20140119 pc gamer
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
What it takes to win in the Chinese app
market
Contents
China Mobile Gaming Market1
User Acquisition 2
User Retention3
User Monetization4
Summary5
500M+ Android phones in China, 2X the US smartphone market already!
One of the fastest growing mobile markets with a YoY growth of 200%
Over 200 third-party Android app stores driving 65M installs per day
$1.2 Billion Chinese mobile game market
China Mobile Gaming Market
Unlike in Western markets, tier 2 cities form a large section of Android users in China.
Tear 1 cities Tear 2 cities Tear 3 cities Tear 4 cities
For most of them, smartphones and more specifically games are one of the biggest sources of entertainment. But since data cost is so expensive
in China, they are very sensitive to the game size.
Android growth in China in 2013
China is highly biased towards mid-core games (RPG and Card trading)
What is working?
*Source : http://www.techinasia.com/china-now-has-270-million-active-android-users-q3-2013/
The number of players in the mobile app ecosystem is a lot higher in China than in the West
Distribution Payment Discovery
CHINA
WEST
Ecosystem is highly fragmented
User Acquisition
PvZ2 is a 214MB game on the Play Store, but on Wandoujia (a popular Chinese app store) it is a 36MB game!
Pro-tip: To maximize downloads, make sure the size of your game is not more than 50 MB.
Size of the game
Due to high mobile data rates in China and with nearly 80% of Chinese users connecting to the internet through mobile data, the size of the game is directly proportional to the
number of downloads.
Unlike in Google Play, for games monetizing through in-app-purchases, the App Stores in China offer promotions in exchange for revenue share.
Due to the presence of multiple app stores in China, it becomes important to pick and choose the right app stores to promote your game in.
App Store promotions
An expensive but necessary step to get scale in China is through App Store promotions
Social messaging platforms like WeChat and QQ are getting in to game distribution through their game centers!
Users can directly download the games from these platforms and this we predict will become a huge part of how games are distributed in this market.
Game centers in Social apps
To maximize acquisition, publish your game in the popular social game centers in China.
Please write the name of this game center in this text box in the same formatting (except for the red colour)
To achieve this, a close coordination with the app stores is required.
Piracy: From problem to solution
Update the users who have a pirated version of your game into your original Chinese version!
Pro-tip: Post publishing, often releasing the updates with new content will protect it from piracy.
User Retention
Localization
Subway Surfer (China) Subway surfer (New York)
Western games that have done well in China have ensured that the themes are adapted to Chinese culture
Temple Run cloneTemple Run 2 (USA)
The Great Wall theme is extremely popular
Localization
Top Endless runer game in west• Darker more realistic themes.
Top Endless runner game in China • Light and colourful themes.
Perspectives and colour schemes
West
China – Gunz Dash
China
Human characters Fantasy animated cartoons are the way to go!
Characters and In-game graphics
West
Challenging gameplay
Eg. Puzzle games restrict the number of moves in the west.
Simple, fast and engaging game play.
Eg. Puzzle games are time based in China. 60 seconds per turn is popular.
Gameplay and complexity
West China
Chinese gamers don’t care much about personal milestones, all they care about is how well are they doing compared to their friends. So leaderboards are really
important to engage users.
West China
Driving force
Progression map Stars Objectives
No one cares
Objectives
Driving force
Gunz Dash
Swipe in four directions +Tilt left & right! Slide and Jump. That’s it!
Temple Run 2
Most of the Chinese native games are fast and engaging . For a better gaming experience players prefer simple controls.
Game controls
Gunz Dash
Chinese games are known to offer daily bonuses and discounts to players to
encourage them to keep coming back!
Daily bonus
Monetization
Gunz Dash
Temple Run 2
Games in the west usually do not restrict the number of gameplays. In China it is acceptable to restrict the number of gameplays and use that to monetize users.
Infinite attempts. Restricted number of lives.
Monetizing gameplays
Jetpack Joyride
Single page store menuMulti-page store menuChinese players are known to monetize better when there is a single page
store menu!
In-game purchase store
Gunz Dash
Unlike in western games where the store is in a separate section, Chinese gamers are used to seeing it as a part of the gameplay.
Showing the right IAP at the right time also helps to monetize users better!
In-game purchase store
Gunz Dash
Western games have mixed currency tabs, Chinese gamers would prefer to have them neatly separated.
In-game purchase store
Temple Run 2 Gunz Dash
IAP Size
IAP prices must be calibrated to acceptable Chinese standards.
Entry Level IAP on Android should be 2 to 3 RMB ( $0.3 – $0.5)
This is also because the preferred mode of payment for in-game-purchases is through carrier billing, and people don’t like to spend large chunks of their mobile currency.
Pro-tips: 1) Don’t forget to add higher priced for the high paying Chinese users.2) Consider introducing a new virtual currency pack to accommodate a lower entry level IAP without impacting other monetization mechanics
What does all of this mean from an Ad network’s perspective
Scale
Ad Networks which have the capacity to deliver not millions but 10’s of millions of users will win in China
Channel Agnosticity
Ad Networks which blur the line between regular publishers and distribution channels like app stores and social platforms will win
User segmentation
Ad Networks which have a deep understanding of Chinese user behavior will win.
This can only happen by using big data to segment all users, including users from app stores will win
Pricing models
Rev Shares and CPIs are just pricing models, and ad networks will have to evolve to play in the rev share world that China breathes
Localization
Ad networks which do not assume that the apps are perfectly built and ready for China will win.
Localization
Ad networks which do not assume that the apps are perfectly built and ready for China will win.
Localization is fundamental to retention and ad networks must evolve to play in that game.