Think about it, we’ve been playing games on our phones for years. And we like to play with others. Players also tend to play more when there’s some competitive advantage other than playing against themselves or even just playing against friends.

The more incentives you give them to stay in the game, the longer you retain them. The longer you retain them, the more they become familiar with your application and your brand. The more familiar they are with your brand, the more likely they are to buy your brand’s apps down the line. The more likely they are to buy your brand’s applications down the line, the more likely you are to achieve a greater LTV.

Obviously, it connects further and in more ways than that, but it’s the basic system. Global coverage allows you to have more players, which equals more potential sources for monetization, which equals more money.

What will be interesting, beside watching the evolution of how transactions occur and what type of content is created, is watching how applications/developers/companies go about monetizing that segment of the population that have mobile phones/access to mobile apps, but no credit card.