From The Blog: Introducing DoubleClick Ad Exchange

Getting Started Announcements
#21

Hello,

Our team has been heavily invested over the past year creating an app that uses Corona.  I am saddened by this news, because our team needs to use admob as our primary source of revenue.  It is a requirement from our higher ups and now that may be gone, we have to start looking into converting what we have so far into possibly another platform.  AdX is nice, but our current corona apps we have out and the majority of our native android/ios/web apps is admob. That isn’t switching, but the corona based ones probably will if this moves forward.  I support the admob paid plugin, I really hope this all works out.

#22

Add me to the list of people willing to pay for an admob plugin. With that being said please, please, please don’t make it apart of corona ads. 

I understand the draw for “simple” users to use corona ads but I’m far from a simple user. I use a lot of the built in tools that these ad networks provide and by being forced to use corona cards I’m unable to use them. No only that I do a lot of rev sharing in my apps with my business partners so we’re able to have multiple ad codes in the same app and randomly show one of our ads. With corona ads you’re stuck using 1 account per app and that’s just not how our business model works. 

All the changes you guys are making is great for the little guy but just constantly screws over the big guys. Going free has cost me over 50k in lost revenue due to rev sharing. Removing admob will end up costing me money. Moving to corona ads will end up costing me more money. I can only justify so much lost revenue. I’d honestly rather just pay you guys 50k or 100k and just go back to the way corona used to be. 

To make matters worse you guys have now locked down corona cards and enterprise. You’re the end all be all and what you say goes. I’m forced to run my company based on the beliefs and views of another company. I haven’t liked the path corona was taking for a while now…but I always knew at the end of the day I could fall back on enterprise and then do what I wanted. With that safety net not being there I’m really walking a tightrope without a net.

There is no one size fits all solution and if you guys continue down the path you’re going to lose all the big players you guys have.

#23

I have great respect for Corona Labs teamwork and it must be profitable, and if you can reconsider your decision and enter the plugin adMob for a fee,  my colleagues and I would gladly have purchased it

#24

Wow, that’s a bad move guys. I’ve been developing games using Corona for the last 5 years, supporting you through pro subscriptions and I bought the Splash Screen plugin as soon as it has been launched. I wouldn’t have any problems buying an Admob plugin. We understand you need to find more revenue streams to sustain your product, but, please offer less impacting alternatives. We have been working with Admob for years and suddenly we will loose control and this will impact our business. Please do think about charging for plugins and not getting a share of the revenue. Otherwise once a dev or company reaches a certain revenue point, Corona costs get really high and force us to think about other alternatives.

Can we expect Vungle is going to be the next victim?

#25

It would be great to understand your roadmap for the other ad plugins. 

#26

I have been using Corona for 6 years, pro subscriptons, splash control, promoted you on my website, through word of mouth. Yet for the first time i have frozen my development here. (while being about 80% into a very long development cycle.) We have businesses in a cut throat industry, we have certain factors in those businesses, relationships in those businesses, im sure everyone has there own certain factors which we stand to lose!

I recall the days we used to implement admob through a webview hack and admob was one of the most if not the most requested features. Once you guys officially released it i beleive was a pretty big game changer for Corona, Removing it i beleive would be an even bigger game changer for all the wrong reasons. Corona you are a technology company, on top of that a mobile development platfrom! and sayng you wont support THE industry standard ad network Admob, is like skiing without skis. competition will outshine you on this alone. im not aware of any other sdk’s that dont support admob.

We are not stupid Corona, stop trying to treat us that way. Im not even going to go into what the potential costs are to keep using corona for alot of us users would be. its a very simple formula to work out. and backend deals could be even worse. and after doing some tests with some networks i was shocked! i wont go further into it but this is starting to feel like “something else” rather than a business model.

