question: How do free apps that give out thousands of dollars everyday (such as HQ Trivia) get the money, and make money?
comment: Originally it was venture capital. But with all of their tie-in events, a lot of it is coming from advertisers.
passages: HQ Trivia
  
  HQ (also known as HQ Trivia, Sports and Words) is an app and mobile trivia game, released on August 26, 2017, for iOS and later for Android on December 31, 2017. Players can play for free in daily trivia games through which they can win or split prize money. HQ was developed by Vine creators Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll.
   HQ Trivia has partnered with Nike, Wendy's, Warner Bros. and other organisations to promote products and movies such as "Rampage", "" and "The Lego Movie 2". Special modes of game-play have included formats such as "Winner Takes All" and "The 100".
   HQ Trivia takes the form of a live game show, which usually airs daily at 9PM US Eastern Time, with another show at 3PM US Eastern on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In 2018, the app broadcast games in Germany, Australia, and the U.K.
   KamaGames’ audience ranges from mobile, to social networks and to players who play the games on Smart TVs. To further expand its reach, KamaGames has partnered with social networks VK.com, Facebook and with the Viber and the Tango messaging services.
  
  At the end of 2018 the company reported revenue of $76.4m, an increase of +33% when compared to their 2017 figures. This marked the third year of consecutive growth for the company and led to KamaGames reaching the 120 million player milestone in 2018.
  
  Section::::Product timeline.
  
  Pokerist Texas Poker
   On May 31, 2018, HQ introduced HQ Sports, a spinoff game in which players answer sports trivia questions. HQ Sports is hosted by Lauren Gambino, co-host of the fantasy football web show "Offsides". HQ Sports is usually played every Monday and Wednesday at 8:00 pm ET. The standard top prize for HQ Sports shows is $1,000.
  
  Section::::Games.:HQ Words.
   Section::::Incubation.
  
  Through the company’s technopreneurship program, O&B incubated the Google Maps-based real estate search site, Haybol.ph in 2010, founded by O&B employees Edge Dalmacio and Lorenzo Dee.
  
  O&B also incubated Kandroid, an Android application developed by MilObjects Software, that is "a simple application used to visualize and control personal tasks." This application can be downloaded from Google Play.
   The Best Mobile App Awards recognised Pokerist Texas Poker as one of the best games of 2013 in their 2013 Overall Awards Platinum Award in the Card and Casino category. 
  
  KamaGames was nominated for the Best Social Operator award for social gaming at the EGR Operator Awards for 2 years running in 2016 and 2017 and won the Innovation in Social Casino at the EGR Marketing and Innovation awards in 2018.
   Sokikom has won multiple awards for its math games and its business successes. Sokikom received a 2011 BESSIE Award from ComputED Gazette, recognizing Sokikom's multiplayer math games in the category Best for Early Elementary Students.
   "Goat Simulator" has performed well on Amazon Underground, leading "Wired" writer Brian Barrett to argue that the lack of need for payment may make the app particularly appealing to children, for whom even a small amount of money requires parental consent.
   Its funding method is different from Kickstarter and Indiegogo, and the company claims it isthe only one of its type in the world. Instead of offering products or souvenirs to contributors, entrepreneurs, investors and Play Business enter into a contract, with investors offered equity and say in the running of the start up. This percentage is between nine and eleven percent of the total value of the company. The model is called crowdequity rather than crowdfunding.
   The partnership involves the development of a standalone Poker Night in America app, developed and published under the KamaGames banner. The app is available to download from the iOS App Store and Google Play.
  
  In March 2018, KamaGames announced a comprehensive update to coincide with the new season of Poker Night in America introducing a host of new features and additional games to the app.
  
  Yoozoo games, Poker Champions and the Indian Market
  
  KamaGames partnered with Asian developer and publisher Yoozoo games for the release of Poker Champions into the Indian market in January 2018.
   Some large established video games developers are acquiring small operators to capitalize on the social gaming industry. The Walt Disney Company purchased social game developer Playdom for $763.0 million, and Electronic Arts purchased PopCap Games for $750.0 million in July 2011.
  
  Section::::Criticism.
   When Zynga first launched Texas Hold’em on the then new Facebook platform, the company relied on free distribution of its product to millions of users. Only later did the company start to spend money on marketing its products. In 2017 developing a paid user base took priority over new user acquisition. According to one analyst, Zynga can either fund the creation of new games to attract new users, or it can buy smaller games studios with new games which will bring in new customers.
  
