Consumer profiling for the online-mobile
gaming industry with respect to the youth
(15-24 year olds)
Co-authors:
Hitesh Vij
Muskaan Chuttani
Lakshay Buttan
Lakshay Meeena
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The success and final outcome of this research required a lot of guidance and
assistance from our mentors and we are extremely privileged to have got this
all along the completion of our research. All that we have done is only due to
such supervision and assistance and we would not forget to thank them.
We respect and thank Dr. Preeti Rajpal Singh, for providing us an opportunity
to do the research on Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming
industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years) and giving us all the support
and guidance, which made us complete the research duly. We are extremely
thankful to her for providing such a nice support and guidance.
We are thankful and fortunate enough to get constant encouragement, support
and guidance from our parents and friends which helped us in successfully
completing our research report.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
4
INTRODUCTION
5
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
6
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
6
RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
7
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
7
ANALYSIS
10
FINDINGS AND RESULTS
20
LIMITATIONS
28
CONCLUSION
29
REFERENCES
31
QUESTIONNAIRE
32
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Abstract
With the rise in the internet, users across the globe proliferated. With this surge,
online gaming achieved a new milestone every year. Players of all ages and
every nationality compete against each other be it on arcade or console games.
These gamers have become abstract with their uncanny usernames and thus it
becomes impossible to research about them and collect worthwhile statistics for
gaming companies. Thus it has become very important to investigate further in
this domain. Many games also invoice for their premium services and thus it
has become profitable for these companies. Furthermore, it would be
advantageous for these companies if they could find definite data on the
consumer profiles, the time they devote and their outlays.
We have conducted research with an aim of consumer profiling of mobile online
gamers. This research paper intends to investigate the consumer decisionmaking process of youth-(Target Population-(15-24 years)) with respect to
mobile online games by using the methodology of questionnaire analysis and
literature review. The centre of attention of this research paper revolves around
the factors influencing the decisions of youth gamers. This research paper
incorporates the major pros and cons of mobile online games that play a crucial
role in consumer profiling.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Introduction
As everyone knows, the rapid development of the Internet gave birth to the
popularization of mobile Internet. Mobile Internet has gradually penetrated into
people's lives, work, entertainment and other fields. Mobile phone games, videos,
animations, social intercourses, readings and other applications of mobile Internet
have developed rapidly. With mobile phone games as a representative, the
communication content of new entertainment media is profoundly changing the
entertainment life of people in the information age. Through tortuous application of
mobile terminals in previous years, mobile games finally ushered in the well jet
development in the mobile Internet era.
The online gaming industry is on an all-time high in India. The gaming market in India,
where a third of its population belonging to Gen-Z, is expected to grow to $3 billion by
2023 from the current $1.2 billion.1 Currently, India has around 365 million mobile
gamers and their numbers are expected to grow rapidly.In 2019 the average time
spent per day gaming by a such a person who regularly plays games was found to be
3 hours per day.3 Several studies, literature reviews, and meta-analyses have focused
on the correlation of problematic video gaming, usually assessed as a continuum with
addiction marking the upper end of the scale2. In addition to looking at problematic
video game use and its relation to psychological functioning, it is relevant to also focus
on why individuals play video games. Players use video games for very different
reasons such as to distract themselves from daily hassles or because they enjoy the
social relationships they have developed in the virtual world.
In the present study, our objective is to examine the relation between mobile gaming
and its users in a fine-grained manner. In India, the youth population(15-24years)
comprises one-fifth of India’s population. This study will help us in making potentially
valid generalizations about video gaming and allows us to examine the spectrum of
gaming habits and the respective relations between such habits and a diverse set of
variables representing the general consumers.
The main objective behind this research will be profiling the online mobile gamers and
quantifying the qualitative aspects. We will mainly focus on the mobile-online gamers
and study about the time they spend, their expenses on the purchase of games or inapp services. We will collect data from various secondary sources and will conduct a
comprehensive survey through questionnaires from the targeted population. Further,
we will categorise the data into various fragments and apply various parametric and
non-parametric tests.
Through this research, we aim to gain insights about the market of online-mobile
gaming and will draw some insights about the industry.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Background
Games format4
a. Pre-loaded/Offline purchase channel: Such games for downloaded on the
user’s device
b. Browser Based: These games are accessible on websites, can be accessed on
browser
c. App Based: User downloads such games using an app distribution store and
these usually work in the form of an app.
