- Mobile is the Future of Chinese Gaming
China’s video game market is worth $9.7 billion and growing fast. Practically all of that growth is happening in China’s mobile market, which is made up of over 785 million mobile gamers. That’s more than double the entire population of U.S. While PC gaming’s year-over-year revenue growth has slowed in China, mobile revenues jumped 400% from 2013-2014 and over 50% from 2014-15. With the increasing prevalence of smartphone ownership, China’s $5.5 billion mobile gaming market shows no sign of slowing anytime soon. In fact, it’s predicted to more than double to $11.1 billion by 2019.
There’s never been a better time for mobile developers to enter the Chinese market. But developers can’t harness that market unless their apps have an audience.
Traditional app stores center on “Top 100” lists that cloud out all but the most well-funded apps. Here at Yttro, we offer a better alternative. Our app discovery platform Yttro Mobile literally maps out thousands of mobile games, freeing users from “top” lists and maximizing developer visibility.
- Top Mobile Developers are Targeting China
Given the size of the Chinese gaming market and the fact that 74% of China’s adult population owns a smartphone, leading mobile developers are more interested in China than ever before. Billion-dollar mobile developer Kabam is looking to publish a billion-dollar game in China. Kabam recently entered a joint partnership to publish its flagship title, Marvel Contest of Champions, in the Chinese market. Other mobile developers like Supercell have already launched blockbuster games in China, carefully localizing game content specifically for the Chinese market.
Games like Clash of Clans and Angry Birds can rely on their well-established names to gain visibility in the Chinese market. Independent developers may have to rely on advertising to achieve visibility, and when it comes to mobile advertising, native advertising is an optimal option. By natively integrating promotions into the app discovery process, Yttro ensures that users see the ads they’re interested in seeing. In this respect, Yttro has yielded higher performance than even Facebook ads.
- Casual is King
One key draw of mobile games is that they’re often casual and accessible. Whether someone has 15 minutes to spare during lunch break or 30 minutes to kill on the bus, casual mobile games appeal to a wide range of users. This is especially the case in China. 14% of mobile game downloads in China are “Casual” games, which make up the largest share among all categories of games. What’s more, each user making up China’s massive mobile gaming population downloads at least 4 casual games on average.
How do we get these gamers to find and play more games?
The answer: By making app discovery into a game.
Users don’t like scrolling through endless lists. Nor do they like typing search terms into a screen. On the other hand, users do like visual information. Users do like intuitive interfaces. In creating a visual map that can be explored with the flick of a thumb, Yttro provides users with both.
- “Light Apps” are Replacing Websites
Attention spans are short, and are only getting shorter. Thanks to smartphones, the average human attention span is 8 seconds. Recognizing the need to quickly secure user attention, many Chinese companies are using HTML5 (a powerful new web standard) to build light apps: easy-to-access websites that function like an app. Light apps don’t require users to download programs or navigate away from the page. Thanks to HTML5, users can consume fully interactive multimedia from the comfort of their browsers, making for a smooth, no-hassle app experience. Major corporations such as Alibaba are designing software to facilitate the use of simple HTML5-based content, and light apps are centerpieces of these efforts. The best light apps are seamless, shareable, and highly relevant to users—all of which are key attributes of our app discovery platform, Yttro Mobile.
Here at Yttro, we’re dedicated to providing users with the next generation of content discovery. That’s why we’re working to push the light app envelope and to create an intensive HTML5-based light app for our platform.
- Virtual Reality is Rising
The Asia-Pacific market for VR gaming is expected to grow at a rate of roughly 25% each year, and China will be a central driver of that growth. Hundreds of teams across the country are developing VR hardware, and the Chinese VR market, estimated to be around $60 million for 2016, is projected to potentially surge into the billions. The world’s first major VR eSports tournament took place last in China last New Year’s Eve, with a prize pool of over $15,000. Given that mobile VR devices appear to be highly popular in China, mobile platforms will likely be the first major site of China’s VR growth.
By immersing users in virtual environments, VR will only increase the appeal of visual, interactive experiences. Yttro users currently explore a virtual world on their phones. With the rise of VR, they’ll soon be able to explore it in person.
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