4 ways to enter the Chinese mobile gaming market

China is the leader in the mobile gaming industry, one of the largest markets, which will reach $5.5 billion by the end of 2015, according to a report by analytical agency Niko. Thus, the Middle Kingdom market will surpass the U.S. mobile market in terms of money for the first time.

There are also more than 800 million active mobile device users in China today, and their number continues to grow. However, the number of mobile applications in local storages has not kept up with the rate of growth in demand: right now the number is just over 100,000 applications for all distribution sites, which is much lower than the volume of applications in the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Now let's take a look at what distribution options are available in China, and what you should pay special attention to if you want to adapt your product for this market.

Option 1: Game publishers

As you can see from the statistics we gave above, the resource of local Chinese players is limited, which is why local game publishers began to actively seek content in other markets.

The biggest game developers and publishers in China, such as iDreamsky, CocoaChina/Chukong Technologies, OurPalm and LineKong, can be chosen as partners.

Pros:

These companies will not only ensure that your app is published in the Stores, but also guarantee promotional support for your product, since they use their own traffic to bring new products to market and have key connections on the most popular platforms. As a rule, they also give advances to finalize games for the market and are ready to buy a license with exclusive distribution rights in the region.

The pitfalls:

Game publishers in this cohort require major product changes, sometimes amounting to new product development. There is a great risk that the product cannot be adapted as deeply as the partner wants and will not be published as a result. They also charge a high percentage of distribution revenue: from 70% after deducting sales store commissions.

Option 2: Agencies with a publisher

Over the past few years, a large number of agencies have emerged that will take your game for distribution if the evaluation team finds the product suitable for the market. The main difference between agencies and large publishers is that they primarily sell their distribution services, mediation, sometimes working for a percentage of sales, providing services for free. But the reserve of companies is limited, they do not have their own financial cushion to carry out advertising campaigns, the promotion is reduced to fichering on the sites, which are obtained through personal connections. You can buy services from agencies separately: localization, user support and so on. Agencies such as WizQ, Smartions and Yodo1 are worth paying attention to.

Pros:

Agencies will provide integration with social platforms (Tencent WeChat, China's Facebook counterpart, and Sina Weibo, local Twitter). You won't be able to do this on your own, because the platforms provide APIs for user authorization only to companies registered in China. Agencies will also prepare payment SDKs for the main sales stores (usually operator billings), will implement placement in the TOP-10 local Android-stores.

The pitfalls:

Agencies work on a stream, so if a game doesn't take off right away, they're likely to stop supporting it or you'll have to support the game yourself, but still pay a percentage for contracted distribution.

Option 3: Automatic publishing platforms

China has developed services for the automatic placement of apps in local Android stores specifically for foreign companies. Let's dwell on them in more detail.

The mechanism of services is quite simple: the developer registers in the system, downloads the payment SDK with instructions, embeds and uploads game builds through the management console. Next, the games are moderated and placed in storerooms automatically, where the chances of all applications placed this way are equal. The largest of such services are AppTutti and Kii China.

Pros:

The entry threshold is low, these sites have almost no selection at the start. If the game shows a good result, there is an opportunity to get a promo from the service. The sites take the lowest percentage for mediation after the commissions of the storages, sometimes a fixed cost for additional services and maintenance of your application card.

The pitfalls:

Not enough promotional apps, but if it takes off, companies will provide marketing campaigns, getting a percentage of sales.

Option 4: Independent entry into the market

The easiest thing to start with (and the easiest thing to do) is to release the game on the Apple App Store to China. China's share of Apple App Store app sales revenue is at least $2.3 billion and growing (data from analytics company Talking Data). According to Marcus Kay, CEO of WizQ Interactive, ARPU for iOS games in China is currently $1.2-1.5 and this is its starting point, while for Android the established average ARPU is $0.7-0.9.

Pros:

Releasing to the App Store gives you transparency and complete control. You only share a percentage of sales with the App Store.

The pitfalls:

The only thing you need to take care of is a good localization and ASO for the game, made by a specialized agency in China.

Android stands apart. The market for Android applications is very fragmented, although there is a trend of distribution platforms absorbing each other. Of all the Android platforms, you should pay attention to Tencent's MyApp store (currently, the store provides 180 million installations per day), Qihoo 360 Mobile Assistant, Xiaomi store, Baidu's Mobile Assistant and Wandoujia (the only store independent of the technological platform).

Pros:

China's mobile users have the greatest reach.

The pitfalls:

As you can see, the leading stores are owned by technology giants and it is important to note that they compete with each other skillfully. Baidu search displays search results for apps only from its stor, Xiaomi distributes its store as pre-installed on all devices of the line and actually blocks the installation of content on Xiaomi devices in a different wrapper, so it is important to place the game on the 5 sites listed above. Google Play, after 5 years of silence, has also started its journey to China, which will take time, and Google has many issues to solve, from local billing to site distribution in the region.

The influx of applications into the marketplace is indeed limited and cannot meet the needs of such a huge market. There is an urgent need for more apps to address this lack of content.

