The Survivor's Guide to Publishing in China by Steel Media

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Survivor's Guide to

Publishing in China

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Survivor’s Guide to Publishing in China Looking for a publishing partner to help you get started in China?

About… Also known as Chukong Technologies, CocoaChina is a leading global mobile game developer/publisher and has China's largest mobile gaming platform. Based in Beijng, it has subsidiaries in the US, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Its flagship mobile gaming franchise, Fishing Joy, has seen over 200 million downloads worldwide and is a leader in terms of monetisation on Android. Chukong Technologies has helped companies like Disney, Z2Live, Konami and Nexon achieve success in the Chinese mobile gaming market.

www.cocoachina.com/goeast

About… Simply THE leading editorial voice in the mobile games market, Pocket Gamer has been supporting the mobile games business for over six years with leading consumer and b2b sites, apps, magazines, events and more.

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Our B2B site www.pocketgamer.biz is the number one source of business information for mobile developers and also provides a range of services from reports to consultancy. If you’re looking for further advice get in touch with chris@pocketgamer.biz

www.pocketgamer.biz Chris James | Managing Director Garrick Webster | Production Keith Andrew | Writer Charlie Custer | Writer Jez Bridgeman | Creative Director Paul Edwards | Senior Designer ©2013 Steel Media Ltd & Chukong Technologies Inc This publication and its contents are the copyright of Chukong Technologies Inc and Steel Media Ltd and may not be distributed, copied or reproduced without permission

Chukong can help. Contact lei@us.chukong-inc.com for more.

Welcome…

If you spoke about the mobile games market two years ago, maybe even 12 months ago, you were really talking about Apple’s App Store in America. Make it there and it didn’t matter if you made it anywhere else or not. It was hardly surprising that the tips and tricks that proliferated at conferences tended to be focused on the US market. While neither the US nor iOS have slackened off, the story in 2013 is considerably more complex and certainly more competitive. The increasingly crowded iTunes App Store is no longer the only game shop in town. Globally, Android has overtaken Apple on many metrics – certainly in terms of handsets sold – and is catching up fast on the rest. What’s more, the industry is genuinely international now and though the US market has become increasingly competitive it’s essential to take a much broader perspective. At the moment, when companies in most industries consider markets further afield, this means glancing in the direction of China. In the case of mobile games it’s no different. In the last 18 months, the Chinese dragon has truly flown when it comes to mobile games, to that extent that Chinese consumers are now responsible for more app downloads than Americans. As a result, revenues there are accelerating at a phenomenal rate. For example, Chukong Technologies’ game Fishing Joy 2 is grossing over $2 million a month on the Chinese Android market. So, how do you take advantage of this market? What do you need to know and where do you start? To answer some of those questions, we teamed up with the local experts at CocoaChina to provide a genuinely useful starter guide for your adventures. Enjoy!

www.steelmedia.co.uk All statistics in this publication are for informational purposes only and are correct at time of going to press to the best of our knowledge. Steel Media can accept no responsibility for inaccuracies that occur but where mistakes are discovered we will correct any oversight.

Chris James Managing Director – Steel Media

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Survivor’s Guide Checklist

Over 300 Android Markets and Distribution Channels...

Piracy is a reality – you need a strategy to deal with it

Year-on-year growth (Jan 2012-13): 209%

Population: 1.3 billion (US 310 million)

Broad distribution – 300 channels to distribute in

Active smartphone install base: Over 250 million

Some genres don’t travel – you need understand local tastes

Think Android first, it’s the dominant platform and growing

Active iOS and Android devices

With few credit cards, carrier billing is essential

United States

(US versus China, millions)

China

250

There is no Facebook, and Google is limited too

200

150

Free to play – the freemium model dominates the market

100

50 0

SOURCE: Flurry Analytics

2011 Q1

2011 Q2

2011 Q3

2011 Q4

2012 Q1

2012 Q2

2012 Q3

2012 Q4

2013 »

