Insight about kakao games Fin

Insight about Kakao GamesJUNG HONG KIM

MAD HEAD LIMITED

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

JUNG HONG KIM@ MADHEAD LIMITED 2

Anipang, the miracle Anipang is the very first Kakao Game which triggered the start of the era of Kakao Games in Korea.

It reached 2 million DAU (Daily Active Users) and over 20 million Downloads in only 15 days after launching.

Its success, says the developer of Anipang, is based on the “Social Graph” of kakaotalk.


Other Kakao Games

20 million Downloads for Anipang12 million Downloads for Dragon Flight12 million Downloads for Candypang3 million Downloads for I Love Coffee2 million Downloads for Viking Island


Other Kakao Games6 out of 14 Top Free apps in Korean Google Play Store are labeled “for kakao”

6 out of 14 Top New Free apps in Korean Google Play Store are labeled “for kakao”

Rank 1 for all three categories are “ 윈드러너 for kakao”

Screenshots taken on Feb, 2013


What is Social Graph? Introduced by one of the co-founders of Face-book, Mark Zuckerberg, Social Graph refers to the personal relations of internet users.

Each user is represented as a node, and social relationship between the nodes occur online. This relationship is established when a user adds another user as a friend, comment on a post or like the post. This simple concept, however, created massive web of relationships around the world, linking nearly everyone on Earth by over three to four nodes.

This became the basis for Social Gaming.


What is Kakaotalk? Social Networking Service Application, which dramatically replaced the previous SMS sys-tem. Launched on March 18, 2010. Following the great advance in telecommunication tech-nology (3G, LTE), applications such as Kakaotalk has been extremely popular around the world. Applications similar to Kakaotalk are Whatsapp, WeChat, LINE, and MyPeople. Kakaotalk is the leading free SNS application in Korea. It is known that majority of Korean smartphone users use Kakaotalk.


Main Functions of Kakaotalk 1. Instant messaging

2. Group call

3. Free VoIP Call (Voicetalk)

4. Special Emoticon

5. Group messaging

6. Photo/Video Sharing

7. Supports Multiple platforms: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows, Bada


Influence of Kakaotalk in Korean Market

97.4% of the downloaders actually use Kakaotalk. Since its launch in 2010, growing number of people started using Kakaotalk as their main communication method.

Statistics show that Kakaotalk has over 72 mil-lion users around the world, over 21 million people actually use Kakaotalk every day (DAU), and Kakaotalk processes over 4.1 billion mes-sages per day.

Kakaotalk Nateon UC

Tic talk MyPeople LINE


Influence of Kakaotalk in Korean Market

While Facebook is a micro-blogging SNS, Kakaotalk is instant messaging SNS. This means Kakaotalk is more accessible than Facebook:

Recent study shows that people use Kakaotalk for average of 6.38 days per week (91.1%).

Kakaotalk has successfully replaced the old SMS system. As shown in the graph provided.

Now that it supports free VoIP service, Kakaotalk is becoming the main communication method in Korea.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Total Age10-19

Age20-29

Age30-39

Age40+

SMSSNS app

Source: Marketing Insight (http://www.mktinsight.co.kr)

http://www.mktinsight.co.kr/


Social Graph of Kakaotalk Recent Statistics show that there are about 38 million Korean users of Kakaotalk. Considering that the total population of South Korea is just over 50 million, market dominance of Kakaotalk in Korea is over 75%.

Average number of friends each users have on Kakaotalk is estimated to be around 70.

This establishes a great pool of social relation-ships among Kakaotalk users. Utilizing this So-cial Graph is becoming increasingly important in the modern markets.


Expansion of Kakao - KakaoStory KakaoStory is a service very similar to Face-book. Microblogging service that allows the users to share news, photos and links to mu-tual friends. Only difference is that my Kakaos-tory is only visible to the authorized friends. Kakaostory shares the friend list with Kakaotalk – which means only my Kakaotalk friends can become Kakaostory friends.

Kakaostory users are steadily growing over the time, reaching about 28 million users.


Behind the success of Kakaos-tory - Kakaotalk

Picture on the left shows My Profile page of Kakaotalk. Picture pointed by the arrow is called “background image.” This feature came out with Kakaostory – only the users of Kakaos-tory could use background image feature. Un-less, the background would appear grey. This drove the Kakaotalk users to download Kakaos-tory, which allowed their first contact with this service.

After the background feature, Kakao adopted the invitation function to Kakaostory, which be-came the prototype of invitation system in Kakao Games.


Expansion of Kakao – Kakao Games

Kakao Games includes SDK platform and Kakao Game market for mobile games. Kakao Games Market can be accessed directly from Kakaotalk application as shown in the picture on the left. It will lead the user to Google Play Store or App Store download page based on whichever OS user is on.

