MITIGATING THE TRUE COST OF ADVERTISEMENT- SUPPORTED“FREE” MOBILE APPLICATIONS

Azeem J. Khan, V. Subbaraju & Archan Misra

Presented ByBrian K. Gervais

FREE APPS AUG 2011

• At this time Angry Birds was making $1 Million/month

• Apple store games with adds $87 Million/month

Total free apps downloaded 81%

Free apps in top grossing list 51%

Free apps in iTunes Store 63%

Free apps in Android Market 37%

Free apps in Blackberry World 82%

ANGRY BIRDS

• In 2011 Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) ran a test on the Iphone Version• Non ad-Supported (paid Version) had an

increase in 8% over one hour game play• Ad supported version had a 352%

increase over same time period• In 2011 South Korea Telecoms reported a

10% call success rate • Single third part app was the culprit (not

AB)

WHY SO MUCH DATA

• Test Conducted with rooted android in a lab

• Shark for Root was used to capture packets and analyze.

Rank Application Name Advert. Traffic(Kbps)

Appln. Traffic (Kbps

610101214

Angry BirdsAngry Birds RioHanging With FriendsBunny ShooterFruit Slice

4.154.031.762.643.63

0.150.145.82NA0.31

WHATS IN THE DATA

Context Parameters Presence

Location

Device

NetworkUser

Others

latitude and longitude, country, localization,IP addressOS, OS version, model, make,firmware, current time, screen density,screen size, storage size, hardwareid, subscriber id, user agentstringtelecom carrier, radio, speed, IP addressage, gender, subscriber id, language,user-idapplication id, application version,banner size, format

Always

Always

AlwaysMostly

Mostly

WHY DO WE CARE

• Almost all carriers have done away with unlimited data• Verizon charges $15/per gig overage

• Even if you are grandfathered in they will throttle your connection.

• Contribute to Service outages

$$$

• If you go by Verizon $15/Gig• Fruit Ninja played for 30 Minutes• Generate ~40MB network data• ~56Cents• Instead of purchasing the app for $.99

with out ads• Nothing is FREE

WHAT DO WE DO

• Fine line between users desire for free content and companies desire for revenue.

• Users can monitor their data usage• Not practical, due to high amounts of

hidden data• Stop advertisements• Never happen

• Develop software to meet the needs of both parties.• CAMEO, Tourist-MSN

PROCESS

• Intercept• Most ads start with DNS query, then HTTP Req• Could set up proxy on client• Could redirect DNS query to local-host

• Generate• Software predict what kind of adverts the user

will be exposed to• Software must weight the cost of the data

• Deliver• Giving it to the customer in a seamless manor• That does not affect the users experice

CAMEO

• “Preserve the delivery and display of mobile advert., while dramatically lowering the advert. Related consumtion of precious metered wireless bandwith”• Users often have unmetered networks

available• Home Wifi, StarBucks, Boingo• Development of future Femotcells for

3G/4G

CAMEO

• Prefetches adverts. When the data is cheap• Still provides the same targeted adverts to

consumer• Also provides pre-cached adverts for when

no network available (on a flight)• Most adverts would run small piece of XHTML

once image was fetched, or JavaScript used to fetch and display image• 1/4th of data is advertisement while rest is

overhead• Will increase with HTML5

ISSUES

• Clean Slate Design- in order for the middleware to work Key changes must occur• Application Modifications

• Sending small amount of data to validate that the advertisement is appropriate for context

• Random ads aren’t ideal• Infrastructure Modification

• Advertisements are not real-time• Middleware could leverage low-priority or

background transfer service provided by wireless operator at reduced cost

SUMMARY

• Mobile computing is rapidly growing especially free mobile apps.• Growing faster than the infrastructure

can support• Perceived Cost of Data is Going up

• Mobile providers want the network used but not over used

• Hard to change users habits• Desire for “Free” applications

QUESTIONS