Find a local partner and save time and money in the long run

User acquisition and revenue sources User acquisition Google Play �� 10% Carrier stores �� 10% (China mobile etc.) OEM preinstalls �� 20% (Samsung, Moto etc.) Third party app markets ��60% (360, Baidu, Tencent, Gfan, 200+)

www.chukong-inc.com

www.cocoachina.com

Revenue source Carrier billing �� 75% Alipay ��7% Ads ��18%

Survivor’s Guide to Publishing in China

Go East. Embrace the rising Droid Lei Zhang, General Manager, Chukong/CocoaChina USA

It’s old news that China’s mobile market is growing at a staggering pace. In June 2012, Flurry Analytics reported that China had surpassed the US in iOS and Android device activation, and had become the fastest growing smart device market worldwide. But while the rest of the mobile gaming world is entranced by Apple's iOS as the main driving force for revenue, China’s mobile market is forging a different path. To be successful in China, game developers will have to learn to embrace the Droid. Sheer market size and the pace of change in China make it difficult to track numbers. You can dispute exactly what sort of lead Android has, but it’s clear that this platform’s market share is huge, and still growing. The prevalence of thirdparty Android stores demonstrates Android’s market dominance, and 70 per

cent of the 200 million downloads of CocoaChina's Fishing Joy games have been to Android devices. Undoubtedly, iOS apps reach higher value consumers – the iPhone is a status symbol. However Android devices are snapping up market share from the bottom up, with price being the key driver. You might take it with a grain of salt that certain research shows that iPhones account for less than 10 per cent of the devices used in China but, in contrast, Apple’s bitter rival Samsung accounts for 20 per cent of the market, and it is just one of many Android suppliers.

Show me the money For games developers, it boils down to ‘show me the money’. In the West, iOS has been the main platform for mobile games. In the first quarter of 2012, 84 per cent of mobile gaming revenue came from users of Apple’s flagship devices – and a staggering 94 per cent in the UK. This situation did not shift significantly for the rest of the year. Industry analysts, including our internal analytics team, used to think

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About Chukong /Cocoa China

that the fragmentation of the Android market in China meant in-game advertising would be the key source of revenue. However new figures suggest otherwise. The Fishing Joy franchise is currently generating $6 million in revenue a month, mainly driven by in-app purchases on Android devices, helped by ultra-broad coverage and carrier billing. Other developers in China report that games from different genres are seeing a similar trend.

Android's supremacy As goes the platform, so goes the app market. Driven by cheap, available handsets, and the commitment of Chinese carriers to fuelling the Android ecosystem, Android titles are expected to seize an estimated 80 per cent of Chinese mobile game revenue in 2013. When you consider that the smart device gaming market is expected to be worth $793 million for the region, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clear how lucrative developing games for Android devices can be. Publishing for China is not without its challenges. Developers must get to grips with the large number of Android

Also known as Chukong Technologies, CocoaChina is a leading global game developer and publisher, and has China's largest mobile gaming platform. Based in Beijing, it has subsidiaries in the US, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Its flagship mobile franchise, Fishing Joy, has had over 200 million downloads. In the Greater China region Fishing Joy has been a pioneer in terms of monetisation in that market. As a trusted publishing partner, CocoaChina helps companies like Disney, Z2Live, Konami and Nexon achieve success in the Chinese mobile gaming market. The company also supports the Cocos2d-x open source game engine, currently used by developers around the world including the likes of Handy Games, Gamevil, and Playfirst.

www.chukong-inc.com

app stores and payment options, as well as the problems of copycat games and unlicensed distribution. Western games can be successful in China, but practical concerns mean that a trustworthy and qualified local partner is a necessity â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one who can help you monetise and will aggressively protect your IP. A local partner can also drive marketplace inclusion, localisation, and integration with mobile carriers for payment. As a trusted publishing partner to some of the most successful international mobile gaming companies, we look forward to being able to assist you as you begin exploring the fast-growing Chinese marketplace, and embrace the Droid.

