China's games are "harvesting" foreigners

source ： Operation Research Institute （ID：U_quan） author ： Yu Liyan edit ： Yang Peiwen Design ： Yan Tan Mengjie

Broad overseas market , It gives domestic game makers a chance to live .

“ Domestic games are getting harder and harder to play ”, Relevant personnel told the operation agency .

In the context of the declining environment ,「 The game industry 」 More and more difficult , Actually, from last year , The big game companies have started to lay off employees .

However , Operating agency found , Compared with the miserable domestic situation , These game companies have long been sailing overseas , Even rolled up overseas ……

Heartbeat company CEO Huangyimeng said in his letter to shareholders that TapTap （ Game community name ） This year's goal is to gain a firm foothold in Europe and the United States , Build a global community that serves high-quality players ; Middle hand （ Game company ） The target of this year's overseas revenue is to account for 30%, And next year it will occupy 50%.

01  How many domestic games go to sea “ lobster ”？

Game data data.ai Show ,2021 In, the user expenditure of China's overseas mobile games accounted for% of the market share of overseas mobile games 21% , And in 2021 Global publishers 52 Qiang Zhong , For the first time, the number of Chinese publishers has surpassed that of the United States .

obviously , Domestic games are gradually reaping the world .

Display according to data ,2021 The annual income in overseas market exceeds 1 The Chinese mobile games worth billion US dollars have reached 42 paragraph .

By the end of 2022 year 3 month , The top three Chinese game manufacturers in the list of revenue from going to sea are MIHA tour 、FunPlus And Tencent , lilith 、 NetEase 、 Three and seven are arranged separately for mutual entertainment 4 to 6 name .

Picture source ：data.ai

In the process of sailing overseas , These head game manufacturers can be said to have their own unique moves and brilliant achievements ：

Whether it's heat or income , MIHA tour relies on games 「 Protogod 」 and 「 Collapse 」 The super high heat of the series , Stay in the head position .

With media statistics , It's just 「 Protogod 」 A game , For MIHA you 2 I earn 178 The brilliant achievements of billion flowing water .

According to the Sensor Tower Statistics , stay 2021 year 9 month 「 Protogod 」 The total revenue of global mobile terminals is as high as 3.41 Billion dollars （ Foreign income 2.34 Billion dollars ）, Pressure Tencent 《 Glory of Kings 》、《PUBG Mobile》, Netease's 《 Harry Potter ： Magic awakening 》 Including all mobile game products in the world , Ranked first in the global mobile game revenue list .

For MIHA you , The main reason for its success is 「 Protogod 」 Global explosion , And 「 Protogod 」 Open world game background and refined operation investment , Greatly improve the user's game experience , Extended user life cycle .

therefore , Many industry sources ,「 Protogod 」 Our overseas market advantages will be maintained at least 2022 end of the year .

For Netease , The performance of its game business in overseas markets is particularly important .

Public financial report data display ,2021 year , The proportion of game business in the total revenue of Netease 72%, The proportion in the gross profit reaches 87%, So can we continue to make profits in overseas markets , It is very important for Netease .

Netease's journey to the sea has obvious stage characteristics ：

First , In the early days of Netease going to sea , Its overseas game business mainly focuses on leisure games （ such as 「 Aircraft battle 」 etc. ） And their own hot money 「 A dream journey to the West 」 Mainly mobile games , But because the scope of influence is limited , Little benefit .

secondly , from 2016 Year begins , Due to the similar cultural environment and the appropriate game playability , Netease game 「 Yin Yang teacher 」 In Japan and other East Asian countries 、 Southeast Asian countries are very popular , At this stage , Going to sea has officially become an important source of income for the company's mobile game business .

thereafter , In order to continue 「 Yin Yang teacher 」 The glory of , Netease also struck while the iron was hot and launched in Japan and other countries 「 Fifth personality 」、「 The wilderness act 」 and 「 After tomorrow 」 Waiting for the big game .