  Section::::Business model.:Platinum Purchase Program.
   HQ is available worldwide on the iOS App Store and Google Play, with live shows targeted to North American, UK, German and Australian audiences. Average numbers of participants range from 100,000 to 300,000, and with over 500,000 concurrent players every Sunday. The app's record high of concurrent players was 2.38 million in March 28, 2018. According to the HQ Trivia Australia Twitter, the final game aired on August 9, 2018, just 12 days after the first show aired on July 25, 2018. HQ Germany (translated from HQ Trivia Deutschland in German) announced their last game on August 11, 2018. Finally, HQ Trivia UK announced a break as they prepared for HQ Words on December 5, 2018.
   Section::::Business model.
  
  Zynga uses a “free-to-play” business model. Revenue is acquired via direct credit card payments and partner businesses. It sells in-game virtual goods as people play its games; supports in-game advertising, and it has banner advertising around its game portals.
   The game also includes in-game advertisements to monetize on users that don’t spend money into the game.
  
  While the game includes freemium content, just like Candy Crush, 97.7% of people playing the game are playing for free, while only 2.3% pay.
  
  Section::::Gameplay.:Passing episodes.
   In December 2018, HQ Trivia launched another game called HQ Words, a word puzzle game in the style of "Wheel of Fortune". Players first spin a wheel to receive a free letter which automatically appears for them if it is in a specific puzzle. Players are then given a series of 12 puzzles in which they fill in letters to complete the word or short sentence. Initially, if players entered 3 letters wrong in a puzzle, they were eliminated from the game. Beginning on February 13, 2019, HQ Words began allowing 10 incorrect letter choices across all the game's puzzles. By April 2019, it has changed to 5 strikes plus one for each level the player has attained in the current HQ season. The prize has ranged from $1,000 to $10,000. HQ Words is usually hosted by comedian Anna Roisman, but has been guest hosted by Matt Richards, Timothy Dunn, and Neil Patrick Harris.
   Section::::Results & challenges.
  
  Some contest winners have gone on to become viable companies. For example, MyCityWay, was a contest winner in 2010. MyCityWay subsequently raised venture capital funding from FirstMark Capital and IA Ventures, as well as a strategic investment from BMW. Embark NYC, the mass transit application which won Best Mobility App in the NYC BigApps 3.0 competition, received investment from BMW i Ventures in 2012 and was acquired by Apple in 2013.
   In 2005 a game studio was established with a team of employees from PC and console backgrounds to develop AAA native C++ based mobile games. The company has subsequently brought both original and franchise-based games for publishers to market, receiving awards, for their content.
   Moblier was one of the earliest companies in Korea to approach the new iPhone App Store platform after its introduction in July 2008. Because the iPhone wasn't available in Korea at the time of the company's inception and a game category wasn't introduced to the Korean App Store until 2011, the company initially targeted an international audience.
   As these product placement deals are non-standard, they are largely charged with a production fee, which can be $350,000 to $750,000 depending on the type of placement and the popularity of the game.
  
  Section::::Advertising.:Lead generation offers.
  
  Another form of advertising that is prevalent in many social games are lead generation offers. In this form of advertising, companies, usually from different industries, aim to convince players to sign up for their goods or services and in exchange, players will receive virtual gifts or advance forward in the game as a reward.
  
  Section::::Advertising.:Sponsorship.
  
  Section::::Advertising.:Sponsorship.:White label games.
   Section::::Acquisition.
   After two rounds of scoring by an official panel of judges, one Nigerian app and two Kenyan apps emerged winners of the competition. Nigeria's Afrinolly app emerged a winner in the Entertainment/Media/Games category, awarded $25,000 to help them build and grow their business.
  
  In March 2012, IT News Africa; a Technology News Leader in Africa listed Afrinolly at one of the Top Ten African Mobile Apps describing it as "well designed, loads quickly, easy to navigate and an African version of IMDB.
   The company's first original IP release was the Rubik's Cube inspired puzzle game, The Quest, on iOS and Android. This was followed closely by a win in the TIGA £100k competition, allowing the team to develop a prototype for an aerial combat game.
  
  From here, Guerilla Tea established a relationship with DC Thomson and developed a number of web-based mini-games to tie in the Beano and Dandy brands, along with a prank collection app called Beano iPrank.
   BULLET::::- Mob4Hire is a mobile testing and market research community. They list over 1,100 developers in 86 countries and more than 45,000 testers on 350 carriers in 150 countries. The company won a Meffy award from the Mobile Entertainment Forum for "Most Innovative Business Model".
  