www.cocoachina.com

Survivor’s Guide to Publishing in China

Key Trends in Chinese mobile games Your key to launching apps for Chinese consumers iPhone? What iPhone? With sales figures vague or unobtainable for certain handsets, knowing what phone is top dog, and therefore which one to develop for, is not an exact science. IDC predicted that handset shipments will rise to 460 million units annually by 2017, with the landmark one billion mobile consumers reached in 2013. But when it comes to phone makes IDC won't comment, other than saying Android is the top OS. So, if iPhone doesn't reign in China, is Samsung's Galaxy S III top dog? Apparently not. According to most unofficial accounts, local manufacturer Xiaomi's handsets dominate. These cheaper, Androidpowered devices lead the market with 7.19 million devices sold in China in 2012. (http://tinyurl.com/ bulu3mz)

As valuable as the information in this report is, one of the most common comments you'll hear from any expert on the Chinese mobile market is how unpredictable it is – especially when viewed from outside. The one certainty is that China is going to be an increasingly important market for developers looking to expand their consumer base. Even in its accelerated state, any information you can gather about the Chinese market will give you an advantage over the developers that – for reasons unknown – jump in without doing any research. That makes this section of our report – a summary of the more prevalent trends impacting mobile gaming in China right now – your new best friend.

West is best? One of the most common myths about the Chinese market is that Westernthemed games don't sell. Unlike Japan, where many local titles seem somewhat alien to US and European audiences, some of the biggest games in the Chinese market in recent years have been hits first in the West. Check out the higher positions in the Chinese App Store charts in recent months and you'll see the likes of Where's My Water and Temple Run 2 hitting the top – names as familiar in the US and Europe as they are now in China.

Simple and direct, Where's My Water is popular in China primarily for its gameplay.

Aside from localisation – plenty of firms will translate your games, including some free crowdsourcing platforms such as Ackuna.com – the one key factor that links these games is that they're good. In short, don't be too focused on tailoring the basis of your game to suit Chinese audiences. Instead, focus on the overall quality, because good games always travel well.

Android dominant It's important to note that, in terms of pure market share, Android is the dominant smartphone platform in China, and its share of the pie is growing. But this isn't Android as we understand it. While Western consumers and developers are used to manufacturers reskinning and formatting Android to suit their own purposes, Android's growth in China is being driven partly by cheap

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Sensitive subjects

next trend illustrates, there are plenty of routes into the market to choose from.

Due to the strict nature of China's government, certain topics are best avoided:

Carrier kings

1Politics

Seen as a lower-value platform in the West, Android is the one to develop on in China.

Don’t attempt to make a political statement of any kind.

devices stripped of references to Google. The ChinaDroid, as it's known, takes advantage of the fact that the majority of phones and tablets are manufactured in China. The technology and know-how are then deployed within handsets from Chinese manufacturers, pre-loaded with apps and third-party app stores. "First, foreign brands establish the market," said TechRice in March. "Second, Chinese brands rise to the top. Third, hundreds of small no-name Chinese manufacturers take over the bottom and middle of the market." (http://tinyurl. com/btvftc8) For Western developers, used to the confines of Samsung, LG and HTC, it's a whole different ball game. However, as the

2 Violence

Heavily violent games are removed from the market.

3 Sex

Sexually explicit content doesn’t last very long either. One simple rule to follow is: "If you can't Google it in China, avoid it."

Mobile platform market share 2011 Q2 - 2012 Q3

100% 80% 60% 40% 20%

68.4%

82.8%

76.7%

90.1%

58.2% 46.8% 31.8% 7.1%

23.3%

18.7%

5.8%

5.7%

2011 Q3

2011 Q4

11.8% 6.5%

6.0% 6.0%

4.2% 2.4%

2012 Q2

2011 Q3

0% 2011 Q2

Android Symbian

iOS

2012 Q1

SOURCE: EnfoDesk © Analysis International

www.chukong-inc.com

While Western carriers are viewed as little more than 'dumb pipes' by many – platform holders and manufacturers holding the power – Android's dominance means Chinese operators have a much more hands-on role. Hundreds of app stores are on offer, and many Western developers who have made their mark in the region go with as many as possible. Setting out, it's best to target the stores run by the big three carriers: China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicorn. It’s also worth noting the future role of the country's internet heavyweights – Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, and Qihoo – which are realising how mobile gaming can draw consumers and, as a result, are moving their businesses towards the smartphone market.

