Distribution service overview

The Distribution service provides free and paid methods of getting distribution for your application on social, desktop, and mobile platforms. It also provides tracking with a rich set of traditional and social analytics. Finally, the service enables application monetization through ad-hosting.

Several capabilities of the Distribution service are powered by Gigya. Gigya has one of the largest distribution networks in the world with 250 million unique users monthly.

Sharing

Sharing enables the free viral distribution of applications and other content to most web, mobile, and desktop platforms. Sharing can be implemented by adding the Share menu to the application or to the web page where the application is posted (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. The Distribution service Share menu

The promotion, ad-hosting and tracking capabilities available in the Distribution service are available only when the Share menu is implemented.

Promotion

Application distribution can be accelerated through paid promotion. Promotion can guarantee tens of thousands of daily installs of your application. The promotion capability can be used only by applications that incorporate the Share menu.

Ad-hosting

Publishers and developers can generate revenue by hosting promotions on their applications. The ad-hosting capability through the Distribution service is available only to applications that incorporate the Share menu.

Publishers and developers can always display advertising through other providers in addition to opting into ad-hosting through this service.

Tracking

Any application that incorporates the Share menu starts producing analytics. A comprehensive suite of both traditional and social analytics are available through the Distribution Manager.

Why should I use the Distribution service?

In the last few years we have seen the web change very rapidly. Social media makes the web personal, and mobile devices make the web portable. When you make your applications sharable on social media, you enable implicit endorsement of your applications and other content. Content posted by friends is much more likely to be noticed. When someone posts an application on his social page, on average 20 of his friends view the application. Users are spending an increasing amount of time engaging with applications on their mobile devices. It is therefore becoming important to have mobile versions of your applications.

In this new landscape, it is not enough to create an application and put it on your website. You have to figure out an effective way to get users for your application. The Distribution service lets you harness the power of social media and reach your users on web destinations, mobile platforms, and desktops. It also provides a single management interface to track the distribution and engagement with your content. Finally, it provides a way for publishers and developers to monetize their applications, games, and other content through ad-hosting.

How do I use the Distribution service?

Developers make new and existing applications sharable using Adobe Flash Professional or Adobe Flex Builder. Adobe Dreamweaver can be used to place the Share menu next to the application on a web page. You must install the relevant extension to access the new capabilities.

Business users can manage their applications in the Distribution Manager. They can track distribution and usage, create and edit campaigns, and enroll in ad-hosting.

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