Ovi Store Reporting Webinar / Q&A

[bill.volpe]

Hi All,

Here is a direct link to the Ovi Store Reporting Webinar with Darrell Demakes:

http://forumnokia.emea.acrobat.com/p12974318/


WEBINAR Q&A Sessions (1 & 2) – FOR FORUM NOKIA

Q. What other details will be provided to publisher?
A. We expect to add additional details and enhancements to Publisher Reports in the future, including the ability to download reports via Excel. We’ll keep you posted on the release timing of those enhancements

Q. Do I have to log in to get access? Is there an API?
A. Publishers need to log into reports using their publisher ID. Currently there is not an API that allows report exports. We will be offering in a future release, the option to download reports via Excel.

Q. When will we be able to access the reporting tool?
A. Reporting is scheduled to be released end of this week.

Q. When will I get paid?
A. The first payments to publishers will be released at the end of October, then every 90 days (January 30, 2010, April 30, 2010, July 30, 2010, and October 30, 2010).

Q. What if I my publisher revenue doesn’t reach the minimum of 500 euros per quarter?
A. At the end of each fiscal year, which is in Nokia’s case currently the calendar year, all accounts with balances under 500 Euros will be paid out in full.

Q. What if I don’t earn 500 Euros by the end of October?
A. If you earn 300 Euros before the end of October 2009, and then earn 300 euros before the end of January 2010, you would receive 600 Euros by the end of January 2010. – This is based on the actual revenues earned, not the estimated revenue.

Q. Why won’t we be paid on a monthly basis?
A. As per the Publisher Terms & Conditions, we pay publishers on a 90 day cycle. That said, we reserve the right to increase the frequency and are exploring that option.

Q. Is the 500 Euro threshold based on estimated or actual revenue?
A. The 500 Euro threshold is based on actual revenue.

Q. Is there any off line way to reconcile the “unresolved” as it’s potentially going to infringe licenses for content?
A.. The “Unresolved” metric shown in the reports has no bearing on your content licensing or infringement of your licenses. Here’s why. The delivery of content in Ovi Store to a Nokia user is keyed off of the device MCC, which ensures content targeted to a specific geography is delivered only to people located in the correct targeted locale. Now in terms of the reporting system, which keys off of IP addresses, there may from time to time be IP addresses which are not mapped correctly to a geography. The result in those instances is that a download would appear in the report as “unresolved.” There is no license infringement because again, the targeted content was still served to the right user in the right locale.

Q. Will you have statistics for all products broken down by product?
A. We are exploring future enhancements to Ovi Store reports that would include breakouts by product type

Q. Can we download reports in other formats than excel this fall?
A. Excel is the first format we will be providing for downloading reports. We are investigating other output formats as well.

Q. Will there be any option to receive some of the users input of the actual users who made a purchase? This is helpful for support purposes and also notify users about new updates of the app in the future?
A. User inputs (feedback) in the form of “Star” ratings and “Reviews” are available for viewing from the mobile client and web experiences on the application details pages.

Q. Sorry I missed the beginning of the Webinar but I would like to know how what payment methods are supported and how is the revenue paid out? And reporting requirements from several leading licensors?
A. Supported payment methods currently include credit card and operator billing (where applicable). Payouts are made in Euros, on a 90 day cycle, by wire to your stated business bank account.

Q. Will breakdown by operator be available?
A. Breakdown by operator is not currently available.

Q. How do you get information on paid advertising?
A. If you have paid advertising running within your application, you will need to contact you ad server business representative directly.

Q. How can we push on getting the queries answered by OVI team, especially on publishing?
A. The Ovi support team is working hard to maintain a high level of service. That said, there may be times when circumstances surrounding your inquiry can cause a delay in response time. Please know the service team will get back to you as soon possible.

Q. How many new applications are you currently receiving or publishing per day?
A. We have no specifics to share at this time, though the pace of submissions has increased dramatically since launch.