Piracy and pain One other reason Android tends to be chosen by Chinese consumers is because it plays host to a far greater proportion of free releases than iOS – and free releases are entirely dominant in China. On both the Apple and Google platforms, piracy is a way of life. App market analyst Umeng estimates that more than 42 per cent of iOS devices in China have been jailbroken (http://tinyurl.com/cmkcsgp). This means that monetising from within free releases is essential. In-app purchases, however, are not. Outside of Apple's walled garden, this area is something of a mess. Few third parties have successfully built a Chinese equivalent for the local market on Google's platform. It means that free apps supported by in-app advertising are the model of choice for most Western developers hitting the Chinese market.

www.cocoachina.com

Survivor’s Guide to Publishing in China Looking for a publishing partner to help you get started in China?

Publishing for Android:

Overview

Chukong can help. Contact lei@us.chukong-inc.com for more.

The market is big, and getting even bigger, but there are challenges to publishing in China…

Favourite Handsets Samsung

Galaxy Note

Samsung Galaxy S3

Xiaomi M1

Meizu

MX Dual Core

Meizu

Recent estimates from Flurry put the current install base of active smartphones in China at 246 million by March 2013. Of those, between 170 and 200 million are Android devices, with growth at around 20 million a month. Evidence suggests that if you get your publishing model right you can turn this audience into revenue. Chukong Technologies has reported $6 million in revenue per month from its successful Fishing Joy franchise, for instance. The trouble is, China has been described as a porting team’s worse nightmare, with arguably the most fragmented Android market anywhere. Hardware specs from the likes of HTC

MX 4-Core

Beidou Little Pepper

JiaYu G3

Oppo

Wow! Outstanding! That's how to describe the performance of Fishing Joy 2 on Android.

and Samsung are being added to by Chinese brands like Lenovo, Huweii, ZTE, Oppo, Livell and G’Five, plus numerous ‘grey’ variations. Research suggests there are literally thousands of distinct Android phones and tablet models available running a wide range of OS versions. Then there's distributing your game. In January 2013, there were over 300 Android marketplaces operating, divided between carriers, OEMs, social networks, brands and third party independents. Choosing which to go with could be a nightmare, but see page 10 for help.

Show me the money Freemium is the main publishing model now in China. The Chinese like a bargain and they have embraced free gaming with relish. However, their subsequent spending on in-app purchases is still below Western levels. But the numbers are growing as devs work out how to press the right buttons with consumers. Finally, credit cards are scarce, so carrier billing and third party solutions such as Alipay are essential. Add all these complexities together and it's clear why a local partner can be so valuable in terms reaching this booming market.

Finder

Android minus Google? 8

Around 40 per cent of Android phones in China have few or no Google services. No Google Maps, Play, Gmail or Calendar. Google Search is largely blocked in China and the few devices with Google Play can only download free apps as purchases are not supported. Even the Galaxy S3 comes sans Google.

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Publishing for Android:

TOP FIVE Most popular mobile gaming genres

Success in the Chinese market could well depend on which titles you choose to localise, and how well they’re translated

Sticky games Games with a single, addictive, touch-based gameplay element like Fruit Ninja or Angry Birds.

If you’re shooting for success in China, treat localisation seriously. The Android market there is gigantic, fragmented, and full of selection, so there’s no reason for users to choose a poorly-localised product.

