Marketing beyond your own region? What else is there to it besides localization, translation, local marketing spend? A lot. Especially lots your local competitors never have to think about but natually do well! Find the secrets to globalizing your message and growing outside your local market!

1. Get Ready To Get Global
Kaavya Kasturirangan
Head – North America Communications & PR
November 13, 2014

2. Contents
1. Going East
2. China
3. Japan
4. Korea
5. Summary

4. Go “East”, young man
• Very high smartphone penetration; large user bases
• Highly engaged gaming population
• Freemium model hugely popular; countries like Japan, Korea and China rank
very high on app store revenue
• Rise of the “Indian middle class” that chugs down mobile services (travel apps,
entertainment apps, communication apps) and consumes gaming apps like
Western counterparts
However,
• Understanding the target audience so far away
• Cultural barriers
• Piracy concerns
• Fragmented app distribution
• Localization, customization
• Partnering for success

5. What it takes to win in the
Chinese app market

6. Quick Wins
Marketing
Targeting
Partnerships
Fremium
Getting your Users
Monetizing them

7. Marketing
Localization
Advertising
is ok!
WoM, social
seeded campaigns

8. Subway Surfer
(China)
Subway surfer
(US)
Localization
Beyond translation, think user emotions and culture
Temple Run 2
(USA)
Temple Run clone
Adapt to Chinese culture Great Wall of China Theme

9. Color, Perspectives &
Texture of the game
Localization
Human characters vs.
fantasy cartoons
Top Endless runer game in west -
Darker more realistic themes.
Top Endless runner game in China
Light and colourful themes.

10. Localization
Gameplay & Mechanics
Swipe in four
directions, tilt left &
right vs. Slide and
Jump. That’s it!
Challenging gameplay
Eg. Puzzle games
restrict the number
of moves
Simple, fast and
engaging game play.
Eg. Puzzle games are
time-based. 60 seconds
per turn is popular.

11. Localization
Player Mindset
Chinese gamers don’t care much about personal
milestones, all they care about is how well are they doing
compared to their friends. So leaderboards are really
important to engage users.
Chinese games are known to offer daily
bonuses and discounts to players to
encourage them to keep coming back!

12. Promotions - expensive but necessary step to get scale in China
Advertising
High level of receptivity to receive ads for apps based on app browsing history.
Unlike Google Play, App Stores in China offer promotions in exchange for revenue
share, for games monetizing through in-app-purchases.
Due to the presence of multiple app stores in China, it becomes important to pick
and choose the right app stores to promote your game in
Chinese users discover Android apps on mobile websites!
While Chinese users explore new apps, they also love reading reviews and then
interacting with an app.

13. Maximize presence across social apps especially in the game centers
Social-Seeded Campaigns
Social messaging platforms like WeChat and QQ are
getting in to game distribution through their game
centers!
Users can directly download the games from these
platforms.

14. Targeting
Demographics- Men
vs. Women, Tier 2 cities
Operating Systems

15. Partnerships
• App Stores
• Payments
• Social Networks
• Game Operators
• Servers and Networks
• Piracy Control

16. Highly fragmented. The number of players in the mobile app
ecosystem is a lot higher in China than in the West
App Store Ecosystem
West
China
DiscoveryPaymentDistribution

17. Update the users who have a pirated version of your game into
your original Chinese version!
Piracy: From problem to solution
To achieve this, a close coordination with the app stores is required.
Pro-tip: Post publishing, often releasing the updates
with new content will protect it from piracy.

18. Match user preference,
motivation - reap returns Freemium
Game Plays
In-app purchase stores
Trust – Paid apps are
easily pirated!

19. Monetizing Gameplays
Games in the west
usually do not restrict
the number of
gameplays. In China it is
acceptable to restrict the
number of gameplays
and use that to
monetize users.
Gunz Dash
Temple Run 2
Infinite attempts.
Restricted number of lives.

20. In-Game Purchase Store
Jetpack Joyride
Gunz Dash
Single page store menu
Multi-page store menu
Chinese players
are known to
monetize better
when there is a
single page
store menu and
within the
playing field.

