You might have heard about the latest “free market” engine that’s made its way onto our collective minds.
While it’s still early days in its development, the company has already made some pretty good money.
And that’s not all: it also makes it easier to understand what you’re paying for in the first place.
As with all free-markets, this one’s not as simple as it seems.
You might think that this engine would be an obvious candidate for an article on the blogosphere, but as it turns out, it’s actually pretty well-funded.
According to data from the UK government, it has received over £4.7 million ($6.3 million) in government funding in 2017 alone.
And as the chart below shows, this money isn’t just for its technical development: it’s also going into the company’s marketing.
So while the engine is technically very simple to use, the marketing campaign is also a significant part of the company.
And if you’re looking to get your hands on one, it’ll cost you around £60.
The company’s Twitter feed, which you can find in the table below, has over 1.5 million followers and the company recently launched a new app called “Kroger Telecom Engine” that offers the same feature for just under £60 a month.
Krogers chief executive, Dave Parnell, told Forbes that his company’s focus is on “creating the most effective free-to-play mobile applications that provide value to consumers”.
And while there’s no doubt that it’s a great product, there are still a lot of ways that it can be improved.
For example, there’s the issue of latency: the company notes that, for example, the app requires around 60 milliseconds to load, which is about the same as the latency of a traditional game.
“It’s not a perfect product,” Parnells said, “but we’re working hard to make it better.”
That said, he said that there are also “many advantages to using the mobile app as opposed to using a traditional platform like a console or PC”.
Parnills point to the fact that there’s already a lot more of the apps that he owns that support the app than there are people who use the platform themselves.
So there’s not much reason to go out of your way to try and compete with people who have a bigger collection of devices.
Kampala’s chief operating officer, Richard Deutsch, said that while the company still needs to improve, he believes that the mobile application has the potential to be “a great platform for mobile gaming and entertainment”.
Deutsch added that there will be “many opportunities” for Kampala to expand its business and that the company will continue to build new apps that will “provide our customers with the most engaging, efficient and relevant experience on our platform”.
Forbes is excited about the future of free-games, but that doesn’t mean that they’re doomed to failure.
The mobile application is an interesting concept, but it will likely never make it into the mainstream.
“Kampalyte is a game that has been on the drawing board for quite some time,” wrote Forbes.
“There are many great mobile games out there, but I think it’s going to take time to catch on.”