I cant imagine too many serious developers signing up to corona with admob missing from its arsenal. the mass will eventually follow as serious developers are the ones that showcase your products strengths which inspire the mass. Taking a quote from your homepage “Join the Community, Get support from talented developers like yourself and help suggest features.” go down this road eventually there will be no talented developers, hence no support, hence the mass will eventually follow.

You have customers here now LITERALLY asking you to take our money, via paid plugins so we can SUPPORT YOU, many of which look like long term loyal customers. We want to help. but if you kill that you will certainly eventually kill the product. I have no other option but to pursue other options if this goes ahead. Its quite ironic that this whole post should have been about a great new feature corona was adding which i would have definately given a go for some of my apps. yet the whole thread of replies have been about the negative impact of removing admob. I really hope, that for the sake of your customers, and on top of that for the sake of corona itself that you guys can make the right decision here.

Give us a admob paid plugin, in return we will support you.

#27

Have to agree with the general sentiment.  Pulling the rug out from under long time developers on your platform, and the ever changing ground under our feet makes us start looking for alternatives.

#28

Hi Corona;

Please add me to the list of people willing to pay a reasonable for an admob plugin. With that being said please, please, please don’t make it a part of Corona Ads!!

I’m going to touch on a couple of issues not raised above – but issues which I believe to be pertinent to this overall discussion. My points are based on my experience these last 6 months.

#1 – We have apps for which the #1 source of Ad Revenue has been Chartboost Interstitials and #2 has been AdMob Interstitials. We were pushed into using Chartboost “through” Corona Ads this autumn  when the older 3rd party plugin was removed. I certainly did not mind having 5% of the revenue go to Corona. But we saw an immediate drop in Chartboost revenue of 50% on the same app displaying Chartboost ads in the same places with the same frequencies. This was true when we compare succeeding months (Sept. & Oct.) where the app’s play sessions, DAU, etc. were actually going up a bit. The Chartboost eCPM through Corona wasn’t that bad but the fill rate must have dropped significantly (we can’t actually see that stat in the Corona Dashboard). I’d be happy to share specifics (confidentially) with somebody at Corona if they are interested. Here is a note of speculation on what might have occurred to cause this drop – we have some excellent game apps with good demographics and I feel like Chartboost used to give us some of the “cream” advertising because we were an excellent performer for them. Now, Chartboost can’t (or doesn’t) pick us out and reward us – we are now simply a part of a pool of Corona apps. Why is Chartboost relevent to this AdMob discussion?? I fear that our high levels of AdMob revenue might drop in the same manner once we are simply a part of the Corona pool. It is worrisome.

#2 – Have any other Devs out there picked up on a problem that rises out of the “fine location” permissions (and other Android permissions) required by Corona Ads? When you use Corona Ads, you end up publishing to fewer devices. I’ll try to keep this brief but here is what we found:

A ) We “inadvertently” left the Corona Ads plugin in our Google/Android build.settings file for our Just Jumble app when we did an update last June. We weren’t going to use the plugin; we had simply been testing it out. Over the following 3-4 months, we received a number of e-mails EVERY WEEK from disappointed Android users complaining that they could no longer update the app as their device was not supported. Many of these user had recently purchased tablets (i.e. not old clunkers) running fairly new Android OS versions. We were puzzled by the numerous reports and complaints.

B ) The Corona staff really do listen and we encouraged Corona to add support for Amazon Devices in Corona Ads (and, by extension, Chartboost). Bless them, they did this in September. Hurray, we appreciated what they did! But when we tried to publish an Amazon update in October using the Corona Ads plugin on Amazon devices, fewer than half of the Fire Devices would be “supported” if we used Corona Ads. This drop in device support on Amazon made us go back and look at device support on Google Play (“a” above).

By trying a few different builds and submitting them to Google and Amazon, you can see in the attached screenshots (#1 and #2) how many Amazon Devices are NOT supported when you include Corona Ads (probably over half of the installed base of Kindles). And you can also see that removing the “inadvertent” inclusion of the plugin on Google Play devices resulted in an INCREASE in supported devices of roughly 10% (1,200+ additional supported devices).

