Game Monetization Trend
In Southeast Asia
- Casual Connect Asia 2012 -
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Presentation Summary
•
Southeast Asia market summary.
•
Expanding gamers demographic.
•
Shift in value chain in online game business.
•
Challenges in building global online game business
•
Q & A.
Southeast Asia Market Summary
Countries Summary
INDONESIA
• Population:
245 million
• Internet Users:
55 million (22.4% penetration)
• Facebook Users:
43.5 million (4th largest in the world)
• Majority of users access the Internet through mobile.
• Blackberry is No 1 smart phone in the country.
• Growing numbers of China SDK & low end Android Phone.
• Online FPS game Point Blank is still highly popular .
• Top 3 local publishers: Lyto, Kreon & Megaxus.
Countries Summary
PHILIPPINES
• Population:
101.8 million
• Internet Users:
29.7 million (29.2% penetration)
• Facebook Users:
27.7 million (8th largest in the world)
• 80% of household are unbanked.
• Low ARPU and users dependent on school allowance.
• iCafe centric distribution channels.
• Growing trend in peer to peer distribution channel.
• English speaking gamers.
Countries Summary
THAILAND
• Population:
66.7 million
• Internet Users:
18.3 million (27.4% penetration)
• Facebook Users:
14.2 million
• The most mature game market in Southeast Asia.
• Thai language localization is absolute necessary.
• Majority of users are now play from home VS iCafe.
• Growing trend in the popularity of localize Facebook games.
• Top 3 local publishers: Asiasoft, True Digital & Ini 3.
Countries Summary
MALAYSIA
• Population:
28.7 million
• Internet Users:
17.7 million (61.7% penetration)
• Facebook Users:
12.3 million
• The market is split into English & Chinese games.
• Better monetization from Chinese gamers VS English gamers.
• 7 Eleven as the number one channel for game top-up.
• Some of China game publishers has direct present in Malaysia.
• Top local publishers: Asiasoft – CIB, MyCNX, Cubinet, Koram.
Countries Summary
SINGAPORE
• Population:
4.7 million
• Internet Users:
3.7 million (77.2% penetration)
• Facebook Users:
2.6 million
• Premium MMORPG titles are highly popular to Singapore gamers.
• Regional base for many global & regional game companies.
• Good infrastructure & government incentives.
• Good ARPU but small population.
• 7 Eleven is highly popular as game top-up channel.
Countries Summary
INDIA
• Population:
1.19 Billion
• Internet Users:
121 million (10.2% penetration)
• Facebook Users:
45 million (3rd largest in the world)
• Online card games (rummy & poker) are highly popular.
• MMO games having tough time gaining popularity .
• Facebook games (Zynga) are highly popular.
• Internet banking & Cybercafe are preferred channels.
• Feature phone mobile games are highly popular in the market.
• Smartphone & Tablet (android) are gaining popularity.
Expanding Gamers Demographic
From MMO Gamers
MMO Gamers Profile:
• Tend to be younger, age between early
teens to early twenties.
• Dependent on their allowance from parents.
• Price sensitive.
• Game retailers & 7 Eleven are popular place
for them to buy their game top-up.
• Play their games at iCafe & home.
• Playing game as serious fun and as their
main form of entertainment.
To Social Gamers
Social Gamers Profile:
• Tend to be older, age between late teens to
early forties.
• Convenient factors are priority.
• They don’t mind spending slightly more as
long as it is more convenient for them.
• Credit card, Internet banking & mobile top-up
are their favorite payment mode.
• Play their games on their laptop everywhere,
at home, office, Starbucks, airport, etc.
• Playing game to pass time & relaxation.
• Tend to be first time gamers.
Positive associations towards online gaming
GAMES
Time
consuming
Full
concentration
Spend
money
NEGATIVE
ASSOCIATIONS
Internet
disconnect
Good visuals
Effort
Leveling
Require
expertise &
intelligence
Rational benefits
POSITIVE
ASSOCIATIONS
Various
games
Kill time
Happy
Trendy
Networking
Addictive
Release stress
SELF
Emotional benefits
Source : Focus Group Study
Done By Synovate, commissioned by MOL
Negative associations towards convenience of
online game points
STRONG
ASSOCIATIONS
Inconvenient
In game money
Must buy
elsewhere
Free to play
MOLPoints
POSITIVE
ASSOCIATIONS
NEGATIVE
ASSOCIATIONS
Expensive
Waste of
money
Buy ingame
items
Monthly charges
WEAK
ASSOCIATIONS
Source : Focus Group Study
Done By Synovate, commissioned by MOL
Popularity of game top-up channels
in SE Asia & India
Majority of mobile channels are from Mobile Operator prepaid cards
& postpaid billing.
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Shift in Value Chain in
Online Game Business
Territory / Country Base Publishing
Value Chain Model
Territory / Country Base Publishing
Challenges
• Local publisher bear the main risk if the game they are
signing will not be popular in their territory.
• Game developers has to support many different versions
of the games stretching their development team.
• Compartmentalizing the game territory coverage diminish
the longtail effect of the game monetization.
• Difficult to forecast the growth of the game within particular
country, making the whole investment for servers, bandwidth
and man power very risky.
• Intrusion of same game from other publisher in different country.
Global Publishing Platform
Value Chain Model
Challenges in Building
Global Online Game Business
Which Platform To Choose
iOS - iTunes AppStore
•
•
•
•
Great game monetization with iPad emerging as popular mobile game platform
30% rev share cut for Apple, payment mainly through credit card & iTunes card
Apple start looking to distribute iTunes card in Asia, beginning with Korea.
iTunes app store is also very crowded place (data from 148apps.biz)
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Which Platform To Choose
Android AppStores
• Open app stores concept, but it is highly fragmented.
• eCommerce site, handset maker, and telco operator all are building their own
Android app stores.
• Mixture of payment service.
• It does not monetize as well as iOS AppStore (only 7% of iOS revenue)
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Which Platform To Choose
Facebook Apps
• Games are the killer apps on
Facebook & it has created mega
company like Zynga.
• Consolidation of monetization
using Facebook Credits as default
top-up.
• Tricky to manage fraud as game
owners are responsible to look
after the fraud themselves.
• Very crowded market place and
dominated by big boys: Zynga,
EA/Playfish, Disney/Playdom.
• Fragmented payment options with
big gap in pricing.
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Which Platform To Choose
Self Publish Web Platform & Other Regional Platforms
•
•
•
•
•
Total control and ownership of the site.
Total control on payment flow and better revenue share.
Required substantial marketing dollar to grow the users.
To leverage on Facebook Connect.
Use mixture of self publish web platform, regional & global platform.
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Pricing Parity Issue
•
More relevant to games with virtual items monetization and
less relevant to mobile game apps.
•
Prioritize your target gamers:
- Gamers from developed country with high ARPU
but lower number of players, or
- Gamers from developing country with lower ARPU but
higher number of players.
•
Games with high virtual items pricing but popular with gamers
from developing countries, tend to attract local game clones.
•
Publish your games in multiple platforms & apply pricing
parity in different platforms to target different market with
different buying power.
•
The Economist’ Big Mac index provide good pricing parity
index.
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Content & Marketing
Localization
• Use crowdsourcing to localize your game language & work with your
local gamers community to coordinate the localization.
• Work with local & regional payment channels to promote your
games to local gamers.
• Run special promotion targeting at local gamers.
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thank you
question &
discussion
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