Chinas-Mobile-Games-Market.doc

CCID Consulting: Chinas Mobile Games Market Has Explosive GrowthPublished: 2010-04-26 16:56Source: CCID ConsultingInternet and E-Commerce Consulting Center Chinas mobile games market keeps rapid development from 2005 to 2008. In 2008, the growth rate of the market still keeps 40.3%, the market size has reached 1.21 billion Yuan. Figure1 Size of Chinas Mobile Games Market, 2005-2008 Users scale has reached 136 million In 2008, Chinas mobile games users scale keeps rapid growth, which has reached 136 million, up 52.1% over 2007. The growth rate has exceeded Chinas mobile phone users growth rate. Figure2 Size of Chinas Mobile Games Users, 2005-2008 Major three profit modes seek breakthrough At present, mobile games profit modes use PC games for reference, multiple modes coexist. The following three mature modes will continue to lead the market. 1. Download charges At present, download charge is the major business mode of single games, such as China Mobiles Monternet adopts pay-per-click or monthly fee, and then mobile operators and mobile games service providers share the income. Mobile game service providers also launch game demos, and charge users fee after certain stage. 2. Game cards purchase Similar with online games, game cards sale is also the major profit mode of mobile games. Monthly fee mode is popular in Japan and South Korea. Or users purchase virtual game cards to recharge. China Mobile opens mobile games charging port, which will have more adoptions. 3. Virtual items sale Free mode refers that game operators open up the games to users for free, this modes major income source is virtual items sale, but not the game cards sale. If users need better services, they should buy virtual items such as commodity, value-added services, costumes and props. Major six problems in the market 1. Copyright issues restrict healthy development Mobile games with vitality and unlimited development space become the object of pirate. Internet development and mobile phones particularity make piracy mobile games with powerful lethality. Rampant piracy mobile games sites capture the profits of mobile game developers and service providers, which serious restrict the normative development mobile games market. 2. The games have serious homogenization, and the games lack creativity Mobile games R&D needs high-end talents design and development, but the present situation is a large number of small workshop-style R & D teams copy other peoples creativity and design, which is unfavorable to the markets healthy development. 3. Games contents lack mobile phone features Mobile games are still in initial stage. Mobile games development mainly uses PC games and mobile phone characteristics for reference. But many mobile games get into PC games mode; they are directly replanted into mobile phone, which results in that insufficient games interactive and experience. Some products have serious homogenization and single contents. 4. Games quality needs to be improved Mobile games providers development ability is important. Because Chinas mobile games lack software talents, Chinas vendors have a few mobile games with independent R&D, most of their games are introduced from South Korea. In order to reduce cost, some vendors simply imitate foreign products, which greatly reduce the users overall evaluation on mobile games. 5. Games platforms need to be unified Because present mobile phone couldnt support two operation platforms, so mobile phone vendors have great pressure to develop mobile phone terminals with different platforms. China Mobile supports JAVA-based games, China Unicom supports BREW-based games. Different platforms affect mobile games interoperability and applicability, which is not convenient for users. 6. Networks service level needs to be improved Interactive mobile games have high requirements for network. Mobile operators blind spots need to be solved. Present mobile network has limited capacity to bear online games, which is the soft rib of mobile games. Net speed couldnt satisfy mobile game users requirement, interactive games highlight couldnt have full reflection. Grasp mobile games development opportunities, CCID Consulting puts forward three countermeasures 1. It should strengthen design and development of games operation mode Telecom operators are in core position in mobile Internet industry. Operators should learn from mature operation mode and means in the industry, construct mobile games operation platform so as to help SP and CP to carry through development, promotion and sale. Besides, actively promoting 3G construction, increasing bandwidth and reducing Internet access tariff are the necessary foundation and guarantee for operators mobile games development. 2. “Innovation+ exquisite products” is the inevitable trend of operators and service providers （1）Creating exquisite games is the outlet Because of low mobile games entry threshold, there are many vendors in the industry and various game products with different qualities, which directly affect users enthusiasm and result in user loss. Therefore, game developers should create exquisite games so as to seek long-term development. （2）Innovation capability decides development potential Currently, many participators in mobile game market have PC game background. Many mobile games imitate PC games modes. Mobile game vendors should strengthen new products R&D and promotion. They should promote the whole industrial innovation in the competition so as to promote mobile games development. 3. According to users basic characteristics, design products and services Currently, mobile game users major characteristics are younger, student-centered, male-centered and low-income centered; therefore, vendors should use these characteristics as basis. （1）Increase product interesting Products designs should satisfy young users demands. Recommended developed game types are: action, role-playing games; meanwhile, brain games and card & board games are also the development focus; aiming at users characteristics, sports games should be users favorite. Meanwhile, it should improve users use experiences at the aspects of picture and sound, which will become the necessary means to improve products and competitiveness. （2）Free trial and reduce the cost of using games Users with low income or non-income characteristics make the free game become the users favorite. Judging from surveys, users are inclined to free trial on single-machine games and network games. Meanwhile, it could reduce Internet tariffs on the basis of local conditions. （3）Operators platforms should strengthen games promotion Currently, operator platforms are still the users first entry to mobile Internet and mobile games; therefore, operators should strengthen the control on mobile Internets portal platform. Internet and wap websites are the good complement of mobile games promotion, but it is not easy for telecom operators to control this channel. Game service providers could carry through independent promotion so as to expand games user group. Traditional medias promotion effects on games are not obvious, such as newspaper, magazine and TV. We suggest game service providers should carry through image propaganda on traditional media, but not the products propaganda. （4）It should strengthen word-of-mouth marketing so as to strengthen user acceptance Communications and recommendations among users is the most popular promotion way, game service providers could improve users understanding degree on games through hosting online forums, offline users communications activities and games competition; meanwhile, they could also make some promotions on new games. Because Internet is still the major channel of users information acquisition, mobile service providers could open forum on websites, so as to facilitate users communications and improve users awareness and acceptance. CAGR in next three years will reach 49.3% Mobile