However, Kakao Games Market is not the main route for users to access the game – surpris-ingly, it is the user’s Kakaotalk friends that leads people to download the game.

Let us understand the general structure of kakao games first.


Kakao Game SDKI’ll explain the basic structure of Kakao Game by explaining the structure of Anipang.

All Kakao games require login with Kakao, which redirects to Kakaotalk application confirming login. This system is used by Facebook social games too.


Kakao Game SDK

Purchasable Item called Topaz

Called “Hearts” which is the same as “Stamina” in ToS

Leaderboard shows the highest scores. VS icon allows players to play PvP game. Heart icon allows players to send hearts to his or her friends.

Invite Friends Function


Kakao Game SDK – Hearts (S-tamina)

- One Heart is consumed when the user starts the game.

- Hearts will be refilled after certain period of time – for Anipang, it is 8 minutes per Heart.

- Hearts can be refilled using Topaz, the pur-chasable currency of Anipang. (Same as Dia-mond)

- Hearts can be refilled using Heart Gift from friends.

- Hearts can be refilled by inviting a friend to play the game.


Kakao Game SDK – In-app Pur-chase

Topaz is the purchasable In-App currency of Anipang, which is the same as Diamonds in ToS.

Topaz can be used to refill the Hearts or buy special items that will help the user get through the game more easily.

As the user reaches higher level, user needs more hearts to reach the next level. In order to do so, user has three options: wait for the hearts to be refilled automatically, purchase topaz to refill, and finally, invite friends to play the game.


Kakao Game SDK - Invitation Player can receive a Heart by simply inviting a friend in Kakaotalk. As the level goes higher, it is crucial to purchase topaz or invite a friend to keep on playing. Pressing Invite will send a message to a friend, with invitation message and a link to Play Store or App Store.


Behind the Miracle of Anipang –User-driven Marketing Over the Social Graph

Invitation system, combined with the broad So-cial Graph of Kakaotalk, brought massive profit to Anipang. It is known that a single user in the social graph can influence more than 1 thou-sand users simultaneously.


Behind the Miracle of Anipang –User-driven Marketing Over the Social Graph

- Assume that every Kakaotalk user has 50 friends.

- Assume that only 40% of the friends who re-ceived the invitation will actually play to game

- Beyond Third Layer, the number of people in-fluenced by the first user increases Exponen-tially.

- Phenomenon can be called “Social Chain Ef-fect”

First User (1 Per-son)

First Layer (up to 20 Person)

Second Layer (up to 400 person)

Third Layer (up to 8000 person)


Behind the Miracle of Anipang -Understanding the Social Market

- Competition in the Social World

Social network, despite the fact that it is on-line (not physical), still occupies the aspects of real-world relationships. Anipang, by adopting the leaderboard, has utilized the basic rule of human society- competition.

Leaderboard in Anipang is a crucial source of motivation for Anipang users. Leaderboard shows the scores and ranking of my friends playing the same game – which triggers com-petition among the social network.


Behind the Miracle of Anipang -Understanding the Social Market

- Creating new social trend

Basic purpose of the social network is to “communicate” with others.

Anipang, by allowing the sending of hearts to friends, created a new social trend – Sending Hearts.

Anipang became a method of many forms of communications such as:

- Starting up a talk with a very old friend

- Starting up a talk with an opposite gender.

by sending them Hearts.


Basic Requirements for Entering Kakao Games

1. Game should be fully developed.

2. Should support network game.

3. Age limit is 15 – No gambling, No sexually inappropriate materials.

Even after the game is confirmed to be pub-lished, it might take few months to actually be published.


Registration Procedure 1. Submit report on the game (apk file, Promotion video, Official report) to KAKAO through the home-page (http://www.kakao.com/game/<wbr/>contact?locale=ko)

2. KAKAO will review the game and feedback

3. Formal meeting with KAKAO

4. Contract

5. KAKAO will provide KakaoSDK

6. Apply KakaoSDK to the game and submit the game

7. KAKAO will test the game

8. Registration to Play Store/App Store/Kakao Store

- No registration fee required

- Individual developers can register too

- Already published games can also apply for this and be published on Kakao Store

http://www.kakao.com/game/%3Cwbr/%3Econtact?locale=ko

http://www.kakao.com/game/%3Cwbr/%3Econtact?locale=ko


Profit Share Kakao will share 30% of the profit that the De-veloper will obtain after sharing 30% to the Open Market.

Overall, the Developer receives 49% of the to-tal profit.

Considering the effect in marketing, this should not be considered a trade-off.

30%

21%

49%

Profit ShareGoogle Kakao Developer


Average Profit of Kakao Games

Anipang Candypang Puzzle Zoo Zoo Dragon Flight0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

2.9

1.4

0.4

2.1

Profit per day (million HKD approx.)

Profit per day (million HKD)


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Insight about kakao games Fin