2 Playing Formats5
a. Single Player: The users plays the game with pre-decided story line against computer
without the involvement of any other human
b. Multiplayer: More than one person plays simultaneously in same environment
c. Massively Multi-player: Large number of gamer(s) (hundreds/ thousands) play
1
simultaneously in same environment
3
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
4
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Genre Segmentation of Games6
Puzzle: Tests the gamers problem-solving skills and involves in-game puzzles
Action: Physical challenges including eye hand coordination and reaction time
Strategy: The users’ decision making skills have a high impact on the outcome of the
game. The user has to develop strategies and make decisions to overcome challenges
posed in the game
Adventure: These are interactive story based based involving the gamer as the protagonist
of the game story
Arcade: These are meant to be ‘for fun games’ with progressive difficulty levels and
intuitive control schemes
Sports: Such games simulate different real life sports such football, cricket,etc
Revenue Models for online Games7
Pay-per-purchase:
Upfront payment to download the game
Freemium:
Free download but charges for the access to the certain products in the game
or for full access of the game
In-app purchases:
It consists of a ‘virtual currency’ of the game that enables the users to
purchase certain products or gain access to certain parts of the game. Users
pay to purchase this virtual currency
Subscriptions:
There is a subscription charge to gain the access to the game. The subscription
might be monthly, quarterly,half-yearly or yearly
In-app advertisement:
Advertisements are placed in the game in the form of banners or videos, works
on revenue per click model
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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f) In-game product or brand placement: Revenue is earned from brands who pay for
placing their product in the games
Objective of the research
The objective of the research is to determine the market characteristics of the
mobile gaming industry in India with respect to youth gamers.
1. To construct a consumer profile that will contain (but not limited to) the
following characteristics:
a. Category of games preferred the most
b. Average expenditure on mobile games in a month
c. Time spent playing the game(s) per day
d. How affected do they feel with the habit of gaming
e. Their views on the future of gaming in India, and do they look at
gaming as a tool of recreation or a prospect of potential future
employment
2. To segment the online mobile gaming market further (based on different
genres of the mobile-games available and different revenue models)
3. To identify the major mobile-games development companies and the
emerging entrants.
Research Questions
1. Is there any relationship between time spent on online mobile gaming
and age?
2. Is there any relationship between time spent on online mobile gaming
and gender?
3. Is there any relationship between time spent on online mobile gaming
and profession?
4. Is there any relationship between average monthly expenditure on
online mobile gaming and income?
5. Is there any relationship between average monthly expenditure on
online mobile gaming and gender?
6. What are consumer preferences towards playing different genres of
mobile games?
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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7. What is the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on consumer expenditure
habits on mobile gaming
Research Hypothesis
The hypothesis discussed later in this paper are as follows:
H0: The time spent on online mobile gaming is independent of age.
H1: The time spent on online mobile gaming is not independent of age.
H0: The time spent on online mobile gaming is independent of gender.
H1: The time spent on online mobile gaming is not independent of gender.
H0: The time spent on online mobile gaming is independent of profession.
H1: The time spent on online mobile gaming is not independent of profession.
H0: The average monthly expenditure on online mobile gaming is independent
of income.
H1: The average monthly expenditure on online mobile gaming is not
independent of income.
H0: The average monthly expenditure on online mobile gaming is independent
of gender.
H1: The average monthly expenditure on online mobile gaming is not
independent of gender.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Research Methodology
Research Design
The research design that we will be using in this study is the Single CrossSectional Design because it is extremely useful to study current patterns of
behaviour or opinion. It involves looking at data from a population at one specific
point in time. The participants in this type of study are selected based on
particular variables of interest.
These are observational in nature and are known as descriptive research as
this type of research can be used to describe characteristics that exist in a
community. It is often used to make inferences about possible relationships or
to gather preliminary data to support further research and experimentation.
So, the broad reasons due to which we will be using this research design are 1. Our study is taking place at a single point in time.
2. Cross-sectional designs generally use survey techniques to gather
data which are relatively inexpensive and take up little time to conduct.
3. It allows us to look at numerous characteristics at once (age, income,
gender, etc.).