Q Will user details be available such as user email address or similar?
A. We do not share user information (email addresses or similar).

Q. Will we receive an email to let us know when reporting is available?
A. Reporting will be available Friday, July 10, 2009.

[bill.volpe]

Q. We have a few titles which show a “pending” status for long time and we are awaiting answers on it.
A. Specific questions about your content should be addressed directly to “Contact Us” on the Ovi Publish Support Page.

Q. What payment methods are supported?
A. Consumer payment methods in Ovi Store include credit card and mobile operator billing (available in specific locales).

Q. What is the % difference between free applications and paid-for apps on Ovi?
A. We have no specifics to share on this at this time.

Q. Will any taxes be deducted from the revenue before paying it out? Like personal income tax?
A. No. Deduction of income tax from the publisher revenue share is the publisher’s responsibility.

Q. How do I know how much operators will charge? Is it possible that the costs exceed the revenues?
A. Operator fees are fixed based on the price of your content which is determined by you as the publisher. Please refer to your Publisher Terms and Conditions agreement.

Q. Charts have proven to be great marketing/awareness tools. When will we start to see Ovi charts?
A. We are looking at ways of enhancing our reporting capability in future releases, charts being one of them under consideration.

Q. If we have only free programs will we get download Statistics?
A. Yes. You’ll get reporting specific to your content regardless of whether your app is paid or not.

Q. How are user comments/reviews moderated?
A. Comments are moderated and users can report issues by clicking the “Report Issue” button. When clicked, users are asked why they think the comment should be reviewed. Choices include; Obscenity, Violence, Abuse, Spam, Fraud, Racism, or other. There is an email form and a notes field where users can provide more details.

Q. Is there a mechanism to save a particular period of sales figures + any comparison tools e.g. between 2 months so if a price is changed between months we can see any increase/decrease in sales/estimated revenue?
A. Not currently. There will be Excel output in a subsequent release that will allow publishers to manipulate their sales data as needed.

Q. Does Ovi Store support any subscription products/models?
A. Subscription models are not supported at this time. Additional business models may be added in the future.

Q. Will you include more operators in following months?
A. More operators will be added in the coming months.

Q. Will you provide some tools to help visibility of our apps on the store? Which one?
A. We will have a webinar in the future to discuss marketing opportunities.

Q. Can a developer view reports in currencies other than Euros?
A. No, currently reports are only available in Euros.

Q. Are others allowed access to the publisher login - CP manager or all of the enrolled persons?
A. Only the CP Manager will have access to reports, not CP Developer.

Q. Will Paypal be available as a payment method?
A. No. Paypal is not currently supported. We are looking into additional payment methods and will keep you informed as those develop.

Q. How do we calculate tax - based on buyer's sales tax law?
A. Tax charged to the end user is based on the country in which the device is charged for purchase.

Q. Can we remove user comments that are inaccurate?
A. You can click on “Report Issue” button next to the comment. There you will be asked why you think the comment should be reviewed. Choices include; Obscenity, Violence, Abuse, Spam, Fraud, Racism, or other. There is an email field and a notes field as well.

Q. Does the seller need to calculate sales tax or does system do it automatically?
A. The system calculates sales tax automatically.

Q. Are we gonna have on Friday the total stats from the beginning of the publication? What about monthly?
A. Cumulative stats will be available from when your content launched, with a rolling 7+day sum as well as monthly Publisher and Content Item summary.

Q. If I have a paid content item can a user in a country that has free content only see and or download that content item for free?
A. In a country that allows only free content, Nokia serves only free content.

Q. How does an app get Ovi recommended or Featured status?
A. We plan to have a webinar on marketing opportunities in the near future, and we’ll let you know when that will take place.

Q. Does Ovi outsource payments to developers to an aggregator or is it done directly between Nokia and Developer?
A. Payment is handled directly by Nokia.