According to the @ Expansion puzzle extfans According to , These three games accounted for the largest share of Netease's overseas water 83%, among 「 The wilderness act 」 More than... Downloads in Japan 2500 ten thousand , Occupy the majority of Japanese game users 75%.

Last , In recent years , Netease started to buy copyright crazily , Development IP The stage of the game .

Because the culture is similar , And Netease is good at national style game , In the previous stage , Netease's game business is deeply dependent on the Japanese market , stay 2021 year , Japan has contributed to the Netease game sector 75.5% The water .

Picture source ： Value planet

But in the global market , Netease obviously lacks 「 Protogod 」 This kind of sweeping absolute game , It's not like many game companies stationed overseas early , Carry out in-depth cooperation with local game companies （ you 're right , It's a message ） .

therefore , At this stage, Netease chooses to buy crazily IP, Especially the kind of big IP, such as 「 Harry Potter 」、「 The Lord of the rings 」 etc. ……

One of the big ones IP game 「 The Lord of the rings ： War of rise 」 It has been widely praised since its release in the United States —— The game 47% All of the flowing water comes from the American market .

In the field of games , Tencent is a well deserved pioneer at sea , from 2011 Began to buy the famous 《 Hero alliance 》 Start , Tencent embarked on the road of game going to sea .

thereafter , Tencent's game going to sea has also entered different stages .

In the first phase , The characteristic of Tencent game going to sea is that capital takes the first step —— M & A other excellent overseas game companies to open up the market , Of course, one of the most brilliant achievements is 「 Hero alliance 」 and 「 The wild turbulence. 」.

Picture source ：IT orange

In the second phase , When Tencent gained a certain market popularity overseas , Tencent began to seize category dividends , Take advantage of the free ride of popular categories to occupy the overseas market , such as 「 Glory of Kings 」 and 「PUBG MOBILE」.

《Arena of Valor》（ Glory of the king Overseas Edition ） since 2016 In, he began to go to sea , Has been in Hong Kong, China 、 Japan and South Korea 、 Southeast Asia 、 In North America 、 Europe and other global 173 Issued in countries and regions , Have 16 Language version , Has more than one in the world 2 Million registered players .

2021 year ,《PUBG MOBILE》（ Merge 《 Game for Peace 》 income ） In the world iOS、Andriod Total income reaches 26 Billion dollars , Ranked No. 1 in the best-selling list of mobile games in the world 2 name .

In the third phase , Tencent began to set up overseas studios and overseas brands to accelerate their efforts to go to sea , Further provide game quality and influence .

earlier , Tian Mei 、 Photon studio and blizzard 、 Nintendo and other big companies have launched 《 Call of duty Tour 》 and 《 Baokemeng assembly 》 Products such as , data display 《 Call of duty Tour 》 Since its launch, its revenue has exceeded 10 Billion dollars .

meanwhile , last year 12 month 8 Japan , Tencent games also launched overseas brands Level Infinite, image 《 Arena of Valor》 and 《 famine ： A new home 》 Wait for the game to be released in the brand .

To acquire well-known game companies through investment and build up popularity , To seize the hot track and expand the market share , And then to set up a brand studio to further provide game quality and volume , Tencent is in 「 The game goes out to sea 」 Strategically , Obviously forward-looking overall planning .

02  Thousand sails of the game , How to do it ？

Many game companies have successfully sailed to the sea , How they do it ？

Engaged in overseas game operation Jason Tell the operation agency , The game industry wants to go to sea smoothly , Localization is the most important , The overseas localization of the game business mainly revolves around two aspects —— Content localization and marketing localization .

1） Content localization

Content localization also includes culture and employees .

One side , Cultural localization refers to the distribution of games that conform to the cultural concepts of local users , This requires game companies to deeply understand the cultural tendencies and preferences of local users before creating games .

such as , Influenced by the heroic plot , U.S. users' feedback on leisure games is average , But I like it very much IP All kinds of adaptations 「 Heroes 」 game , Such as Netease 「 The Lord of the rings ： War of rise 」.

because 「 The Lord of the rings 」 release 20 many years , It has a relatively broad user base in the United States , therefore 「 The Lord of the rings ： War of rise 」 Once released, it has been widely praised , It has attracted nearly 10 billion yuan for Netease .