4. It can provide information about what is happening in the current
population.
Data Collection Method
We have used primary data collection technique for our research most
preferably a self-administered questionnaire8 with close-ended questions to
arrive at figures to be calculated statistically. This method was executed by
employing online platforms to send the questionnaire and receive responses.
Sampling Method - Convenience non-random sampling was used as a sampling
method
The data was collected from respondents aged between 15 years to 24 years
since the study was specifically concerned with the youth population (i.e people
between the age of 15 to 24) of gamers
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Response Rate - The Response rate is 100% as none of responses that were
received were incomplete or invalid
Data Analysis
The information for this research paper was mainly accumulated through the
primary and secondary sources of data. We used a self-administered
questionnaire as a primary source to gather the salient data for this research
paper.
1. Test of Independence9: This is a non-parametric hypothesis testing
technique. The test helps the researcher to identify if a relationship exists
between two variables. However, the test cannot be effectively employed
to determine casual relationships.
2. Pie-Chart Analysis: It involves calculating the percentage of different
categories against their cumulative percentage. This helps the
researcher to compare the proportion of different options or categories
against the cumulative.
3. Bar-Chart- A bar chart involves totalling frequencies of different
categories. And gives the researcher a visual representation about how
the frequencies of available categories or options differ.
4. Friedman Test- The Friedman test is the non-parametric alternative to the
one-way ANOVA with repeated measures. It is used to test for differences
between groups when the dependent variable being measured is ordinal.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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ANALYSIS
AGE
Fig.1.1
The above chart illustrates the detailed distributions of age groups among the
participants of the survey. Out of the 52 respondents who took part in the survey
conducted by us, the maximum number of respondents (60%) belonged to the
category of 18-21 years. The majority of the responses are from the age group
18-21 owing to the short time and reach at hand. This is followed by the age
groups comprising 15-17 years (21%).
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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GENDER
Fig 1.2
The above table shows that there is almost a balanced sex ratio with a higher
proportion of males (52%), this incidence is primarily because of a higher
proportion of males among the undergraduate students and the school students
of the target population.
FAMILY ANNUAL INCOME
Fig 1.3
The above chart illustrates the family annual income of the participants of the
survey. Majority of the respondents have family annual income more than 10
lakhs (27%). This is followed by participants who have family annual income
between 7.5 and 10 lakhs. (21%)
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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PROFESSION
Fig 1.4
The above chart illustrates the detailed distributions of the occupations of the
participants of the survey. Out of the 52 respondents who took part in the survey
conducted by us, the maximum respondents were undergraduate students
(65%), followed by school students (21%). The majority of respondents were
undergraduate students because of accessibility and time constraints.
How much time do you devote to mobile gaming daily?
Fig 1.5
The above chart illustrates the time devoted by the participants of the survey on mobile gaming
on a daily basis. Out of the 52 respondents who took part in the survey conducted
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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by us, the maximum number of respondents (86%) devoted 0-2 hours daily on
mobile gaming, followed by the participants (8%) who devoted 2-5 hours daily
on mobile gaming.
Has the time you devote towards mobile gaming changed because of
lockdown during COVID-19 pandemic?
Fig 1.6
When asked if the time they devote towards mobile gaming has changed because of
lockdown during COVID-19 pandemic, Out of the 52 respondents who took part in
the survey, the maximum number of respondents (40%) reported a slight
increase in the time devoted towards mobile gaming has slightly increased
during COVID-19 pandemic, further 29% reported a high increase in the time
they devote daily towards gaming. This indicates that the youth may like to play
games when they get free time out of their routines.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Where do you usually purchase mobile games from?
Fig 1.7
When asked from where do they usually purchase mobile games, Out of the 52
respondents who took part in the survey conducted by us, the maximum number
of respondents (90.4%) reported that they purchased mobile games from
Google Play Store/Apple App Store, followed by the respondents (13.5%) who
reported that they purchased mobile games from Gaming Store Websites.
How do you choose a game to purchase?
Fig 1.8
69.2% of respondents get to know about the games they buy by ‘referencing
from friends’. This indicates word of mouth and popularity plays a decent role in
the success of any mobile game in the Indian market. Also, this may be the
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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result of an emerging multiplayer scenario wherein several people join, in a
virtual space to play together over the internet. The next most popular factors
are- Self research, reading description of games(44%) and Reviews over
Internet by Influencers (32%).