App Selection & Localisation

Firstly, consider if your game is viable in China’s Android marketplace? Chinese mobile gamers almost never pay for apps. So, developers release free games and earn from advertising and/or in-app sales. If you depend on charging per download, you’re not likely to do well in China. Some genres just don’t work as well in China. You’re probably not going to be able to compete with local developers if your game is a Viking RPG. The foreigndeveloped titles that have done best in China are ones like Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja – they have very little narrative, but offer a core gameplay mechanic. Even if your game has the potential to work, you'll probably need to make some

The Great Wall Edition

small design changes. Adding social integration so that gamers can share high scores with their friends on Weibo and Renren (among other services) is a good idea. A Chinese payment option like AliPay is an absolute necessity if you’re hoping to earn from in-app purchases.

Translation services Have every word professionally translated. Cheap translators are a yuan a dozen and, especially in English-toChinese translation, you get what you pay for. A poorly translated app is one destined for deletion. But the best-localised apps go further with locally-themed releases. Both Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies appeared in versions including Chinese graphics and cultural elements, like the Moon Festival and Chinese New Year. This seems cheesy, but don’t underestimate it – both local versions did extremely well.

PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies: Great Wall Edition is an example of localisation done right. The publisher saw that its game was doing well in China, so it took the time to create additional, China-specific content like Great Wall levels and Chinesestyle zombies. The company developed the new content in China, for Chinese gamers, and partnered with Tencent to ensure the game would reach a big market. Heeding the number one requirement for the Chinese market, PopCap made it free-to-play – a first for PvZ – and offered the China-specific content for the game as a paid add-on.

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Platformers Temple Run is the current favourite on many Chinese app markets, but even old school platformers like Mario do well on app stores that are, ahem… less concerned with IP protection.

Gambling games Poker and mahjong are among the most popular. Chinese gamers love to gamble, but remember that gambling using real money is illegal.

Racing games Who doesn’t like speeding around in fast, expensive cars?

RPGs Even on mobiles, some Chinese gamers like diving into complex RPGs and MMORPGs – many are based on the Three Kingdoms.

Survivor’s Guide to Publishing in China

Channels to market:

Chinese app stores

A key decision when releasing your game in China is which marketplaces to sell it on… In the West, few developers stray beyond the big two market channels for mobile games: Apple's App Store, and Google Play. Even if they do, most tend to stick loyally to the default options served up by Microsoft, BlackBerry or, at a stretch, Amazon Appstore. Third-party app stores, though a legitimate business, are few in number in Europe and the US. In China, however, where Google Play is stripped from scores of devices, third-party app stores are the mainstay. The sheer number of app vendors in China – there are around 300 – means choosing where to sell is tricky. To help you, we’ve compiled a list of ten key stores to aim for. This isn’t a one size fits all list – there are undoubtedly more niche stores throughout China that could serve your games well – but it covers the main bases.

360 Mobile Assistant http://zhushou.360.cn/

Backed by the internet security giant Qihoo, the 360 Mobile Assistant is one of the region's biggest players. In-house stats from September 2012 show that 100 million users tap into its marketplace. The store is known for its comparative safety for consumers, with Qihoo drawing on its expertise to provide a dedicated security technology team. In a market where rogue apps and scams are common, 360 Mobile Assistant is the secure choice.

The closest China comes to having an app store for the mainstream consumer is the Qihoo 360 market.

91 Mobile Assistant http://zs.91.com/ Operated by NetDragon, 91 Mobile Assistant helps sync PCs and mobile devices – with lower and less reliable mobile network bandwidth, there’s more sideloading and syncing than in the US and Europe. Its popular embedded app store had shifted over 10 billion downloads by the end of October 2012 and was driving over 22 million downloads per day.

China Mobile's Mobile Market

www.chinamobileltd.com China Mobile is the world's largest mobile operator, with 710 million subscribers. Its app store is a major force with 150 million users in January 2012, and the number is rising. China Mobile revealed this year

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that Mobile Market offers 1.57 million apps across Android and Symbian, with 1.92 billion total downloads. It's the largest Chinese-language app store on the planet.

