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分析亚洲手机应用市场对美国开发者的启发

发布时间:2013-03-13 17:31:32 Tags:,,,,

作者:Chris Akhavan

在去年年末,皮尤研究中心发现87%的美国成人(大约2.39亿)拥有至少一部手机,并且在这些比例中有45%属于智能手机。所有权的集中以及越来越多手机设备的出现并不是只发生在美国的趋势。根据调查,有超过25%的日本用户正在使用智能手机,而在韩国也有3000万的智能手机用户。尽管美国的用户指数仍然较高,但是Forrester预测在2013年,亚洲太平洋区域的智能手机用户将增加20%(游戏邦注:而北美的用户增长率将只是10%)。

结果便是,亚洲的开发者将以各种独特的方式进军手机领域——许多开发者已经展开攻势了,甚至这种发展也会影响到西方市场。在我最近前往日本和韩国的旅程中,我便注意到这里出现了一些主要趋势,并且很有可能对美国市场中的开发者与用户带来重要的影响。

平台上的平台

kakao-talk(from techrj)

kakao-talk(from techrj)

Kakao Talk,这个能让用户编写文本,创造声音,免费分享媒体的信息应用在韩国获得了大量市场份额后,逐渐发展成面向第三方应用的独立平台(根据报告,这款应用的渗透率高达90%,并拥有2700万的日活跃用户)。现在,游戏开发者们便可以浏览到Kakao的用户和社交图表。而Kakao所承受的代价便是必须砍掉作为开发商能获得的30%的收益。同样的,日本的应用Line(在Tōhoku地震后为了缓解堵塞的通信线而出现)也开启了自己的平台,并让第三方开发者可以接触到其平台上的1亿多用户。

最近也出现了一些全新的手机操作系统,但是如果想看到能够对Android和iOS发起挑战的新平台,我们还需要等上几年的时间。但是我们却有可能看到一些“次平台”的发展——即源自一些大受欢迎的应用(就像Kakao)或者经由软件开发工具包(SDK)所转化而来。

这些次平台的成功有效吸引了开发者们的注意:Line在不到一年的时间里便获得了5000多万的用户(游戏邦注:Facebook花了3年时间,即从2004年到2007年,才获得了最初的5800万用户),而Kakao Games平台单在2012年10月便创造了3530万美元的收益,并且有82%的下载量是源自2300万的独立用户。如此看来,将一款应用发展成为一个平台的趋势具有独特且实际的机遇——这是开发者们必须注意到并牢记于心的。

健康的营销组合

美国消费者投入了更多时间(和金钱)于手机设备上,而许多大品牌(包括GMC)也选择与Tapjoy等公司合作将广告整合到自己的手机应用上。主流消费者品牌也调整了广告预算去平衡发展,甚至有些品牌在看到手机崛起时选择完全抛弃传统媒体。

在日本还出现了其它的手机广告投资趋势:手机开发者同样也在传统媒体上添加广告元素。实际上,日本排行前两名的电视广告商都是手机游戏公司。电视广告在《智龙迷城》的发展中扮演着越来越重要的角色。除此之外,我们还可以在东京随处看到各种宣传手机游戏的大型广告牌。

这种趋势在美国就看不到了,但是却很有意义。虽然手机广告也具有很多优势(可测量的结果,实时报告,互动性等等),但这却不能取代其它媒体广告的价值。广告的主要原则是将信息置于消费者会注意到的地方,而这些日本公司也意识到除了手机设备外,他们还可以借由其它媒体有效地接触到用户。尽管在其它地区电视广告经济不一定具有意义,但是美国开发者们还可以利用全局营销去扩展自己的用户基础。

界线越来越模糊

手机游戏所促动的一大趋势便是游戏用户的扩展。现在的游戏到达了更加广泛且多样的用户群体,而亚洲的众开发商们也带头开始面向这个更广泛的市场创造新内容。Kakao上一些最受欢迎的游戏不仅提供了基于技能的挑战,同时还呈现出了休闲的易用性,所以有效吸引了包括硬核玩家以及祖父一辈玩家的注意。

GungHo的《智龙迷城》也许便是当前世界上最畅销的一款游戏,因为这款游戏有效结合了硬核RPG元素以及休闲的“宝石迷阵般”游戏玩法。这款游戏通过模糊了传统游戏界线而超越了“中核游戏”范围,最终证实了高ARPU和高DAU是可以共存的。