So back to my first sentence. Please DO come up with an AdMob solution that allows us to keep using it in the flexible, direct-with-Google way we have had – even if it involves a fee. And, for heaven’s sake, please don’t make us include the Corona Ads plugin because it has a fair number of serious issues of its own!  Thanks;

Steve Bullock

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#29

I guess I’ll throw my two cents in. I think having a paid admob plugin is a good compromise. I obviously want to see Corona succeed so that my business stays viable, and that means I don’t mind paying for features that I find useful.

I’ve been using Corona for a few years now, I even paid for a Pro license before all the premium features were offered for free. I didn’t mind paying for the license even though at that time the choices for ad networks were pretty slim. But I always figured that if my game took off I at least had the to choice upgrade to Enterprise and implement a high performing ad network if there were better ones out there. My game’s monetization model relies heavily on ads and the fact that this customization was available was one of the features that sold me on Corona SDK.

Some of these recent changes are worrisome for me, though. Don’t get me wrong, I really really love the fact that there are so many ad plugins available now, but more and more are being rolled into Corona Ads and I see a bunch of users in the forums complaining about issues with the plugin. Additionally, the fact that the Corona Ads plugin requires fine and coarse location permissions really rubs me the wrong way. There are many users out there who won’t install apps if they have too many intrusive permissions, myself included. I just don’t see the need for a game to require access to GPS unless that is actually part of the gameplay.

But still, if I don’t like what Corona Ads offers then I can just upgrade to Enterprise and implement my own ad network right? Apparently I can’t do that anymore since the terms of service quietly changed a few months ago. Now I’m limited only to the plugins that Corona makes, or I have to ask for permission to implement 3rd party ones.

The reason this is so worrisome to me is because I want to shop my game around to publishers, and I fear that this business model that Corona has chosen will scare them away. Seeing complaints about low fill rates or bad ecpms, developers giving up $50k in revenue because of this revenue sharing model, Corona’s constantly changing core business model with very little notice (don’t get me started on the splashscreen debacle), the fact that Corona has been sold 3 times in 2 years, buggy plugins, etc already scares me. I can’t imagine what a publisher might think if they knew all this.

I hate to say it but I’m honestly starting to think that Corona is a hindrance to my business. The benefits that it does have can be found in numerous other SDKs, some of which are free and open-source, and others which are paid but at least don’t take a percentage of your revenue. I hope that I didn’t make a mistake when I chose Corona all those years ago.

#30

One reason we didn’t enable corona ads in our app is it required location permissions which is a non-starter for us.  Too many of our players would immediately uninstall when the app requires they give our games their location.

#31

Hey everyone. First I do want to thank you for your detailed description issues. This is really good information we can take back to the team and see what we can do. 

Thanks

Rob

#32

Vince_ I can’t imagine what a publisher might think if they knew all this.

I have just spoken to one of the leading game publishers on the app store and they are refusing to work with Corona developed games. 
Sigh

#33

That makes me sad to hear. Can you share which publisher and if they gave a reason for this?

#34

@simon.natt,

“I have just spoken to one of the leading game publishers on the app store and they are refusing to work with Corona developed games.”

To be 100% forthcoming, this type of vague information doesn’t help us (Corona) whatsoever. What is helping us figure out a workable solution is the users like @sbullock and a few others who provided legitimate concerns, clearly spelled out. We can at least work with that type of information.

Best regards,

Brent

#35

The company I am speaking with has multiple small games in the top 100 US and worldwide that should narrow it down. (if you would like to know more PM me) Whilst I want to help (Corona) I am more concerned about other developers that might do the same as I and dedicate 3 solid years to learning and mastering Corona and game development to realise that in the end publishers will bypass your work based on the fact you chose Corona.
Self publishing is not out of the question but for small devs partnering with a big publisher is the way to go in the current climate of the app store and makes sense.

