Is Angry Birds like, totally over?
Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds have announced their latest financial results, and things aren’t looking quite as lucrative as before. According to the New York Times, profits are down 52%.
In 2013, net profit at the company was $37m – down from $77m in 2012. If only there was some sort of visual metaphor we could employ for the destruction of their profitability…
This probably shouldn’t be viewed as too surprising – given that a couple of years ago Angry Birds was the hot new thing, and Rovio responded by slapping an angry bird on basically every cash-in product imaginable. The fad though, like Pogs and Pokemon Cards before them, is now clearly over.
The challenge for the company now is can they come up with something else that will capture the imagination of mobile users? Can lightning strike twice? Rovio have a bit of a leg-up in the form of $37m in the bank – so can they turn that into another property like Angry Birds?
As the New York Times notes, there is also a disparity between Rovio and competitors, like King, the makers of Candy Crush. The latest trend, which Rovio have so far refused to partake in, is for free apps but with in-app micropayments (like buying more coins in Candy Crush). Let’s just hope we see something more ambitious than Angry Birds with in-app payments.
