Monetizing Android Apps in Asia

Your Monetization Partner for:

Monetizing Android Apps in Asia
– Knowing is half the battle

Chua Zi Yong
Founder and CEO
Stream Media (Singapore) Pte Ltd

@ AnDevCon II
9 November 2011
@getmovend
www.facebook.com/movend
chua.ziyong@MoVend.com


About myself: Chua Zi Yong
Focused on Android since Nov 2008

Founder of CodeAndroid Developers Group
(Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia & Thailand)

Founder/CEO of Stream Media (Singapore) Pte Ltd

Investee of SingTel Innov8 (Asia Operator Group)

@getmovend


Stream Media Pte Ltd
Published more than 400 Android games in Asia Pacific
through operator, handset manufacturers and social
networks to more than 30 million Android handsets
Partners

Clients

@getmovend


Stream Media Pte Ltd - MoVend
In-app payment platform for mobile apps covering
localized payments in more than 38 countries

 Operator billing with more than 120 operators

 Prepaid cards like MOLPoints and Cherry
Credits

 Alipay for Chinese market

 PayPal

 Credit Cards

@getmovend


What we want to find out today?
Get rich gloriously

Is Asia a viable market?

How to enter the Asian market?

What are the best practices?
@getmovend


What is the Mobile Market in Asia?
There are more mobile users than PC owners Mobile phone is the primary
device for accessing internet

According to analyst, mobile internet
users in Asia will double from 623.3
million in 2011 to 1.2 billion in 2015
@getmovend


What do they do on their mobile phones?
Browsing the web
Top 20 countries using Opera Mini
Indonesia, Russia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa,
United States, Vietnam, United Kingdom, Kenya,
Kazakhstan, Poland, Nigeria, Malaysia,
Belarus, Philippines, Egypt, Germany, Brazil
and Bangladesh

Using mobile apps, playing games
Asia-Pacific will download 4.6 billion mobile
apps by end of 2011

@getmovend


What do they do on their mobile phones?

FIRST and ONLY connectivity to the internet

ONLY social networking device

ONLY entertainment device

ONLY gaming device

@getmovend


Android will be the key platform in Asia
Android is well placed today to capture the growth in Asia

 Low cost, mass market, feature rich devices

 Magic price point – below US$199 without contract

 Apps, Apps and more Localized Apps

@getmovend


What is getting in the way?

@getmovend


Asia is VERY BIG
Asia is made up of many regions
• East Asia (Pacific)
• South East Asia
• Central Asia
• Middle East

… is Russia a region by itself?

@getmovend


Asia is highly fragmented
Not one loaf of bread…. BUT in many slices…

@getmovend


Language fragmentation
Apa khabar? Pen yang-ngai?
How are you?

Anh có khoẻ không?
你好吗?

Examples in East Asia
India – more than 1600 languages, and 30 have more than a million speakers
China – simplified Chinese characters
Taiwan – traditional Chinese characters
Hong Kong – traditional Chinese characters but Cantonese wordings
Japan – Japanese
South Korean – Korean
@getmovend


Cultural fragmentation

Religion Beliefs
Social norms
Taboos
Do you know the significance of these images?

Thailand India Malaysia
@getmovend


Infrastructure fragmentation

High network coverage trending Low network coverage
High bandwidth bulk Low bandwidth
High end devices Low end devices

Games in China, for example, has “lesser res” graphics because most
of their user devices cannot display HD graphics/have low memory!

Devices also fragments, variation in API support and web services
- Examples in China: OPhone, LePhone, Yi, Aliyun

Credit card payment is rare, operator billing is key for most countries
@getmovend


Regulatory fragmentation
You cannot sell Android games in Korea through Android Market
Why? Because of their game rating system

You cannot sell any digital content in China independently
Why? License is required and only Chinese companies applies

You cannot sell paid apps in Taiwan through Android Market
Why? Because of their mandatory 7-day refund policy

Not forgetting different business environment..

@getmovend


So how can you jump over the hurdles?

@getmovend


1. Find out who are your users
Focus on key markets that your app can serve a need
Choose markets that fits your sales strategy
# of
X China
Users X India
X Indonesia

X Japan
X South Korea
X Thailand

X Malaysia

X United Arab Emirates
X Singapore

ARPU
@getmovend


2. Find out what your users like
E.g. different type of games appeal to different groups of users in
China
Online mobile (MMO) games appeal to the middle and young adults

Casual games appeal more to 3 “低”s (低 means low in Chinese)
- Low income, low education level, low age (children)

E.g. specific topics or type of apps are popular in Indonesia
Users subscribe to apps that show “exclusive paparazzi” photos of their
favorite stars – delivered either over MMS or in-app

Social network related apps are also popular – why? they like to chat on
their phone when stuck in traffic jam!
@getmovend


3. Formulate a business model that works
Paid or free In-app payment or ads

• In-app payment works for MMO games in China

• Subscription model is popular in Japan

• In-app ads CPC/CPM is low in Asia, but volume is very high if the app is
free
@getmovend


4. Localize, Localize, Localize

• Localization is beyond language translation
- connect with your users emotions

• Understand culture and behavior within your target market
– mascot, local festivals, iconic figures, taboos

• E.g. Angry Birds and PvZ localization
– mid autumn festival and Chinese zombies
@getmovend


5. Know how users can find your app

Featured Ads

Print Ads SMS Marketing

• Many of these marketing channels are still very important

• Billboards, print ads, SMS marketing are important in the
Asian context to capture user attention
@getmovend


5. Know how users can find your app
• Be on the equivalent of the search engine, social networks,
forums, blogs, magazine in that market

• Observation – Evernote in Japan appears as the top app in
almost every Android magazines in book stores

• In China
MSN  Tencent (QQ)
Facebook  Ren Ren
Twitter  Sina Weibo
Google  Baidu
Youtube  56, Tudou, Youku

@getmovend


6. Distribution – Getting it there
3 main distribution methods
• self-publish
• will require local business knowledge and marketing operations

• through partners/aggregators
• work with partners (like us =)) and get into market
• fastest way to get into market
• Brick and Mortar app retails
• PC sync clients
• do take note: what can they bring to the table to make you a success

• preload with operators/OEM
• doesn’t happen unless you are super big (like Angry Birds)
• long decision making and testing process
@getmovend


How can MoVend help you?

Distribution and Payment

@getmovend


Publish in localized channels
We deal with the market, you deal with the content
Partners

Clients

@getmovend


Local payment in Asia that your users use
When users can’t pay for your app on Android Market, what
do they do? - Piracy

How do you collect payment from millions of customers who
do not have credit cards – but have the money?

MoVend payment covers:
 Operator  Prepaid Cards  Alipay in China
billing in 38
countries with
more than 120
operators
@getmovend


Infrastructure to fulfill your business needs
MoVend in-app purchasing SDK allows you to easily enable
• One time purchase
• Subscription
• Consumption model

Sales analytics (for IAP customers)

Localized and dynamic pricing

DRM and malware protection tool

Fraud detection and parental controls

@getmovend


Countries you may want to focus on
High ARPU
S. Korea Japan UAE

High volume

China Indonesia

Any questions on these markets?
@getmovend


Localized channels to >30 million customers
• China – with Lenovo and HTC
• Japan SNS – together with logtomo.jp
• South East Asian operators – with SingTel group
• Preloads onto Lenovo devices in APAC

@getmovend


Thank you

Please drop me a note at


and we can discuss further

@getmovend

Monetizing Android Apps in Asia

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