How do you spend money on mobile online games?
Fig 1.9
When asked how they spend their money on mobile online games, 73.1% of
the respondents reported that they do not explicitly spend money on games.
This indicates that free to play games may be more popular amongst the Indian
youth.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Average monthly expenditure on mobile games
Fig 1.10
77% of the respondents don’t spend money on mobile games. This further
indicates that free to download and play mobile game models that may use
advertisements and in-game purchases as a revenue stream may be
increasingly popular.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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How has your expenditure habits on mobile gaming changed during the
COVID-19
pandemic?
Fig 1.11
How do you perceive mobile gaming?
Fig 1.12
84.6% of the respondents perceive mobile gaming just as a hobby while only
5.8% reported that they perceive it as a prospective employment opportunity.
Thus, this indicates that it is just a hobby for most of the respondents and they
don’t have any serious aspirations towards making it their profession
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Have you ever been a part of professional competitive gaming
tournaments?
Fig 1.13
When asked if they ever have been a part of professional competitive gaming
tournaments, a majority of the participants disagreed while close to 21% agreed
with this statement.
In the next 5 years, mobile gaming can become a prospective employment
in India. How strongly do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Fig 1.14
When asked if they felt mobile gaming could become a prospective employment
in India, a majority of the participants agreed while close to 9% disagreed with
this statement. This clearly shows the majority of them are of the view that online
gaming skills might soon help them get a job.
Mobile gaming arouses curiosity to learn new things. How strongly do you
agree or disagree with this statement?
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Fig 1.15
When asked if they felt mobile gaming aroused curiosity to learn new things, a
majority of the participants agreed while close to 15% disagreed with this
statement. This clearly shows the majority of them are of the view that online
games could have great educational potential in addition to their entertainment
value.
FINDINGS AND RESULTS
CHI-SQUARE TEST OF INDEPENDENCE
In order to test if there exists any significant relationship between time spent on
online mobile gaming and various other characteristics of the respondent (Age,
Gender, Profession), we have conducted Chi-square test of independence.
We have also conducted the same test to test if there exists any significant
relationship between average monthly expenditure and income or gender.
Here the level of significance, α is assumed to be 0.05 in all the cases.
H0: The time spent on online mobile gaming and age are independent variables.
H1: The time spent on online mobile gaming and age are not independent variables.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Table 1.1
Here the p-value is equal to 0.001
Since the p-value is less than our chosen significance level (α = 0.05), we reject the null
hypothesis. We conclude that there is enough evidence to suggest an association between time
spent on online mobile gaming and age.
H0: A relationship does not exist between the time devoted to online gaming(on daily
basis) and gender
H1: A relationship exists between the time devoted to online gaming(on daily basis) and
gender
Table 1.2
Here the p-value is equal to 0.527
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Since the p-value is more than our chosen significance level (α = 0.05), we do not reject the
null hypothesis. We conclude that there is not enough evidence to suggest that there is an
association between time spent on online mobile gaming and gender.
H0: A relationship exists does not between mobile gaming and and profession
H1: A relationship exists between mobile gaming and profession
Table 1.3
Here the p-value is equal to 0.173
Since the p-value is more than our chosen significance level (α = 0.05), we do not reject the
null hypothesis. We conclude that there is not enough evidence to suggest an association
between time spent on online mobile gaming and profession.
H0: The average monthly expenditure on online mobile gaming and gender are
independent variables
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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H1: The average monthly expenditure on online mobile gaming and gender are not
independent variables
Table 1.4
Here the p-value is equal to 0.530
Since the p-value is more than our chosen significance level (α = 0.05), we do not reject the
null hypothesis. We conclude that there is not enough evidence to suggest that there is an
association between average monthly expenditure on online mobile gaming and gender.
Thus, the average monthly expenditure on online mobile gaming and gender are independent
variables
H0: The average monthly expenditure on online mobile gaming and annual family income
are independent variables.
H1: The average monthly expenditure on online mobile gaming and annual family income
are not independent variables.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Table 1.5
As, Test statistic calculated> critical value(tabulated). We have enough
evidence to reject the null hypothesis. Thus, Annual Family Income and
Average Monthly Expenditure on games may not be related.
