fools gold
DESCRIPTION
The Rise and Fall of Mobile Content Companies and the Future Ahead. Talk given at Buzzcity's Developer Garage in Singapore in November 2010.TRANSCRIPT
Fool's gold
The rise and fall of mobile content companies
and the future ahead
@benjaminjoffe | CEO, Plus Eight Star BuzzCity Developer Garage | Singapore, 2010.11
@benjaminjoffe
4 years 1 year 5 years
• CEO, Plus Eight Star | www.plus8star.com – Best prac2ces from Asia’s digital space – Research, Strategy & “Innova2on Arbitrage”
• Speaker 100+ talks in 16 countries
• Advisor
• Investor in Asia-‐based global companies
Angel Investor, Advisor, Keynote Speaker
Mobile Monday Beijing
4 years 37 events
130 speakers 3,000 par2cipants
For-‐Side.com (Japan)
For-‐Side Story
• Market cap was over US$2B – Acquisi2ons worldwide – Plunged
• Today: US$110 million (2010.11.24)
• From ring tones to… e-‐books?
Tapulous
• 2009.12 $1M/month
• 2010.10 bought by Disney (US$35M?)
• Downloaded 35 million 2mes
• Revenue 2010 $15 million?
Can you build one today?
• Early entry (before iPhone SDK)
• Bought content from developer
• Concept copy from DDR
• What next?
ngmoco:)
• “Next Genera2on Mobile Company” – 12 million users – 50 million downloads
• Funding ~US$45M
• Bought by DeNA US$300 million (+ 100M?)
• Revenue?
Deal!
• KPCB Holdings (32.72%) $98M • Ins2tu2onal Venture Partners (25.31%) $76M • Norwest Venture Partners (13.46%) $40M • Neil Young (9.52%) $28M • Bob Stevenson (9.52%) $28M • Google Ventures (3.65%) $11M • Maples Investments (1.81%) $5.4M
High Produc2on Value
Who buys today?
• Japan DeNA, GREE: x100M in the bank
• Korea Maybe Nexon, NC Soo, NHN?
• China Tencent? Others?
• US Disney
• Others?
Issues with the app economy
• User acquisi2on: Media / App Stores?
• Virality & Mobile silos
• Reach – 60 million iPhones – X million Android phones (app store fragmenta2on) – 7+ million iPads by end 2010, 30+ million in 2011? – How about low-‐end phones?
• Defensibility: IP + Game mechanics?
Fools’ Gold?
• Global developers on par with Silicon Valley
• Race to the borom
• Copycats
• Building sustainable cash flow
GREE (Japan)
GREE
• Market cap: US$2.9 billion (2010.11.24)
• From web + ad-‐based SNS to mobile + gaming
• Ad push
• Revenue 2010: US$400M+ – 60% profit margin
DeNA / GREE offering
Celsys
• Mobile Comics
• US$500M / year market
• Leading solu2on provider
• IPO Nov 4, 2010
• Revenue US$32M (E), 20% profit
Zappalas
• Mobile fortune telling?
• Subscrip2on + new currency, games – 2.2M paying subs. – 285 staff
• US$34M (May-‐July 2010) – 28% margin – Over US$100M in 2010 (E)
What to do?
• Distribu2on
• Service vs. Product – Business model – Sustainable business
• Dealing with “fast followers”
Ques2ons?
More about “Innova2on Arbitrage”
Thanks!
www.plus8star.com
benjaminjoffe
hrp://twirer.com/benjaminjoffe
www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminjoffe
www.slideshare.net/plus8star
+81 | Japan
+82 | Korea
+86 | China
Telecom & Internet
+ Added Value
* High quality