Latest news with #monetisation
Finextra
29-05-2025
- Business
- Finextra
TrueLayer enters the gaming market
TrueLayer, Europe's leading Pay by Bank network, today announced a landmark partnership with Tebex, the growth and monetisation platform for game studios and private game servers. 0 The agreement marks TrueLayer's first client in the video gaming industry, opening a new growth channel for Pay by Bank and an indicator of the future of game monetisation. With over 30,000 creators and more than $1 billion in global sales processed, Tebex is the infrastructure behind the microtransaction economies of some of the world's most successful gaming companies, including highly-popular Minecraft game servers Wynncraft, Hypixel and Rockstar Studio through their FiveM role playing servers. By integrating TrueLayer's Pay by Bank solution into its platform, Tebex will offer gamers a fast, safe, and convenient way to pay, while ensuring studios and creators get paid faster and more securely. 'We're here to give creators the infrastructure they need to scale sustainably, and payments are a huge part of that. With TrueLayer's Pay by Bank, we're removing friction, slashing fees, and helping studios and creators get paid faster and more securely. It's a win for players too, because it means fewer steps, no redirects, and a checkout experience that simply works,' commented Liam Wiltshire, Head of Payments & Compliance (Tebex), Overwolf. Tebex has added Truelayer's Pay by Bank technology to its checkout in UK, Germany, France, Belgium and Spain, giving studios and server hosts in these markets a high-converting, low-cost payment option for their web stores. With TrueLayer's Pay by Bank solution, players can pay directly from their bank in a few taps, with no card fees, chargebacks, or redirects. Powering the Next Evolution in Game Monetisation In 2024 alone, the global gaming industry spent $187.7 billion, and is expected to reach $213.3 billion in 2027 [1]. Yet traditional payment methods struggle to keep up. Cards can fail, chargebacks are a constant threat to creators and studios, and hidden fees eat into margins for both studios and server owners. By contrast, TrueLayer's Pay by Bank brings: • A digital-native payment experience: An instant and digital experience - with no need for a physical card - meets the UX expectation of modern gamers. • Lower fees: No card networks, no intermediaries, no surprises. • Reduced fraud: Every payment is bank-authenticated and SCA-compliant by design. 'Gaming is a cultural force and a commerce juggernaut — and it's a perfect fit for Pay by Bank,' said Ben Morris, TrueLayer's Commercial Lead. 'Tebex is the gold standard for game monetisation, and we're thrilled to help power the next chapter of growth for their creators.
CNA
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNA
CNA938 Rewind - Gank – a go-to monetisation platform for content creators & influencers
CNA938 Rewind Play In 'Made in SG', Melanie Oliveiro speaks with Caine Teo, CEO and co-founder of Gank, a creator monetisation platform based in Singapore. Teo will discuss how Gank was established and how it operates: connecting financial systems in various Southeast Asian countries to localise payment options for content creators & influencers. Kitz Cua, a Filipino content creator and cosplay artist will talk about how Gank helps streamline her current and future earnings as she games and produces content online. CNA938 Rewind - Actor Julie Wee on playing the ruthless Lady Macbeth in SRT's Shakespeare in the Park In 'Culture Club', Melanie Oliveiro speaks with actor Julie Wee, now acting as Lady Macbeth in of Singapore Repertory Theatre's staging of Macbeth in their 'Shakespeare in the Park' at Fort Canning. Wee discusses her role as one of William Shakespeare's most iconic and enigmatic women—a character often remembered for her ambition, her ruthlessness, and descent into madness. Wee will also talk about what it's like working with the other cast members, the eye-catching stage design and what it's like doing her 7th Shakespeare in the Park gig. 18 mins CNA938 Rewind - Gank – a go-to monetisation platform for content creators & influencers In 'Made in SG', Melanie Oliveiro speaks with Caine Teo, CEO and co-founder of Gank, a creator monetisation platform based in Singapore. Teo will discuss how Gank was established and how it operates: connecting financial systems in various Southeast Asian countries to localise payment options for content creators & influencers. Kitz Cua, a Filipino content creator and cosplay artist will talk about how Gank helps streamline her current and future earnings as she games and produces content online. 31 mins CNA938 Rewind - A Letter to Myself: Grains, grounds, and grit — how Kong Qi Herng started a food tech business right out of university Kong Qi Herng is a co-founder of The Moonbeam Company, a food tech company that turns spent grains and coffee grounds into high-fibre snacks like granola and cookies. The company actually began life as a university project while Kong and his two co-founders were still in university. He shares why he feels strongly about reducing food waste and the most valuable lessons about self-management and care he's gained through his entrepreneurial journey. 35 mins CNA938 Rewind - 'That's not me!' Can a LinkedIn gaffe hurt your career? A woman has gone viral for a LinkedIn post tagging former DBS CEO Piyush Gupta, claiming they'd met in Bali – except it wasn't him. How might habits relating to publishing on LinkedIn hurt your career and reputation, instead of helping it? And how can you recover from such gaffes? Andrea Heng and Hairianto Diman speak with Gerald Tan, Projects Director, Avodah People Solutions, to find out. 15 mins
The Verge
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Google rejected giving publishers more choice to opt out of AI Search