Another example , When Blizzard team entered China , We fully understand the development of Chinese traditional culture , Added a lot of festival restrictions to the game .

「 Watchman pioneer 」 Every Mid Autumn Festival 、 Dragon Boat Festival and Spring Festival launch limited tasks and national style hero skin , Cater to Chinese customs and habits at the same time , It can also resonate with Chinese players .

On the other hand , For the game manufacturers going to sea , Acquisition 、 Set up a local studio , Recruiting overseas employees is also the inevitable way of localization .

stay 2021 year Q4 At the financial report meeting , NetEase CEO Ding Lei has repeatedly stressed the need to recruit excellent producers and teams around the world , So as to create game content consistent with local culture .

If you want to open a studio overseas , Montreal of Canada must be the first choice , Because a large number of game talents converge , Montreal is known as the heart of gamers “ Jerusalem ”, NetEase 、 Both Tencent and mihayou have set up game studios here , Recruit local staff .

in addition to , Domestic manufacturers have also set up studios all over the world , According to the @ Top of the game   Statistics , There are at least 18 Game manufacturers have set up offices overseas .

Picture source ： Top of the game

2） Marketing localization

Jason Tell the operation agency , In marketing , The current marketing mode is also changing from the traditional buying volume marketing , Turn to social media marketing , Such as the use of TikTok Auxiliary communication .

First , The first step in marketing is to understand local user portraits ,“ You can only understand the preferences of users in different regions , In order to promote ”,Jason Say .

such as , Southeast Asia 、 Japan and South Korea Tik Tok Users especially like strategy games , Therefore, the game promotion in these countries should focus on creating and solving problems .

picture source ：TikTok： New positions for global gamers —2021 Global mobile gamer white paper

secondly , stay Tik Tok And other content platforms , Attract potential users .

Jason Emphasize that in this process , The interactivity of the content must be strong , because Tik Tok The user's acceptance of advertising is quite high , If the content is more interactive , The delivery effect will be very good , There will be more positive feedback from users .

Last , Guide users to conduct secondary creation and dissemination , Expand user base disk .

The specific term ,Tik Tok There are often 「 Brand challenge 」 And other operational activities , These activities can often attract a large number of users to participate spontaneously , So as to realize secondary propagation .

Before taking it Tik Tok It's very hot 「 Place the girl 」 give an example , The game and Tik Tok Many brand challenge competitions have been held , By customizing stickers 、 Attract users to participate by means of exclusive music , Finally, the heat burst .

《 Place the girl 》 last year 3 In May “4 Annual challenge ”, The amount of relevant videos played is up to 1.18 Billion , The number of video submissions has also exceeded 4.3 copies , It has attracted a large number of users to actively participate in the production of game marketing content .

03  Conclusion

For domestic enterprises in previous years , Whether to go to sea or not is still a question worth pondering ; With the increasingly fierce competition in domestic games , More and more pressure , Going to sea has become an inevitable result .

For big factories ,ta With abundant funds , Replicable experience , Be able to gallop overseas ; For small factories , The broad overseas market at least gives them a chance to live .

however , Going to sea is not plain sailing , Local user characteristics , Consumption habits and various policies and regulations are big mountains in front of game manufacturers , The collective going out to sea of game manufacturers is the core of the game industry 「 upgrade 」, It's from another place “ Internal volume ”, We'll see .

Reference material ：

《“ Players create ” Under the times ,TikTok It is becoming the main position of overseas game marketing 》,MoRA

《 Research Report on Tencent game going to sea ： Capital first , Tianmei photon carries super 50 Overseas manufacturers are speeding up to sea 》, Zhu Taowei

《 Netease game , Should be “ Hegemony ” Japan ？》, Tang Fei

《 Going to ？ Domestic games go to sea to a new level 》, Top of the game

《 Tencent netease , Go all over the world 》,AI Club of finance and economics

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