Drivers for making in-app purchases in mobile games by users in emerging countries

The mobile games industry has become one of the most popular areas of mobile application development over the past five years. In-app purchases (IAP) are extremely valuable for developers/publishers, and they are interested in promoting them to users. However, previous research revealed differences between drivers of IAP for users from various countries. Authors compare drivers of Russian players and other emerging countries users. The design of the study consists of in-depth interviews with Russian users, followed by a quantitative survey that helps to identify the main drivers of in-app purchases. We found differences in the significance and the list of the drivers for Russian players. Cluster analysis allowed us to identify diverse segments with different priorities, so to be successful, game developers should dive into the peculiarities of the behavior of players in a particular country.