D.cn Games Center http://android.d.cn

D.cn is one of the few marketplaces that leads with games, though it offers regular apps too. Rovio used the store as one of its bases for its Angry Birds assault on China. The store also offers a slick on-device app store, better designed than many rivals.

Wandoujia/SnapPea www.wandoujia.com www.snappea.com

More of an app store aggregator than a marketplace, Wandoujia offers a suite of syncing tools for Android handsets, used in the absence of Google Play. A version has been launched for the West called SnapPea, which could be a useful test bed for your move into China proper.

D.cn Games Centre leads with games but sells a whole swathe of general apps too. Angry Birds launched here.

Baidu App Store http://as.baidu.com/

A spot on the Baidu App Store is a must for Western developers looking to make it in China. Baidu's platform acts as an app aggregator, scouring the web to source what it believes are the region's top picks. Chances are, it's a fairly good indicator too: Baidu is China's leading search engine, and pushes its picks directly on its front page, plus via a dedicated app.

optimising your keywords to suit is a very effective marketing tool.

Taobao App Market http://app.taobao.com

Launched last summer, Taobao is a fast-growing newcomer. Owned by Alibaba, which runs payment platform Alipay, it might be the store that succeeds in selling paid-for apps in China, though currently its focus is on free releases.

EOE Market

www.eoemarket.com A smaller player than many of the other marketplaces, EOE caters well to gamers with a mix of local games and global hits, such as Angry Birds and Temple Run. It may not be worth using EOE alone, but for those looking to tap as many channels as possible, it should be on your list.

Mobile QQ

Tencent QQ is an instant messaging chat service that had around 800 million active users at the end of 2012, and its web page was the ninth most visited in the world as of March 2013. The QQ mobile appâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s search facility pushes ads for apps that relate to the search terms used, so

UC is the fastest-growing web browser in China. It was on 300 million Android smartphones in the region by the end of 2012. The app store embedded in the browser and promotion via its search term ads have become vital channels for publishers to market their games.

http://www.tencent.com

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www.ucweb.com

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Survivor’s Guide to Publishing in China Looking for a publishing partner to help you get started in China?

Preventing Piracy

Chukong can help. Contact lei@us.chukong-inc.com for more.

Piracy is a key hurdle to overcome in the Chinese marketplace. Here are some ways to cope with it When releasing an app in China, it’s important to have somebody on the ground, from your own team or a local partner, keeping an eye on things. Otherwise you could lose thousands of sales without even noticing your game has been pirated. There are two main kinds of piracy to worry about: consumer piracy and competitor piracy.

How Cocoa China can help Protect your IP with Chukong Technologies in China, which can:

Consumer piracy happens when you charge money for your app, but users don’t want to pay, so they find an APK somewhere online for free and download that instead. This is illegal, but very few developers have been able to prevent it, so working hard on anti-piracy measures is probably a waste of your time. Instead, release your game for free, and then monetise it through advertisements or in-app purchases like game items, extra levels, or subscription services.

Assign dedicated personnel to monitor all third-party app markets for piracy. Work with 91, Anzhi, Gfan, AppChina, 360, and other channels to take down any pirated versions. Work with the Chinese government and other regulatory agencies.

Copycat titles

Competitor piracy is when another developer sees your game, likes it, and

Fighting identity theft

2 3

Use extensive experience to try and resolve piracy issues.

Identity theft is a big problem in China. A common scam sees stolen credit cards used to buy in-game credits for popular titles. The in-game currency is then sold online at a discount. When the cardholder discovers the fraudulent charges, the developers then lose out on both the payments and the in-app items they sold. In response, Chinese developers set up the Anti-Fraud Payment Alliance in 2011, preventing millions of dollars in fraudulent transactions.

then releases a virtually identical game. If your game is popular, you will attract copycats. You could take legal measures to protect your IP, but often this is too costly and time-consuming. Appealing to the media to embarrass the copycats can sometimes work if they’re attached to a big company. Tencent, for example, has been known to remove copycat games from its platforms after being publicly called out for hosting them.

