Study by German mobile social network says 48 per cent of members occasionally pay for stuff.
Itsmy, run by Gofresh, asked 1,500 users in Europe and North America about their mobile social gaming habits, and found 12 per cent are regular spenders while 40 per cent never pay.
The study would indicate the validity of the prevailing model for social gaming, which is to give it away free and monetise with micro-billing later.
Jukka Saarelainen, CTO of itsmy, believes the games don't need to be high profile. He said: “Only 11 per cent of participants are looking for a well-known brand or title.
Over 60 per cent play games that sound interesting because of their style or story. And this is where our creative in-house mobile browser game studio is prepared to accept the challenge."
The firm opened its gaming unit in January. It has ten original games in the pipeline.