Amidst the good predictions on the lucrativeness of the gaming market, it is inevitable that some investors still have reservations after hearing news contrary to this. The social gaming community, however, needs to look at the likes of the large social gaming markets in Japan, South Korea, and other Asian countries. There is no question that Japan is a leader in social gaming and the large companies that dominate this market have had a chance to create strategies that leverage this medium's advantages very well. In this article, we will take a look at how user acquisition strategies differ for the Japanese social gaming networks.
Western social gaming user acquisition methods deplete value for network users
Looking at other Western social gaming companies' user acquisition engines raises some questions on how these social games acquire new users. Rather than attracting gamers based on relevance, these games tend to rely too much on giving users incentives to invite their friends. There are two factors that are fundamental to these games that pose a problem:
- The common user acquisition engine relies heavily on cross promotion from one game to the other. This strategy relies on making one hugely popular social game and then having that game's audience play other games advertised heavily. Unfortunately, this approach relies heavily on momentum. A botched release or a circumstance outside of the company's control can affect revenues significantly, also making it harder to recover in the long run.
- These games rely on going viral, spreading from one user to many others. They depend on users inviting their friends. For example, a game will give a player in-game items, more play time, or faster leveling as a reward for inviting friends. The game itself uses invites as a game mechanic. However, it is important to understand that virality is not the same as word of mouth advertising, even if it has a similar short term result. While word of mouth advertising involves gamers inviting their friends because they like a game and had a positive experience with it, since this kind of virality is automated and impersonal it seldom leads to sustainable gains over the long term.
The two user acquisition methods listed above are entirely dependent on a social network. Using another network's growth to advance your particular product is a
common practice, but it can backfire if your company is not helping the network that is providing your growth. For example, PayPal was helped tremendously by the growth of eBay and YouTube's initial growth could not have happened without MySpace. In both cases, PayPal and YouTube provided value for members of the underlying network – in the case of PayPal, it gave eBay users a convenient, instant payment method and in the case of YouTube it allowed MySpace users to share videos easier than ever before.
How Japanese social network platforms are different
Japanese social gaming networks like DeNA's Mogage Town (Mobage for short) and Gree are not based on real identity. The lack of real identities means that people are more likely to send out mass invites and, due to the focus on gaming, cross promotion is actually welcome. One of the most important reasons why these Japanese social network platform models represent a clear future for social gaming is that, from their conception, they have always been mobile. Whilst for many of the Western platforms, social gaming was an afterthought. In the case of networks like Mogage and Gree, users are provided with a mobile gaming experience and a community of like-minded fellow gamers.
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About the Guest Author:
Nida Rasheed is a freelance writer and owner of an outsourcing company, Nida often finds herself wanting to write about the subjects that are closest to her heart. She lives in Islamabad, Pakistan and can be found on Twitter @nidarasheed.