Google didn't want to give publishers the choice to keep their content out of AI Search results because it's 'evolving into a space for monetisation.' That's according to a newly disclosed internal document spotted by Bloomberg, which reveals that Google had discussed offering publishers more granular control over how website data would be used in AI Search features instead of the illusion of choice they eventually received. The document, written by Google Search executive Chetna Bindra, was released during the US antitrust trial into Google's online search monopoly. The access to its search engine data gives Google a huge advantage in AI development over rivals like Perplexity and OpenAI. But Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode can be detrimental to the websites they source from by reducing clickthroughs, incentivizing publishers to keep their content out of AI summaries and related features if given the choice. One of the suggestions in the documents that Google considered a 'hard red line' would enable publishers to prevent Google's AI models from referencing their data in real time, but not opt out of being used to train features like AI Overviews generally. Another option, labelled as 'likely unstable,' suggested that no additional controls should be added, and that publishers can opt out of being indexed on Search entirely, 'if not satisfied.' A court hearing on May 2nd revealed that publishers are facing that ultimatum. While Google introduced a way for publishers to opt out of AI training in 2023, Google DeepMind vice president Eli Collins said it doesn't apply to search-specific AI products like AI Overviews. The only way for publishers to avoid AI Overviews sucking up their content is to opt out of being crawled by Googlebot — which stops their website being indexed for Search altogether. When AI Overviews rolled out last year, Google decided to 'silently update' the information about publisher controls with 'no public announcement,' according to the document. Guidance on how to word the update also suggests that Google intentionally made it harder for publishers to know what they were actually opting out of to avoid getting 'into the details of distinction' between training for Gemini, AI Overviews, and other AI models. 'Do what we say, say what we do, but carefully,' Bindra said in the document. Google says that this document was an early list of options it was considering as AI search was evolving, and doesn't reflect the decisions it ultimately made. 'Publishers have always controlled how their content is made available to Google as AI models have been built into Search for many years, helping surface relevant sites and driving traffic to them,' Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels said in a statement to The Verge. 'New search features like AI Overviews have led to more searches, which creates new opportunities for sites to be discovered. The wording that Google currently uses is more upfront, saying that publishers who flag their content not to be used for AI Overviews and AI Mode will also keep it out of ' all forms of search results.'
The Guardian
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Does video game monetisation harm children – and what is Australia doing about it?
Over the last decade, Dean has amassed a healthy collection of video games, from smash hits to cult classics. His digital library is like a modern day Blockbuster, all readily accessible with just a click or two. But his son, Sam, has eyes for only one video game: Roblox, the behemoth virtual universe-slash-video game that's among the most popular on the planet. The company reports that more than 97 million people log on to Roblox every day. Around 40% of those are, like Sam, under 13 years of age. In 2024, Roblox generated around A$5.6bn (US$3.6bn) in revenue, largely through purchases of 'Robux', its virtual currency, with the average user dropping around A$25 per month. While much attention has been paid to children's use of Roblox in terms of exposure to bullying, inappropriate and even abusive content, a new report has raised concerns about the impact of video game monetisation on children. Meanwhile, some experts claim Australia's current classification system does not go far enough in helping child video game players and their parents navigate confusing monetisation systems. Dark design patterns – which aim to steer player behaviour – have come under scrutiny in two new reports by Australian researchers. Such features encourage users to spend money, often obfuscating their value or using confusing virtual currencies and can be difficult for children to fully comprehend. One recent report by Monash University and think tank the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC), which focused on players aged 18 years and older, highlighted that games designed with dark patterns are almost unavoidable. Of 800 survey respondents, 83% had experienced 'negative impacts' of these patterns and 46% had experienced some kind of financial detriment; more than a quarter said they felt pressured to buy something, and 30% had spent more on a game than they had intended. A separate new study, by researchers at the University of Sydney, has attempted to examine how children – who make up one-fifth of the gaming population – perceive these mechanisms and how to ensure video games are more appropriately designed for them. 