Be the best The best way to protect your game from being copied is to make sure it’s so good that consumers accept no substitute. Fruit Ninja spawned more than a few copycats after its release, but Chinese users continued to download the legitimate version of the game. Why? Because it was free and was better than all its mimics. Copycat developers are usually looking to cash in on another game’s popularity for a quick buck, so if you’ve taken the time to really perfect and polish your game, they might not bother trying to undercut you. If a Chinese company has been successful stealing your IP and produced a great game, sometimes the best option is to partner with that company, or acquire it. Managing a local partner can be tricky, but it can give you an invaluable window into the market while also neutralising a potentially dangerous rival. Rovio has used this tactic well to build its Angry Birds brand in China.

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Promotion & User Acquisition You’ve made the game, selected your channels, now how can you stand out from the crowd? In the increasingly competitive app marketplace you need to cover all the bases in order to give your app the edge, certainly at launch. In an ideal world you’ll start with a pre-loaded slot with a prominent carrier or OEM to get a large group of people playing your game straight away. So you'll need a great game and good business contacts! The next best thing is to engage with the bigger distribution stores such as the carriers China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom as well as leading independent portals such as 360 and 91 to secure some promotion there.

Chart attack The charts are a big driver of continuing success and getting into the top 10 and 25 lists can massively boost your income. These charts are more disparate than Apple's and each store has it’s own metrics for measuring chart position (Apple is thought to use downloads, daily users, conversion rates and other factors.) The more time spent understanding these, the better you’ll fare. Tools like App Annie’s free app tracker and Umeng or Flurry’s data analytics can help. Strategies for pushing installs and generating buzz aren’t so different from those used in the West, but the services vary. AdMob, Tapjoy, Tapit, Appflood, www.chukong-inc.com

Help! I need someone… local Nowhere is the need for local assistance more important than in marketing and promotion. It’s essential that you have someone monitoring the local market. With a bona fide hit under their belt and unrivalled contacts in the Chinese mobile games market, Chukong Technologies is a partner you should certainly consider.

Game review websites such as ptbus.com are important points for Chinese press coverage.

inMobi and Chukong in-app advertising services are worth looking at. Acquisition costs vary depending on the type of game. A cost per install of $0.70 to $2 is typical with big publishers paying up to $100,000 monthly to make some impact. The review sites and wider media promotion can drive downloads and create buzz and websites or forums like pkbus.com should be courted and supported to ensure good coverage. Paid-for review content is much more common in Asia as a whole and sites like revmobreviews.com are packed with sponsored content. App store search term optimisation is important too and you’ll definitely need local expertise in picking search terms. The social networks have a big role to play. There’s no Facebook and Twitter but, so you’ll need to harness the likes of Renren and Weibo to get the word out.

Case study:

Fishing Joy

Chukong Technologies is well placed to offer guidance and inspiration in app marketing, having worked hard to stimulate phenomenal success with the Fishing Joy series. Its strategy for this was one of all-out war, blanketing app stores, engaging with leading press sites, saturating vertical media and utilising an aggressive AdMob click-to-download campaign to ensure that you just couldn’t escape the brand. As the company has grown, it has been able to cross promote to its network of 200 million users.

www.cocoachina.com

Survivor’s Guide to Publishing in China

Other operating systems:

Beyond Android

There is life beyond Android, and plenty of niches with the possibility of strong growth

Android dominates the Chinese market with between 70 and 90 per cent market share, depending on which report you believe. However, other platforms are out there, and newcomers are worth watching out for.

the iPhone for the Chinese market. There are around 60 million iOS users, and judging by prices, revenues and data from the search engine Baidu, they are wealthier consumers using their phones for browsing and apps. An advantage with Apple is that there's only one App Store to work with, rather than the estimated 300 for Android, but other challenges persist including monetisation, and piracy. Some premium apps survive, but in general freemium, or free with in-app advertising, are better routes. You’ll most likely need to rely on consumers using pre-purchased iTunes vouchers rather than credit cards for payment. And, jailbreaking is common, with multiple sites offering the best performing games at no cost.

