Handango Revises CDA, Says “Screw You” to Developers
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Handango has just issued a revised Content Distribution Agreement (CDA) that we’ve managed to get our hands on ahead of the pack. Long story short, there are going to be a whole lot of pissed off developers come Monday morning. In terms of reach and volume, Handango is currently the biggest name in the game when it comes to mobile payware distribution. They are not however, the only game in town. Alternative distributors are gaining ground and in the coming year we’ll be seeing even more and better options emerging. As we begin to enter a period of transition, this is not the move that Handango wanted to make. Under the terms of the new CDA that goes into effect on March 15, Handango has bumped its take up from 40% to 50% of gross revenue up to $250K. A quarter-mil! We’d like to know exactly how many developers shuffle $250,000 worth of apps through Handango. Rest assured, the number is pretty close to zero. Not that further figures will actually apply to anyone, but developers will take home 60% of revenue on gross sales from $250,001 - $1,000,000 and 70% of gross over a million. Developers will find this new CDA in their inboxes over the next few days, attached to a cheery email about what a great year 2007 was for the mobile software market. They will then be asked to bend over…
On Feb 16, 2008 @ 7:45 am, BlogReader Said:
I’m confused, you state that sales over $1M will get the *developer* 70% of the sale as their take home. So isn’t the increase from 40 to 50% for less than $250k better for the developer? There’s something wrong in your chart.
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On Feb 16, 2008 @ 10:26 am, sam Said:
what a great oportunity for somebody to take away some of the evil empire’s business. handago is crazy to think that developers wil stand for this.
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On Feb 16, 2008 @ 12:09 pm, Janice Said:
I’ve read the whole thing, and it’s disturbing. There are clauses in there that could have a much worse impact than Handango’s fee hike — lots more costs for developers with no benefit to the developer or the customer. Look for software prices to increase significantly to compensate for the added costs for developers who stay with them without working out a more reasonable contract.
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On Feb 16, 2008 @ 1:41 pm, S Said:
I dunno…I would actually be shocked if a developer like SPB was doing less than $waaan meeelleeeyon a year on Handango.
At $25 an app, that would mean 40,000 apps sold per year or 3,333 per month. Divide that by 30 days, and that’s about 111 apps per day. Divide that by 5 apps…that’s 22 sales per app per day. Is that unrealistic?
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On Feb 16, 2008 @ 2:14 pm, Dean Said:
I am not a Developer, just a User. Handango has dramatically reduced the value of their service after the recent overhaul of their web site. I would encourage all Developers to find another outlet for their products.
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On Feb 16, 2008 @ 3:40 pm, eGuepard Said:
I guess I’m ahead of the curve as I stop buying from Hand-DAM-Them early last year! So they hit the developers up for the Tech Support! They charge them 50% to 30% commission for the service of allowing them to sell on their website! Hell that better fees then eBAY or PayPal gets! I thought those were OUTRAGEOUS!
Another reason not to buy there!
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On Feb 17, 2008 @ 1:44 am, Chris Said:
Handango’s wanting to screw the gang of Developers,they will now kickoff a gangbang on themselves!I will never use Handango again.There really trying to stick it to everyone,well screw you handango,I’ll do bussiness elsewere! C-ya!
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On Feb 17, 2008 @ 1:48 am, Chris Said:
Handango is in for a for a BIG suprise!
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On Feb 17, 2008 @ 8:14 am, Joe Said:
MobiHand gives developers 80% for purchases made on their website.
The more people use them instead of Handango the more money ends up back in the hands of developers so they can go on developing the apps. you like.
In fact, the best option in most cases is to hunt down developers websites and buy from them directly.
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On Feb 18, 2008 @ 9:08 am, ADeveloper Said:
As a developer, I am amazed by this new agreement. Handango wants to take an even bigger chunk of my already small paycheck, just for selling my software. What this means is that developers will have to raise their prices everywhere. I think this is a great opportunity for other distributers to show that Handango isn’t the only game in town.
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On Feb 18, 2008 @ 10:49 am, luc Said:
I ended up buying at Mobihand because they take PayPal from non-U.S. buyers. I am 100% happy with Mobihand. Both site and service work very well. Handango won’t be missed at all AFAIAC.
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On Feb 18, 2008 @ 12:16 pm, Proto732 Said:
As a consumer I stopped purchasing from them a while ago. The whole pay an extra fee to be able to download the application you just bought again after 30 days is pure extortion.
I only buy from PocketGear.com. I have stuff I bought on there pre 2002 that I can still download if need be.
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On Feb 18, 2008 @ 1:26 pm, Janice Said:
PocketGear made some unfriendly changes lately, too, and more are expected.
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On Feb 19, 2008 @ 12:58 pm, Josh Stubbs Said:
This is bad bad bad… shamdango are going down.. I personally buy from clickgamer.com and clickapps.com - I found out about them 5 years ago buying their commodore 64 emulator on the pocket pc.. they have grown a lot since then, and have provided me with great customer service as far as i can remember.
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On Feb 19, 2008 @ 2:26 pm, FlipDog Said:
Not defending them in any way…..
The number and variety of mobile devices has exploded over the course of the last year. Anyone have an idea of how many different combinations of make/model of mobile platforms there are? And just how costly it is to maintain the number of channels?
Here is a thought, working within a platform standard would reduce the cost for both the developers AND the channels….same number of apps, but a whole lot less variants.