如今也有越来越多手机游戏开发者为了能够获得与《智龙迷城》一样的成功而将休闲元素与硬核策略结合起来。

亚洲手机市场为美国开发者们提供了更大的潜力。这里的市场正以极快的速度扩展着,不仅提供给开发者极具吸引力的市场机遇,同时还提供了非常有价值的策略能够帮助他们提高产品的终生价值。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

What U.S. developers can glean from Asia’s mobile apps market

By Chris Akhavan

At the close of last year, the Pew Research Center found that 87 percent of U.S. adults (roughly 239 million) owned at least one mobile phone, and among those, 45 percent were smartphones. The concentrated ownership and rise of mobile devices isn’t a trend exclusive to the U.S. More than 25 percent of Japanese consumers currently use a smartphone, and there are more than 30 million smartphone users in South Korea. While the U.S. still has a higher number of users, Forrester predicts that smartphone usage within the Asia-Pacific region will grow by 20 percent in 2013. North America is only expected to grow by 10 percent.

As a result, developers in Asia are advancing the mobile space in unique ways – many of which have begun to or will influence western markets. During my latest trip to Japan and South Korea, I witnessed a few key trends that will shape the U.S. market for developers and consumers.

The platform within a platform

Kakao Talk, a messaging app that allows users to text, make voice calls, and share media for free, has evolved to become its own platform for third-party apps after gaining significant market penetration in South Korea (reported to be greater than 90 percent penetration with 27 million daily active users). Game developers can now tap into Kakao’s audience and social graph. In exchange, Kakao takes a 30 percent cut of the developer’s revenue. Similarly, Line, a Japanese messaging app released after the Tōhoku earthquake to ease jammed communication lines, has opened its platform and access to its 100 million users to third-party developers under a similar structure.

Several new mobile operating systems debuted recently, but it will likely be years before another major platform emerges and challenges Android and iOS. Instead, what will likely occur is the development of “sub-platforms” – emerging from popular apps (much like Kakao) or through distributed software development kits (SDKs).

The success of these sub-platforms is notable for developers: Line reached 50 million users in just a little more than one year (Facebook gained its first 58 million users over three years: 2004-2007), and the Kakao Games platform launch generated $35.3 million with 82 million downloads from 23 million unique users in October 2012 alone. The potential to successfully mold an app into a platform is a unique and real opportunity – and something for developers to keep in mind.

A healthy marketing mix

As U.S. consumers spend more time (and money) on mobile devices, many big-name brands (including GMC) are partnering with companies such as Tapjoy to integrate ads within mobile apps (Tapjoy’s CEO Steve Wadsworth will be speaking at our VentureBeat Mobile Summit on April 1-2, where we will delve deeply into the problem of monetization). Mainstream, consumer brands are shifting advertising budgets to balance between and even move away from traditional mediums with the rise of mobile.

In Japan, there’s an additional flow for mobile ad spending: mobile developers are also advertising on traditional mediums. In fact, the No. 1 and No. 2 TV advertisers in Japan are mobile gaming companies. TV advertising recently played a major role in the growth of Puzzle & Dragons (see video below). In addition, Tokyo is covered with giant billboards promoting top mobile games.

This isn’t something we’ve seen in the U.S. at scale, but it makes sense. Mobile advertising has many benefits (measurable results, real-time reporting, interactive, etc.), but that doesn’t discount the value of advertising on multiple channels. A key tenet for advertising is putting messages where your customers are, and what these Japanese companies have recognized is that they can effectively reach their customers beyond the mobile device. While the economics of TV advertising may not make sense in other regions, there’s a huge opportunity for U.S. developers to expand their customer base by leveraging the entire marketing landscape.

The lines continue to blur

One of the biggest trends fueled by mobile gaming is the expansion of the gaming audience. More than ever, games reach a broader and more diverse audience, and developers in Asia have led the way in creating content for this wider market. Some of the top games on Kakao appeal to audiences ranging from hardcore gamers to grandfathers by offering both skill-based challenges and casual accessibility.

GungHo’s Puzzle & Dragons may be the top grossing game in the world right now due to the game’s seamless combination of hardcore RPG elements and casual “Bejeweled-like” gameplay. This game goes beyond what is known as “midcore” by fusing polar opposite ends of the gaming spectrum together, demonstrating that high ARPU and high DAU do not have to be mutually exclusive.

It will be interesting to watch more mobile game developers experiment with this combination of broad, casual appeal combined with hardcore strategy and tactics in an attempt to approach the success of Puzzle & Dragons.

Asia’s mobile market offers huge potential for U.S. developers. Its key markets are expanding rapidly, and offer both attractive market opportunities for developers as well as valuable strategies to increase lifetime value.(source:venturebeat)


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