Apple falls Go back 18 months and there was little doubt which handset Chinese consumers coveted. Even before its launch in the territory, China Mobile reported millions of iPhones were using its network. Then, the battle with Android was relatively even and most app publishers took an iOS-first strategy. Market forces and the passage of time haven’t been kind to iPhone. They cost three to four times what an Android device costs. Apple distributes through China Unicom and China Telecom. However, it has been slow sealing a deal with dominant China Mobile, and setting up alternate payment options. Apple was third in handset sales, behind Samsung and Lenovo in 2012. While Apple may be down, it’s not out. A China Mobile deal is still in the offing and there are rumours of a cut-price version of

Keep taking the tablets Apple’s iPhone may not rule the roost in mobile, but in the tablet space its iPad accounted for 71 per cent of sales as of Q3 in 2012. This market is still much smaller than smartphones – the same quarter saw around 65 per cent growth year-on-year but just 2.6 million units shipped, compared to around 45 million smartphones. However many in the industry now see tablets as the future of mobile gaming, rather than a luxury niche. They say iPad Mini could be a strong catalyst for the industry – and Apple itself – due primarily to it’s price tag which, at around $350, is less than half that of an iPhone (around $850).

Tablets: Market volume in China 2010 Q4 - 2012 Q3 3

60%

Market volume (Millions) Growth rate 48.8% 32.9%

37.7%

40%

20% 7.8%

11.3%

11.0%

-8.2% 0.8

1.0

1.4

1.6

2.4

2.2

2.3

2.6

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Chinese consumers are choosing Android now, but what about the Future?

Nokia and Java Nokia remains a major brand in China. Despite a sharp decline in Symbian handsets as the technology is phased out, Nokia still boasts a sizeable legacy installed base. It has claimed positive early results for Windows Phone 8, with marketing manager Greg Sullivan saying in January they were “selling like hot cakes in China.” With little independent data to corroborate this at present, it’s hard to know exactly how popular Nokia’s Windows Phones have been. Feature phones still have a big presence in the market, with at least one third owning devices that play Java games. Around 27 per cent of the 223 million handsets sold in 2012 were feature phones, according to IDC. Plus there’s a legacy installed base of 50 million. Though not as glamorous as the smartphone world, carrier portals are still doing business in China and are likely to remain for years to come.

Sales share of China's tablet PC market 2012 Q3 Apple ��71.42% Lenovo �� 10.52% Ereneben ��3.61% Samsung ��3.53% Acer �� 3.03% Asus �� 1.74% Teclast ��0.96% Ramos �� 0.53% Aigo ��0.29% Motorola ��0.26% Other �� 4.11% SOURCE: EnfoDesk © Analysis International

stating that mobile companies should start focusing on developing an independent mobile operating system to escape Android dependency The official reason related to Android becoming increasingly vulnerable to attack. It’s argued a Chinese mobile OS would benefit users and companies alike. Opposing reliance on foreign tech, especially that of a company with which it has a fractious relationship, this might easily be seen as a shot across the bow from the Chinese government. Apple will surely find a workable strategy sooner rather than later, and there are a number of new operating systems on the way, including Sailfish OS by Jolla. The startup sees China as the launchpad for its technology. There is also Samsung-led Tizen, and more familiar faces such as Firefox and Blackberry’s BB10 OS. Considering the success of home grown hardware and app stores, it’s difficult to bet against one or two brand new operating systems breaking through. These could provide a variety of niche opportunities for developers looking to get a foothold in China.

The future Android's number one position may seem unquestionable, however the Chinese government recently announced its concern at this Googlebacked dominance. The Ministry for Industry and Information Technology went so far as to publish a whitepaper

Piracy of paid-for games is a problem, particularly for iOS releases.

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