#36

For me I always saw it as…

I’ll stick with corona free and pay the 5% and when things get really crazy and I don’t agree with them I will switch to enterprise. The issue and honestly the scariest part of all the corona changes is the fact that enterprise is no longer do as you please. I shouldn’t have to ask permission to operate my business…and enterprise is for businesses. Without the ability to do as I please with corona cards or enterprise you guys have ripped the safety net out from under my business and now with your talks to remove admod you’re shaking the tight rope I’m walking on. 

Sure in theory double click should net the same rpms and maybe there wont be much difference…but I have employees and bills to pay I can’t imagine operating my business on a “should be the same” thought process. 

Another scary thing for me is the fact that you’re not only talking about removing admob but you gave us 30 days notice. In the business world 30 days is a joke. Honestly even 6 months is a short time frame to remove a feature. Not only that but you didn’t even give us 30 days because the holidays are coming up.

I love corona I’ve purchased multiple pro subscriptions, multiple enterprise subscriptions and multiple corona cards. and recently the splash screen. I used to brag on reddit about how great corona to the point where people were claiming I was an employee. I’ve been to the corona booth the past 2 years at GDC. I rock the corona t shirts all the time and I even have a corona sticker on my laptop. With all that being said I feel like I no longer belong here. I honestly feel like I’ve outgrown corona. It seems like every decision you guys make is to help the little guy but ends up screwing the bigger developers over For example:

Corona ads, while corona ads is great for small guys it completely destroys the in house ad mediation and waterfall that we created. Not to mention that I have to contact you guys whenever I want to change ad settings like in applovin. In chartboost I’m no longer able to do direct deals because I’m not using my own chartboost account I’m essentially using yours so no other advertisers even know about me or my traffic. Another issue is the fact that we have multiple users ad codes in all our apps. So if someone works on the app and I want to give them a cut of the revenue I’ll have 95% of the revenue come to me and 5% go to them…with corona ads though you can only have 1 account per app. My whole business model would be ruined by corona ads. Apart from ads 

There are a lot of other issues where I feel like I’m being handcuffed into what you guys want me to do instead of how I want to run my business. For that reason I have my team learning unity because as much as I love corona and hope you guys do the right thing, I can’t run my business on hope. 

#37

You may want to look at http://www.defold.com/defold/ which is free of charge, based on Lua and backed by a large game developer (King)

#38

At the end of the day, which publisher would work with us if we can’t even provide admob, let alone the other intricacies that would make any deal hard. Beyond that which developer would pay ridiculous amounts of their money once revenue picks up, no other SDKs would charge even remotely close to what you guys are trying to pull. And that’s after you are pulling away industry standard tools like admob. Fine for hobbyist, which is what this will become. A hobbyist platform. How you guys expect to sustain from there is beyond my comprehension. give us a tier, a paid admob plugin. Something that is not nothing.

#39

I almost missed this news because of the header which appears to just introduce yet another advertising network. I thought the splash screen news was already the worst that I can hear from you guys this year. Over the last 5-6 years, I developed several free apps using Corona and my revenue are all from Admob. Removing Admob is going to have a major impact on my income. I know there is Corona Ads but can you promise it will do as well as Admob for all of us? I tried Corona Ads in the early days and it always has fill issue and I seriously don’t see much potential in it at the moment. Like many others here, I am petitioning to you guys to not drop Admob support. If you need to charge for it, please do a good job for the Admob plugin like the introduction of native ads and I am more than happy to pay a reasonable fee for it.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to hearing something positive from the Corona team.

#40

At the risk of sounding redundant, I’ll re-state a few points. While you tend to paint us in the most negative light possible, we are actually listening to your concerns. When I have something to report, I will report it. In the meantime, as I stated to @simon.natt, vague details that might only be shared via PM don’t really help me (I’m just the messenger here, dodging bullets). Once again, I want to thank the developers in this thread who have shared clear concerns that we can discuss internally while making a decision on this matter.

Brent