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On Feb 19, 2008 @ 4:44 pm, BrownBrian Said:
Clickgamer and Clickapps are the way to go — their customer service is super fast with a huge variety of quality titles. Clickgamer is like shopping at Waitrose (top of the line UK grocer), where shankandgo is more like a local jumble sale — you have to wade through tons of rubbishy ringtones and dubious software to find any real nuggets.
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On Feb 20, 2008 @ 1:09 am, Vince Said:
This whole new user agreement is so grossly one-sided it’s ridiculous. Do these internet companies really think that because they don’t deal with developers face-to-face that we’re not there? Isn’t a user agreement supposed to be something both sides work together to agree on? Everything in the agreement benefits and protect them and their corporate cocoon. Not only are the royalties reduced but they want to tack on an insurance cost for selling our software. This will reduce the royalties even more. The increased payouts for sales over $250,000 a year is just fluff and another insult to our intelligence. Nearly noone and probably noone, is making those kind of sales on Handango. Again, when you don’t have that human-to-human contact with people to keep you in check, this is the result. The new agreement goes into effect March 15, and conveniently, Handango doesn’t require us to have to sign it or anything. It goes into affect automatically. March 15th will be the day I remove my software from Handango.
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On Mar 3, 2008 @ 4:27 am, Simon Said:
If you are a developer. Read it and send to other.
1. Double check what Handandgo paid to you. I did. In all mine 7 checks money are missing. In each one, no exceptions! Range is from 15 to 78 USD. That is why they are not sending with check the calculation list which will show how that total amount was calculated. They also do not have that information on their website. They have all purchases listed, but there is no information
which one included in what check. NONE! That is the biggest secret ever. That is where Handango is simply stealing developers money!
Try to ask them what payments are included in that check and you will not get the answer. They will refer you to website, they will refer to agreement,
they will tell you anything except the answer.
2. I know at least a few dirty tricks that Handandgo plays.
Here is the most popular one - the so called discount codes on Handandgo. I have investigated and I got confirmation from a few customers that they have paid the full amount, but Handandhgo is showing to developer that software was sold with discount price! Guess who got that money difference in their pocket? Letter to Handango.. no answer.
Check you payments at Handanago, find the discount ones, write letter to customer and ask how much did they pay in reality, compare that with Handango message to you.
You have a good chance to have some discoveries!
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On Mar 29, 2008 @ 1:26 pm, Anon Said:
Did you know that Handango’s best sellers are based upon revenue not numbers sold? i.e. exactly the opposite of how other markets work. When you think of a ‘chart’ you think of numbers sold … unless you’re Handango :0(
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On Mar 30, 2008 @ 9:38 am, auto Said:
Basically, my opinion of the situation is:
The below clause in the handango-developer agreement prevents a developer from offering their product at a lower price in another software shop:
“At no time shall the Software’s SRP provided to Publisher be higher than the Software’s SRP provided to other distributors.”
Thus, even if another software store charged developers only a 20% commission (as oppose to Handango’s 50%), the developer can’t pass that 30% savings onto consumers because this clause forbids that!
For example, if another software shop only charged a 20% fee, you would think it could work like this:
XYZ app sells for $19.95 on Handango, Handango gets 50% = $9.95 profit to developer
XYZ app sells for $12.50 on ABCshop, ABCShop gets 20% = $9.95 profit to developer
In the above example, the developer would still make the same $9.95 profit, but the consumer would save $7.50 by buying it though ABCShop!
The only way a developer could sell a product for less would be to NOT sell it through Handango (thus, they are not bound by the clause). But this would be like shooting yourself in the foot because Handango is the biggest shop and provides the highest sales count to developers. So, the developer has to bite the bullet and charge the same price in all software shops
How can another software shop ever be competitive to Handango when the best way to do so (by offering lower prices) is specifically prohibited in Handango’s agreement?
Handango has the right to charge a premium commission if their market position offers developers higher number of sales. But, I feel that this clause is anti-competitive and Handango is using their market dominance to force developers into agreeing to it.
I feel Handango is in effect dictating the prices that consumers pay for mobile software - thats probably why every shop sells the same app for the same price that Handango sells it for.
I feel the FTC and other applicable government agencies should investigate this clause to see if it is violating any anti-trust/anti-competitive laws designed specifically to prohibit monopolies from preventing competition.
Also, because Handango has so many partnerships with cellphone carriers, when a newbie buys a smartphone and selects “purchase software” link, the chances are they are directed to Handango - thus handango gets first sales opportunity for all newbies. Then, after a newbie gets confortable, they will probably try to find a software store that sells apps at a discount, but because of the above clause, there isn’t any. And because all shops charge the same price for the same app, there really isn’t any significant incentive for a user to switch from handango.
However, if someone opened up a new software shop that offered 20% off ALL software, EVERYDAY, then the discounted price offered to consumers for an app would NOT be the developers fault, so Handango couldn’t scold them under this clause.
Such a shop would have a significant chance to compete against Handango because there would finally be a real reason for users to NOT buy from Handango!
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On Mar 31, 2008 @ 10:07 am, Anon Said:
I think thatHandango will go bust because:
a. they owe too much money to venture capitalists
b. they screw developers
c. Windows Mobile (one of their main income generators) is most likely finished
d. apple will distribute via iApps
e. developers of other formats will move over to developing for the iPhone where they have just one store to update, pay less commission, and suffer little if any piracy.
f. their customer service is poor
g. they can’t compete with iApps in any way shape or form
The list is endless. Whilst you may not like Handango, when they go bust a few developers may go with them which is a shame.
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