are nominated to The Europas People’s Choice award.

The Awards

The Europas are the premier awards for early, mid, and late stage

technology startups, as well as leading investors and media in the EMEA regions. The Awards celebrate the most forward thinking, progressive and innovative tech companies across over 20 categories. Startups can apply for an award or be nominated by someone else, and winners are selected by a panel of judges, with public and peer voting for certain awards.

For the last three years The Europas have grown and grown under the guidance of TechCrunch’s fantastic European Editor Mike Butcher. Mike is now taking a back seat and the Web Summit team are going to bring their experience running the 4,000+ Web Summit to bear to create an incredible event on the evening of Tuesday 22nd January 2013 in Berlin.

Read Mike’s post on TechCrunch about the Europas here.

The awards have been expanded to include over 20 categories. A fun and fantastic awards ceremony will be followed by an after party in one of Berlin’s hottest venues. The Europas is a chance for you and your team to celebrate a year of hard of work alongside Europe, the Middle East, and Africa’s leading startups, investors and media over one incredible night in Berlin.

Why Should You Vote For Us?

StartApp publicly launched just over a year ago and have achieved remarkable success in that time. We are currently monetizing over 5,000 apps and generating 1.5 million SDK downloads per day. With this amount of daily downloads and traffic, StartApp also generates over 2 billion monthly ad impressions offering a range of unique ad types. In acknowledgement of our achievements we would like to …

Hey everyone! We are happy to announce our new referral program as we think it is time for all of you to start having more fun! And money!

How much more money? You can get up to $2,185 per each new developer signing up with StartApp.

Yes, it’s true. You will get paid for the downloads your friend got from his apps while using StartApp SDK.

Start referring your friends now.

How does it work?

Basically, it’s very simple. All you need to do is login to your account with StartApp and start sending invites to your friends. Apps not fully integrated yet? No worries! You can still refer your friends.

Once your friends sign up with StartApp and add our SDK to their app, you will start making more money from their downloads.

The way you get paid!

When the developer you invited will reach his first 100 downloads he will get a bonus of $25 from us just because we want so.

From that moment you will start getting paid as well.

When he will reach the 100 downloads you will get your first $10, the second time you will get paid will be when he reaches 1,000 downloads and you will get an additional $25 and so on..

10,000 downloads means $150 more for you.

100,000 downloads = $500

And for 1,000,000 downloads = $1,500

All together brings you all the way to $2,185 for each friend you invite.

You can find some more info in our knowledge base