Mobile game publisher Indiagames Ltd. and Sidebar Inc., a technology company specializing in merchandising services for mobile content recommendations, are partnering to drive sales of mobile games.

Indiagames has selected Sidebar’s Smart Menu platform to deliver personalized recommendations of mobile games, with the rollout to occur in the upcoming quarters. In addition, Sidebar claims that it will deliver enhanced merchandising abilities to maximize revenue and margin contributions.

Mobile Commerce Daily’s Dan Butcher interviewed Patrick Kennedy, CEO of Sidebar, Santa Monica, CA. Here is what he had to say:

What is the strategy behind the partnership between Indiagames and Sidebar? What challenges does each company address for the other?
The partnership between the two companies is a natural fit: Businesses such as Indiagames, with huge libraries of content have challenges merchandising so that each piece of content gets the attention it deserves.

Typically, mobile storefronts have very few merchandising slots to display to the user and they also typically show the same thing to all users.

Think iPhone—your application store is the same as my app store.

As a result, only the “featured” content gets noticed and purchased.

Sidebar makes it possible to maximize each slot on a storefront with Smart Menus that display the right content for each user. This increases loyalty and satisfaction for Indiagames’ consumers while increasing revenues and efficiency for their business.

What are the various monetization models and the various price points for mobile games offered by the partners?
Indiagames is the market leader in mobile games in India and within their library they offer games with various pricepoints and monetization models.

What is the payment mechanism?
Users in India downloading games from Indiagames pay through integrated carrier billing. 

What are some of the most popular mobile games? Can you share specific download totals?
Indiagames merchandises a large catalog of games including Cricket, Racing, Action, Adventure, Strategy and Casual games.

The raison d’etre of this partnership is to make all of the mobile games in the Indiagames library find the consumers that are most interested in them.   

How big of a market is the mobile gaming sector in India? Globally? Does it have the potential for continued growth?
Vital Analytics, a Bangalore-based market research firm focused on the telecom space, predicts 200 percent growth in this market [by the next financial year].