Today the Heyzap platform, which allows Flash games to be easily embedded into websites, announced that it would also be adding support for in-game microtransactions. The company hopes to open the booming market for virtual goods in Web-based social and casual games up to the world of Flash games, which traditionally have monetized through advertising. Where Flash game ads frequently offer CPM payouts that amount to less than a penny per play, Heyzap thinks virtual goods can deliver real revenue to both Flash game developers and the Web sites hosting the games.
The new microtransaction service is called Heyzap Payments, with revenue from individual transactions split 50/50 between Heyzap and game publishers. Heyzap co-founder Jude Gomila also says that in the future Web publishers hosting games may get a cut of the microtransaction revenue, perhaps 10% coming from Heyzap’s cut. Right now Heyzap is showcasing the new Payments platform in a test app embedded at the bottom of this post and Gomila says that 10 more developers are currently at work on games that feature Payments. After the platform’s official launch this afternoon, he hopes to see many more.
Right now Heyzap Payments supports transactions via PayPal and Zong in addition to ad offers provided by Gambit. Users purchase a virtual currency called Heyzap Coins in order to buy virtual goods in individual Heyzap Flash games. Their balance of Heyzap Coins is tracked through a user’s Heyzap profile.
The entire Heyzap Payments platform was developed primarily by Gomila and his co-founder Immad Akhund over a period of about one month. The company acquired its third employee roughly three weeks ago and raised between $500,000 and $1M in a seed round from Union Square Ventures in May. The company officially launched in January with making Flash games easier to embed on websites as its initial goal.
Flash microtransactions aren’t exactly new but the concept is definitely gathering momentum. Gomila says that implementing something like Heyzap Payments was on the company’s road map from its founding. Other players already in the space are Nonoba’s GameRise platform and Andrograde, but Heyzap arguably has the potential to become much bigger than either.
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