21. In-Game Purchase Store
Western games have mixed
currency tabs, Chinese gamers
would prefer to have them
neatly separated. Keep various
denominations of currency for
high users and new entrants.
Also consider virtual currency
to entice new users

22. What it takes to win in the Japanese
app market

23. The Land of the Rising Sun
• Huge smartphone penetration
• App downloads are a-rocking
• Huge app spenders
• Prefer rich media ads, context-aware ads – likewise with gaming
• High degree of social play
However,
• Competitive internal market
• Cultural minutiae
o Being well prepared
o Patience, persistence
o Expectations of quality
o Customer service

24. Quick Wins
Marketing Getting your Users
Monetizing them
“Run” your game
Community
Management

25. MarketingMix of Media
Target Audience and
Reaching Them
PR and Agency
Support
Mix of App Stores

26. Target Audience
• Data crunching and game tweaking towards keeping players
engaged; all in the hope that if they keep playing, they will be
paying
• Men – tend to look at download stats, culture of “risk-aversion”,
peer-reviews highly considered
• Women – more traditional media – billboards etc.; play in
different peer group settings

27. PR and Agency Support
• Everything in Japan goes through agencies, it’s the traditional
approach
• Virality – Pre-campaign teasers. Collaborate with app review sites
like AppBank
• Working with review sites can also ensure discoverability since
users often browse app review sites aside from app stores
• Gaming in Japan encourages social interaction hence requires tie
ups with social communication platforms like LINE
• Localization e.g. Anime/text-heavy/rich visuals

28. Run Your GameFreemium works but
creative revenue models
From currency schemes to GACHA
cards to goodies and smart schemes
– Japanese developers have more
data scientists and analysts than
their western counterparts. They
know that persuasion is what gets a
game to catch on and stay cool
Data crunching to keep
users engaged
The Japanese art of
Persuasion
Partnerships with
Telcos and Server clients

29. Community Management
Virtual nature of gaming means
app developers need to stay
current with their apps and users.
Customer service is an art form in
Japan. Converting users into “fans
for life” is a popular endeavor for
most Japanese developers.
High quality and
consistent customer care
Feedback and
responsiveness
Social Channels
Monitoring

30. What it takes to win in the Korean app
market

31. The Land of the Morning Calm
• Home to Samsung, LG and KakaoTalk
• Love phablets
• Game obsessed
• Android big but Google Play isn’t
However,
• Fragmented distribution including operator-run app
stores
• Variously referred to as being at ‘point of saturation’

32. Marketing Getting your Users
Quick Wins
Monetizing Them
Partnerships
Types of Apps

33. Marketing
• Social – KakaoStory, Band, KT, FB
• Gaming Platforms (commission based) – Kakao Game (highest user base),
Band Game (targets 30-40 year olds), AfreecaTV, Line (Big outside Korea too)
• Channels – HungryApp, HandyGame, Inven
• PR for pre-registration
• Offline advertising at Metro stations including game booths
• Keep users curious by constantly tweaking game play and mechanics

34. Partnerships
• Fragmented ecosystem of app stores e.g. T Store, NHN, Hangame –
partner with a local ad network with knowledge of the market so you can
determine which app stories to list on
• KakaoTalk – Tuesday Top App phenomenon
• Telco app store
• Mobile payment and NFC-enabled devices means partnerships with local
carriers or mobile operators like SK Planet
• Local app store ecosystem allows for devs to make money (yay!) so get in
on it.

35. Types of Apps
• Fremium model is hugely popular like any mature market both for UA purposes
and monetization
• Game play is easy but addictive – Think Flappy Bird
• Pay attention to the details within apps – too cluttered and you’ll lose audience
• Game should be playable with fingers and not very complicated in terms of
permutations and options
• Think beyond Gaming – huge demand for social communication apps
• Within gaming, most users are hooked to casual games so it is opening up a
market for mid-core games
• Other popular activities among Korean consumers are K-pop, movies, reality TV
so apps surrounding these also have huge potential

36. Summary
• Highly localized - Think global, act local
• Asia does not equal CJK – highly nuanced markets that need different
strategies and approaches
• Other emerging markets of the East include India, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Singapore which are worth looking at once the Big 3 are conquered
• Huge appetite for apps – gaming especially so worthwhile to consider
expansion into Asia or launching across Asia as part of your GTM plan
• Remember “Games-as-a-Service” – it’s not a single shot launch it, forget it
type approach
• Partners can make the journey easier

37. Thanks!
For questions, comments please email:
Kaavya.kasturirangan@inmobi.com