david mccarthy 'practical advice - small changes make a big difference in korea and japan'...

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Practical Advice: Small

Changes Can Make a Big

Difference in Korea and

Japan

2014 年 6 月 17 日

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

We only have 10 minutes!

So let me cut to the chase…

•5 Tips for succeeding in Japan

•5 Tips for succeeding in Korea

•That’s it.

•Oh, plus one bonus tip: launch on Android

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

5 Tips for succeeding in Japan

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Five top tips for Japan

• Release a new APK

• Keep it simple

• Create a buzz

• Keep adding content

• Give it a boost

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Release a new APK

• Decreases cost of user acquisition– Organic uplift is much higher on the Top New Free ranking– You are more likely to get featured on the Google Play store

• Allows you to improve your monetization – Makes it easier to tailor your in-game economy to the local

market. • Japanese users are much more likely to spend money, and are much

more forgiving of what western users might consider to be harsh monetization schemes

• Feel free to make your monetization more strict

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Keep it simple

• You’re never going to get culturalization completely right– So stop worrying about it

• Worry about making a great game – Make the UI/UX easy to understand, make it fast, responsive, and fun

Jan. 6, 2014Top Grossing #8

Nov. 29, 2013Top Grossing #6

Mar. 21, 2014Top Grossing #24

Sept 28, 2013Top Grossing #17

Aug 19, 2013Top Grossing #20

May 13, 2014Top Grossing #59

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Create a buzz

• Start with a pre-registration campaign– So you can start with a bang

• Advertise on telly – If you’ve got the money

• Stick to social networks and court the press– If you don’t have money

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Keep adding content

In-game promotions and events keep players playing for longer

Daily Login Bonus

Limited-time Events

Sales and special offers

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Give it a boost

• Carefully managed boost campaigns are still the most effective way of reaching a high volume of quality users in Japan

– So don’t believe the hype

• Boost campaigns are most effective during the 30-day Top New Free window

– So don’t mess around with a soft launch

• And you can time them around in-game events and campaigns

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

5 Tips for succeeding in Korea

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Five top tips for Korea

• Start with a bang

• Support your users

• Go non-mobile

• Launch on Kakao (or don’t)

• Make a high-end game

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Start with a bang

• Marketing efforts need to be geared around launch – There is a ton of games coming out all the time in Korea –

about 40 a month– Korean gamers are fickle: they’ll find your app, have fun with

it, and forget about it

• So do everything you can to keep them happy – Daily login bonuses, in-game events right from the start

• And be prepared for them to leave– If you can’t beat them, join them; make sure you have plans to

keep acquiring new users

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Support your users

• Like I just said, do everything you can to keep Korean users happy

• Make sure your game is technically robust from the start and ready to scale

• Be prepared for a near-realtime rate of response– In Korean, obviously

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Go non-mobile

• Pre-registration campaigns are essential

• Cultivate community sites and fan the flames on fan forums

• Court the press

• Get a spokesperson– A celebrity, obviously

• Use them on social networks, billboards, and telly

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Launch on Kakao (or don’t)

• Do: Because it still dominates the charts– Usually at least 7 of the top 10 Grossing– RPGs and Strategy games are very popular– Kakao = tremendous traffic

• Do not: Because it still dominates the charts– Games are released twice a week so standing out is increasingly difficult– It costs 21% of your revenues

4th week of April 2014. Top Free Game. Rank 1 ~ 12

4th week of April 2014. Gross Game. Rank 1~ 12

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Make it high-end

• Korean users are very demanding

• Your game needs to be cutting-edge, technically, with minimal lag

• RPGs and Strategy games still dominant on Kakao

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Oh yeah, one other thing

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Oh yeah, one more thing…

Find a great partner•Because 5 Tips is never enough

© 2014 Metaps Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONFIDENTIAL

Silicon

Valley

South Korea

Shanghai

Singapore

Taiwan

Hong Kong

Tokyo

London

HQ: Tokyo, Japan

Offices: San Francisco, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Shanghai, UK

Contact: david_mccarthy@metaps.comtim_jones@metaps.com

Thanks!