2013 Was a Huge Year for Android Gaming

And paid apps on both Android and iOS are falling deeper into obscurity.

News Byte

Kontagent and PlayHaven Announce Merger, Will Join Player Data and Monetization Products

Mobile app analytics platform Kontagent and business engine PlayHaven will merge, the two companies announced today, with PlayHaven’s ex-CEO Andy Yang at the helm of the combined companies, and Kontagent’s ex-CEO Josh Williams becoming CTO and chairman of the board. In an interview, Yang said the decision was spurred by an “extremely fragmented” mobile B2B market and overlap between the companies’ customers. Over time, Kontagent-PlayHaven will integrate the two companies’ products into one suite.

News Byte

Japan Overtakes U.S. in Apple/Google App Store Revenue

Japan is now the top country worldwide in revenue from Apple’s App Store and Google Play, according to a new report from App Annie. The app analytics company attributed the surprising shift to rapid smartphone adoption over the past year in Japan — where feature phones have held on for longer — and explosive growth in Google Play spending, outpacing global trends due to the availability of carrier billing as an alternative to credit cards.

AllThingsD Week in Review: BlackBerry’s Future and Predictions for Tech in 2014

The Top 10 stories that powered AllThingsD this week, in one convenient post.

Siri Gets Serious, Microsoft Gets Its Mojo Back and Everything Gets Encrypted in 2014

Annual predictions for the year ahead in tech from analyst Mark Anderson.

Greylock Leads $12 Million Round for Big-Data Startup Trifacta

If Big Data is going to be really big, it also has to be useful.

News Byte

Social Startup DataSift Raises $42 Million

DataSift, a U.K.-based social startup that offers analytics services based on aggregate social network data, announced on Tuesday that it raised $42 million in a Series C round of venture funding. The new capital brings the total amount of funds raised to about $70 million.

News Byte

Livefyre Acquires Analytics Startup Realtidbits

Lifefyre, the social commenting platform startup, announced Thursday it had acquired Realtidbits, a San Diego-based analytics startup. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Realtidbits will continue to work as a team based in Southern California. All Realtidbits users will be migrated over to Livefyre’s existing commenting platform, and the Realtidbits analytics software will eventually be offered to Livefyre’s enterprise customers.

In Free-to-Play Games, Having Fewer Players Doesn’t Always Mean Less Money

A quirk of gaming economics that underscores the idea of “games as a service.”

With ThinkUp, Data Geeks Aim to Create the “Quantified Selfie”

A forthcoming app from Anil Dash and Gina Trapani plans to deliver insights into how you use social.

Twitter Acquires Social TV Tracker Trendrr