'There's a tendency for issues around children's digital media use to become media-panicky and lead to policy decisions which haven't taken children's actual experiences into account,' says Taylor Hardwick, the lead author of the study. Hardwick and her team conducted interviews with 22 children, aged between 7 and 14 years of age, as well as their parents. Each child was given a $20 debit card and told they could spend it however they like – they just needed to explain what they were buying and why. Eighteen of the 22 children in the cohort played Roblox and 12 decided to spend their entire $20 in the game, buying up Robux. Another five children used it in other digital games such as Call of Duty, Fallout 76 and Minecraft. Children in the study reported being most concerned about feeing misled, frustrated or regretful of their purchases, particularly when they lose access to accounts or items without warning or recourse. Sam's father says Sam has spent around $400 on Roblox annually over the last four years. A few months ago, one of his purchases left him feeling dejected. Sam had used some of his Robux to buy a 'skin' – essentially a digital costume — of Godzilla in an extremely popular Roblox game called Kaiju Universe. But when he signed into the game, the skin had disappeared without warning. Toho, the copyright holder for the Godzilla licence, had shut down the game, leaving Sam without the digital skin. He did not receive a refund from Roblox. But it is children's engagement with 'random reward mechanisms' (RRMs) that the Sydney University researchers highlighted as one of the major problems. RRMs such as loot boxes provide players a chance to score a mystery item in a lottery or lucky-dip style 'draw'. While the children in the study 'accepted' that RRMs were part of the gaming experience, many did not like it. 'Children do not possess sufficient understanding of probability as well as risk to effectively navigate these aspects of their digital play, even if they are able to speak in the game's percentage-laden vernacular,' the authors wrote. 'RRMs and similar gambling-like mechanics are harmful and not appropriate in games for children.' They recommend removing RRMs entirely, easier access to refunds, stronger protections on children's accounts and greater transparency and flexibility with virtual currencies. Christopher Ferguson, a psychologist at Stetson University, said the study is interesting but pointed out it uses a small sample size. He was not convinced by the researchers' definition of 'harm' either; although children might feel scammed or tricked, he suggests the monetisation aspects they are encountering may be more an annoyance than a harm. 'I'm glad that researchers are actually asking kids what they think about the experience,' he says, 'but I think we ought to be a little bit more cautious about the word 'harmful'.' Sign up to Pushing Buttons Keza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gaming after newsletter promotion Australia has attempted to keep children from monetised RRMs by implementing a new classification scheme which came into force in September 2024. Now, any game containing RRMs or loot boxes must be rated M and not recommended for children under 15 years of age. But the new rules only apply to newly classified games, and older games were not required to update their classification – unless the developer updates the game. Leon Xiao, a researcher at City University Hong Kong who studies the regulation of loot boxes, says that Australia has 'an implementation issue, rather than a problem with the law itself.' He claims some video games have been incorrectly rated after the new legislation kicked in and suggests the intent of the law to better educate consumers has failed. Preliminary research by Marcus Carter, a co-author on the University of Sydney study, suggests around 20% of the Top 100 grossing mobile games in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store do not comply with Australian regulations. Hardwick and Carter recently wrote Australia's new guidelines are 'not fit for purpose.' Roblox, with its mountains of user-generated content, is a prime example of the confusion in the ratings. Xiao argues 'Roblox most certainly should now be rated M or not recommended for players under 15.' But the game is rated PG on the Google Play Store. Meanwhile on Apple's App Store, the regional age rating is 15+. The latter also contains a global age rating, provided by Apple, of 12+. A Roblox spokesperson told Guardian Australia that creators must use its PolicyService API to ensure they are compliant in all jurisdictions and this ensures 'paid random items are accessible only to eligible users'. An update sent to developers in September 2024 would make paid random items unavailable to Australian users. 'As a user-generated content platform, we provide our developer community with tools, information and guidelines that apply to aspects of gameplay within their games and experiences, including the recent classification update in Australia relating to paid random items,' a Roblox spokesperson said. 'We take action on reports of content not following guidelines or not using our tools properly to meet local compliance requirements in Australia.' The company says it gives parents information about their children's purchasing behaviour, does not store billing information as default and issues warnings – at the first transaction – that users are spending real money. Parents are also alerted in email about high spending behaviour. 'Our parental controls feature enables parents and caretakers to receive spending notifications for their child's spending in Roblox and set monthly limits on their child's account,' the spokesperson said. Hardwick says monetisation is difficult for 'busy, underinformed and under-resourced' parents to navigate. She says they are not being given the tools to understand and approach their kids' in-game spending. Dean is doing his best to buck that trend with Sam, discussing with his son what Sam's spending his Robux on and why. He says Sam is still sore about the Godzilla skin, but has moved on to a gardening game, where he can spend Robux on buying new seeds – and where Sam assures him there's no loot boxes involved. * names have been changed
