Handango Revises CDA, Says “Screw You” to Developers

By on Feb 16, 2008 at 6:49 AM
Exclusive February 16, 2008

Handango has just issued a revised Content Distribution Agreement (CDA) that we’ve managed to get our hands on ahead of the pack. Long story short, there are going to be a whole lot of pissed off developers come Monday morning. In terms of reach and volume, Handango is currently the biggest name in the game when it comes to mobile payware distribution. They are not however, the only game in town. Alternative distributors are gaining ground and in the coming year we’ll be seeing even more and better options emerging. As we begin to enter a period of transition, this is not the move that Handango wanted to make. Under the terms of the new CDA that goes into effect on March 15, Handango has bumped its take up from 40% to 50% of gross revenue up to $250K. A quarter-mil! We’d like to know exactly how many developers shuffle $250,000 worth of apps through Handango. Rest assured, the number is pretty close to zero. Not that further figures will actually apply to anyone, but developers will take home 60% of revenue on gross sales from $250,001 – $1,000,000 and 70% of gross over a million. Developers will find this new CDA in their inboxes over the next few days, attached to a cheery email about what a great year 2007 was for the mobile software market. They will then be asked to bend over…

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  • Anon

    Is anyone else struggling to get replies or royalty payments from Handango? My emails to my contacts are getting bounced and I haven’t been paid this month :0(

  • http://www.bgr.com Zach Epstein

    Sounds right – par for the course. All you can do unfortunately is to keep emailing partners-at-handango.com until they decided to escalate it to someone who can actually help you…

  • Anon

    I just checked my last few payments after reading the above. Sure enough, I now seem to be getting around 25%. Not sure what the options are but it doesn’t appear to be worthwhile anymore. Is the 25% correct or is it an error?

  • ItsMe

    Same issue here – tried contacting Handango and they haven’t been able to explain. They promised updated royalty reports 3 months ago and are still unable to deliver them. Handango is a sinking Titanic, run away while you still can!!

  • Anon

    Alternatives:

    Pocketgear
    Pocketland
    Handster
    Mobihand
    Clickgamer
    Clickapps
    PDASSI

    Any more that you can think of?

  • phobos

    Handango is in deep financial crisis, they have no money to pay developers their royalties and are desperately looking for more investors but that is unlikely to happen. I am aware of many independent software producers who have not been full paid or paid at all in the last 6 months. Handango is playing tricks with payments, royalty reports and discounts to delay its death. If Handango owns you money I would suggest you to do your best to get paid before Handango announces bankruptcy like ipaqchoice.com did some time ago.

  • http://handmark.com Renee

    Don’t forget handmark.com

  • http://www.animion.com Benny7500

    phobos, You mean tricks like this?

    This is part of royalty report for Nov 2008:
    Totals for Product: 239344: Aurora luxury clock
    Total Qty. Sold: 3
    Total Extended Price: $8.97
    Royalty Amount Due: $-180.03
    Commission Due: $0.00
    Withholding Amount: $0.00
    Total Due: $-180.03

    What to hell does it mean? There was no answer from Handango till now. Does some developer the same problems?

  • Fed Up

    Has anybody else been short changed my Handango this month? I got a royalty payment for 9% of sales :0(

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