FRIEDMAN TEST
For the respondents who play online games, we created rank based question so as
to rate their preference towards playing different genres of mobile games. The table
below shows the descriptive statistics of the responses. Rank scale from 1 to 5 puts
a rank of 5 to the highly preferred and a rank of 1 to the least preferred.
The Friedman test is the non-parametric alternative to the one-way ANOVA with
repeated measures. It is used to test for differences between groups when the
dependent variable being measured is ordinal.
It is important to note that the Friedman test is an omnibus test, like its parametric
alternative; that is, it tells you whether there are overall differences, but does not
pinpoint which groups in particular differ from each other.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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A broad glance at the Ranks table showing the mean rank reveals that Action is the
most preferred genre of the mobile game while Puzzle is the least preferred of the
same.
Here, we have applied the Friedman test to test whether there is an overall
statistically significant difference between the mean ranks of the related
groups. The Test Statistics table informs of the actual result of the Friedman
test. As we can infer from the Test Statistics table, it has an Asymptotic
Significance of 0.003 which is less than the alpha value of 0.05. Hence, we
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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can see that there is an overall statistically significant difference between the
mean ranks of the related groups.
Limitations
1. The study was conducted on a small sample size of 52 respondents. With
a larger sample size, the results could be more accurate
2. Due to paucity of time and resources the study was limited to the
geographical areas of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and mainly
consisted of undergraduate students thus leading to the respondents
being fairly homogeneous
3. Qualitative research and physical in-depth interview could not be
conducted due to the on-going global pandemic COVID-19
4. A major problem that our survey has faced is that the respondents’ age
has primarily been a part of one category which has resulted in a lot of
redundant data and limited the potential of the research
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Conclusion
The study was conducted keeping in view the emerging practice of online
mobile gaming amongst the youth (age 15-24 years) in India. Because no
such study specifically done for the youth mobile gamers was available in the
public domain most of the data and inputs were collected using primary
research methodologies. The results in relation to the research objective are
as follows:
a. Category of games preferred the most- The most preferred games
genres of games are action, adventure, puzzle and sports
b. Average expenditure on mobile games in a month for the youth is 0200 INR(Indian Rupees)
c. Time spent playing the game(s) per day is between 0-2 hours
d. Has the lockdown in 2020 due to the pandemic affected the gaming
habits of youth- 29% of the respondents reported a high increase and
40% a slight increase in the time spent playing mobile games on a
daily basis
e. Their views on the future of gaming in India, and do they look at
gaming as a tool of recreation or a prospect of potential future
employment- 84.5% of the respondents perceive gaming as a hobby,
4.8% as a prospective of future employment and 9.8% as their passion
f. 69.4% of the respondents play and download a game based on the
references of their friends
g. 70% of the respondents use official app stores like Google Play Store
and Apple app store to download games
h. Most popular model of revenue stream for mobile games is the free to
download and play games wherein the developer uses
advertisements and in-game purchases as a revenue stream
Our results show that time spent on online mobile gaming has an association
with age. However, it is independent of gender and profession of the
respondent.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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We even found out that average monthly expenditure on mobile online gaming
does not have an association with gender and annual family income of the
respondent.
Also, the Friedman test showing the mean rank revealed that Action is the most
preferred genre of the mobile game while Puzzle is the least preferred of the
same.
We could even see that there is an overall statistically significant difference
between the mean ranks of the related groups.
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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References
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Influencing Factors. MATEC Web of Conferences 267, 04010 (2019)
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5. https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/in/pdf/2017/05/onlinegaming.pdf.-Pp 9
6. https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/in/pdf/2017/05/onlinegaming.pdf.-Pp 10
7. https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/in/pdf/2017/05/onlinegaming.pdf.-Pp 11
8. D.Chawla, N. Sondhi, Research Methodology: Concepts and Cases, 2
ed., Vikas Publishing House, India. 2016 pp 202
9. D.Chawla, N. Sondhi, Research Methodology: Concepts and Cases, 2
ed., Vikas Publishing House, India. 2016 pp 455
Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
Questionnaire
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Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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Consumer profiling for the online-mobile gaming industry with respect to the youth (15-24 years).
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