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  • Forthcoming
  • Article

Personalized Game Design for Improved User Retention and Monetization in Freemium Games

By: Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer and Julian Runge
One of the most significant levers available to gaming companies in designing digital games is setting the level of difficulty, which essentially regulates the user’s ability to progress within the game. This aspect is particularly significant in free-to-play (F2P)... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Business Model; Customer Focus and Relationships; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Technology Industry
Related
  • 03 Sep 2009
  • What Do You Think?

Are Retention Bonuses Worth the Investment?

a tool . The problem is not the tool, but the user if the company were better run, you wouldn't need to bribe people to stay (but) there are times when the retention bonus is appropriate, such as when a... View Details
Keywords: by Jim Heskett
  • File

(Online Appendix) Personalized Game Design for Improved User Retention and Monetization in Freemium Mobile Games

  • 2025
  • Working Paper

Emotional Manipulation by AI Companions

By: Julian De Freitas, Zeliha Oğuz-Uğuralp and Ahmet Kaan-Uğuralp
AI-companion apps such as Replika, Chai, and Character.ai promise relational benefits—yet many boast session lengths that rival gaming platforms while suffering high long-run churn. What conversational design features increase consumer engagement, and what trade-offs... View Details
Keywords: Generative Ai; Chatbots; Emotional Manipulation; User Retention; Dark Side Of Technology; Consumer Welfare; AI and Machine Learning; Ethics; Consumer Behavior; Emotions; Perception
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  • 01 Mar 2023
  • News

Elevator Pitch: Spread the Wealth

a dual purpose. First, to help companies build loyalty with employees and customers and to introduce individuals to share ownership. In addition to receiving share rewards, Upstreet users can buy shares on the Australian and New York... View Details
Keywords: entrepreneurship; stock ownership; customer rewards; employee retention; financial literacy; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance
  • July 2023
  • Case

Honeycomb

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Kumba Sennaar
Honeycomb, an audio app enabling seniors to record stories and save family memories, suddenly draws interest from a younger user demographic. The co-founders consider pivoting to better serve this new user demographic. How should they think about strategy, brand, and... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Operations; Business Startups; Customer Focus and Relationships; Age; Brands and Branding; Technology Industry; United States
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  • 16 May 2013
  • HBS Seminar

Robert Gierkink, Chairman, Datalogix

  • January 2023
  • Teaching Note

Duolingo: Teaching Languages to the Masses

By: Youngme Moon
Teaching Note for HBS Case 323-016. At the time the case is written, Duolingo is the most popular language learning service in the world. The company has more than 40 million monthly active users, and the company’s total annual revenue has reached $250 million a year.... View Details
Keywords: Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Customer Relationship Management; Acquisition; Retention; Innovation and Invention
Related
  • 17 Sep 2013
  • First Look

First Look: September 17

world's largest online platform for outsourced contracts, where India is the largest country in terms of contract volume. We use an ethnic name procedure to identify ethnic Indian users of oDesk in other countries around the world. We... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 29 Aug 2023
  • News

Helping Consumers Decarbonize their Purchases

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Hi, this is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck. In this episode, we’re going to be highlighting an episode of another HBS podcast: Climate Rising, which focuses on what businesses are doing, can do, and should do... View Details
  • Web

Data Storage - Research Computing Services

location for storing and doing collaborative work on research storage, including HBS and guest user accounts. This is in contrast to home folders, which are accessible only by the account holder. Both home folders and project spaces are... View Details
  • Web

Privacy Policy & Legal Info | HBS Online

review our additional privacy disclosures that may apply to you. INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT AND FROM WHOM We collect information, including personal data, when you sign up for a user account, download an application, participate in our... View Details
  • 16 Aug 2010
  • Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Introduces Marketing Analysis Tools for Managers

technique. Also included in each toolkit is a spreadsheet supplement that contains sample problems; interactive graphs and tables that illuminate the concept visually; and a prebuilt Excel model that guides users in conducting... View Details
Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert
  • 16 Nov 2010
  • First Look

First Look: November 16, 2010

that acquisitions can build competitive advantage partially through retention of valuable human capital of the target firm. However, making commitments to retain and motivate successful top managers is a challenge when contracts are not... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 11 Sep 2000
  • Research & Ideas

Riding the Internet Fast Track

Finally, if the ease of customer retention is high, early investment in customer acquisition can pay dividends over a longtime horizon. For example, Web users find changing Internet service providers a... View Details
Keywords: by Peter Jacobs
  • Web

RCS Policies - Research Computing Services

http://vpr.harvard.edu/ . Our computing infrastructure is a shared resource, supporting concurrent access by many users. As a result, RCS must enforce some basic guidelines for behavior and interaction to provide each user with the... View Details
  • 21 May 2007
  • Research & Ideas

Fixing the Marketing-CEO Disconnect

aren't very helpful. Indeed, popular metrics such as customer satisfaction, acquisition, and retention have turned out to be very poor indicators of customers' true perceptions or the success of marketing activities. Often, they're... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne
  • 25 Aug 2022
  • News

Case Study: Sound Check

improved long-term retention rates. In the early days, it’s best to optimize for product feedback. If it’s easier to sell to smaller customers (with more volume), stick with this segment and treat the feedback as gold. Rapidly iterate... View Details
Keywords: Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services
  • 22 Aug 2017
  • First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 23

forget more than 80% of the information they were taught within 90 days. To increase retention and effectiveness, companies should offer reps additional training at times of need, provide them with access to supplemental material that... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 01 Dec 2022
  • News

Case Study: Your Call Is Important to Us

by research. We know that the quality of the voice is a big driver in how much the end user enjoys the experience,” he says. The solution started to take shape during Sambvani’s tenure at Spotify, where he worked as a data scientist just... View Details
Keywords: Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Professional Services