How Angry Birds Set Up Its Online Store with Shopify How digital commerce platform Shopify helped Angry Birds creator Rovio Mobile spread its wings into licensed merchandise sales.
By Jason Ankeny •
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Those birds may be irate--you would be too if evil green pigs stole your eggs--but Angry Birds creator Rovio Mobile is laughing all the way to the bank. With more than 100 million total downloads and 40 million monthly active users, Angry Birds is the signature hit of the mobile app era, spinning off sequels (Angry Birds Rio, a tie-in with the 20th Century Fox animated family feature Rio) and landing Espoo, Finland-based Rovio a $42 million Series A funding round in March 2011.
The worldwide popularity of Angry Birds and the striking character designs of the game's pleasingly plump, fine-feathered heroes made it inevitable that Rovio would expand its flock to include branded merchandise.
"Our strategy was to make a hit app, build the brand and capitalize on that success," says Niklas Kari, Rovio's head of retail.