So we think that any new, interesting and high-quality game applications will have a huge room for growth in the Chinese market. Most employees spend 2-3 hours a day commuting to work. We think it would be very good to have such a casual game with a single-player mode to help pass the time on the road from work to home.

On the other hand, developers need to be careful: some kinds of apps are banned in China, such as pornographic games, violent games, bullying, aggressive language, intellectual property infringement, gambling, and so on.

Another aspect to pay attention to is the gameplay barrier. To encourage downloads, almost all apps in China are made free. Accordingly, most of the revenue comes from in-game purchases. However, the game should not be too complicated, because the local market is still young. Most Chinese mobile users have not yet gotten used to gaming apps. A very complicated app will only end up causing significant player churn. This is where a clear GUI can help.

First, let's quickly go through the list of Western games that are popular in China:

• Strategies: Clash of Clans, Mobile Strike, Plague Inc.
• Card games: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.
• Racing: Asphalt 8: Airborne, MMX Racing, Need for Speed.
• RPG: Dungeon Legends, Dungeon Hunter 5, Summoners War.
• MOBA: Vainglory.
• Builders: Township, SimCity BuildIt.
• Farms: Farm Away!, Hay Day, Sports: Score! Hero, My NBA 2K16.
• Platformers: Give It Up!, Lep’s World, The Last Vikings.

The list goes on and on. See what they all have in common? It's not easy to find, is it? The point is that any game in any genre can succeed in China. Gameplay and graphics don't matter either. If a game is good, it will succeed in China, provided it's localized and marketed well.

See? Both partners agreed that the market in China needs games of different genres, it is important individuality of games, quality, localization and proper marketing. We can add from ourselves that channels prefer to take games no larger than 100Mb, or better than 50Mb, due to cellular network limitations: the bigger the build, the fewer channels available for placement.

Montgomery Singman, vice president of business development at iDreamsky, also says that games need different genres, but the most important thing is to find the right publisher, choose market leaders and notes that it's fairly easy to find an English-speaking partner.

There are two different mobile gaming segments in China: hardcore/midcore/online games and casual/offline games. Each of these segments is different, and most mobile companies only focus on one segment. In the hardcore segment, MMORPGs, card battlers and action-RPGs (preferably in a realistic setting) are in demand. The stylistics of Russian cartoons may or may not appeal to Chinese users. The casual segment likes match-3 games, offline FPS, endless runners and puzzles. Take an example from successful cases, do not work with unproven publishers, also do not have to deal with agencies. Also, it's easy to find publishers who speak English.

Donald Tang adds about marketing:

After the game appears in the storeroom, you need to take up marketing, which, according to most developers, can cost a pretty penny. However, even if you spend a million dollars, it does not guarantee the desired result. There are many examples of this. In most cases, the main reason for the fiasco was the low quality of the games. So it is highly recommended to focus on high quality game development and integration with local services, such as local payment systems (phone payments through local operators), social networks (not Facebook, Google and Twitter, but Weibo, QQ and Wechat) and user tracking tools. Quality apps that have all the necessary local features and publishing support will eventually become popular with users. A good example for Western developers is Talking Tom Cat.

Kay, on the other hand, distinguishes between two approaches to marketing - free and paid: In China, both free and paid promotional methods are available.

I strongly recommend starting with free promotion. The most effective ways of such promotion are ASO and social media marketing on Tencent WeChat (Chinese Facebook) and Sina Weibo (Chinese Twitter). There are a huge number of tricks involved in promoting them. There are so many that you could write a book. The bottom line is that these are must-haves if you want to promote an app in China. On the other hand, don't waste your time writing publications for review sites and press releases. Most players today don't read them.

After using the free tools and setting up the game, I recommend running mobile ad campaigns on Chinese ad networks to drive downloads. Again, WeChat and Weibo are very good ad networks because their ad campaigns are usually viral. Plus, Chinese developers have a habit of promoting their projects by paying Chinese celebrities or groups to post on their mini-blogs on Sina Weibo. This method is more expensive than banner advertising, but by far the most effective tool for getting quality installations.

In addition, here is a list of the leading advertising networks in China, where you can always buy traffic for your applications in addition to SMM promotion: DOMOB, GuangDianTong, FenSiTong. The appearance of advertising campaign management consoles in English is not far off.

The Chinese market is opening up more and more channels for distribution, and the barrier to communication is becoming less and less: managers responsible for content selection speak English, and it is now possible to work directly with the sites. But it is worth bearing in mind that in order to succeed in the region, you will need, at a minimum, competent localization of the game itself and the packaging, and, secondly, integration with local social sites. A workable strategy could be to start distribution in the Apple App Store, which is considered premium in China with the highest percentage of paying players, then fine-tune the mechanisms on this site, and then enter the Android market, distributing only the Android version.

And remember, when showing a game to potential partners, it's important not to get lost in the reviews that sites willingly give about themselves, but to look at the distribution success of games in your particular category. The companies we cite above have earned a positive reputation and you can safely go ahead to the 800 million active players.This article used materials provided by AppTUTTi, WizQ Interactive and iDreamsky Technology.

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keywords: games, china, gamedev, game dev, how to create a game, how to make money creating a game.