Tequila Mobile SA

Abstract

Wojciech Woziwodzki, co-founder, president & CEO of Tequila Mobile SA, a mobile gamers developer, publisher and service provider, had to make some important strategic decisions. Tequila Mobile SA had already decided to shift to a new "free2play" revenue model but needed to decide whether to focus on building its business in markets where penetration of smartphone devices was high and the economy was developed, or in markets where the use of mobile devices was taking off but the economy was still developing. The other critical decision was whether to continue to invest in in-house game development or focus on being a platform providing tools for third-party developers. The mobile game industry had exploded in recent years with the introduction of smartphones, application (app) stores, and cell phone penetration into developing economies. It brought with it a significant increase in the number of mobile games being developed and published, and Woziwodzki wanted to differentiate Tequila Mobile SA from the growing number of players in the quickly-evolving industry.

Learning Objective: To teach students about the competitive strategies of multi-sided platforms (MSPs) through analysis of strategic interactions on business models -- specifically how strategic decisions influence a firm's business model and how an analysis of a business model helps to support strategic decisions making.