Q. Can we have different kinds of graphics?
A. We are exploring other ways to present information and graphics in reporting.

Q. If apps support multiple languages, is there any info about which territories are consuming content? Presumably at some point there will be ability to have different price points e.g. China vs Europe as/when China comes online.
A. Currently we are not sharing any aggregated data for territories. In terms of having different price points for different markets, that is something we are looking into and hope to have a mechanism to allow that to happen soon.

Q. Why does an Ovi visitor need to register in order to download free content? Doesn't it turn-off many?
A.The registration process ensures we can contact and communicate with our end-users on an on-going basis.

Q. Premium SMS billing is it available?
A. Premium SMS billing is not available at this time, but we are looking into it as a possible payment method in the future.

Q. Do I see downloads per device?
A. In the Monthly Item summary, you will see the percentage of downloads by device for the month.

Q. Does the 500 Euro threshold take into account all content items for a publisher in aggregate?
A. All content items in aggregate for the Publisher.

Q. What other fees are extracted from my share?
A. Your bank may charge a wire fee and/or currency exchange fee. The rev share is paid in Euros to your bank by wire.

Q. Will I be paid in my local currency? Can I be paid by check?
A. Nokia will pay in Euros to a Bank account only. We do not offer payment by check.

Q. Are taxes taken out by Nokia?
A. As of now, Nokia has the ruling from the Finnish tax authorities that Nokia does not need to collect the tax from the publishers. We do not report the taxes, but if audited Nokia will provide all the payouts to authorities. You are responsible as a publisher for all applicable taxes.

Q. Why to you need my tax ID?
A. To uniquely identify who you are as a publisher.

Q. Do we have an actual time/day of reporting going live?
A. Reporting will go live by the end of this week. We are rolling out a very large-scale release to Ovi Publish and it is hard to pin point when the actual functionality will be visible after release.

Q. How many downloads has Ovi Store had? Will I see overall Ovi Store numbers in some dashboard?
A. We are not publishing aggregated download numbers at this point. Ovi Publish reporting is provided as a tool you can use to guide your business on Ovi Store.

Q. Will there be reporting on purchases generated from deep links?
A. At this time purchases are tracked in aggregate.

Q. How extensible is the reporting for adding new business models (advertising, subscription, micro-payments, etc.)?
A. Should Ovi Store launch additional business models in the future, we will look to provide reporting to support those models.

Q. Will you reimburse me for bank wire fees?
A. Banking fees are part of your cost of doing business on Ovi Store.

Q. Will I be able to see the break out between credit card and operator purchases?
A. The payment mechanism is not currently part of the reporting tool, but we are investigating those alternatives and will post them when they become available.

Q. When will you resolve unresolved downloads?
A. The Unresolved metric is a reporting issue only that has to do with unmapped IP addresses that change from time to time, and therefore are not always resolvable.
Q. Why in the example report are there 3 paid and 2 free but the ranked list of paid content only lists one paid item? Is this because your item may have passed QA, but not be purchased? Or that it’s is visible in the store, but no one has purchased?
A. The reason for this that the item is in the store but has not generated any downloads/purchases. The reports only provide data on items visible within the Store.

Q. What percentage of sales slippage occurs – ie – what is the retio of content is downloaded but not purchased?
A We are in the early stages of the service and therefore do not yet have that data from our billing partners. We have a team dedicated to yield management that works to mitigate sales slippage. The system seeks to get authorization from billing providers before authorizing the download; however, in some cases it is not received before the download is sent.

Q. My application took a long time to get through QA. It’s not my fault that my app isn’t selling. What is Nokia going to do about that?
A. Ovi Store is always looking to improve its processes and will do its best at ensuring the best possible experience for publishers.

Q. What counts as a download – when the file starts downloading or when it finishes?
A For most Nokia device platforms downloads are recorded upon completed delivery. We are in the process of correcting a variance where in some instances, downloads are counted as download requests. We will keep you posted on when this will be fixed.