I have spoken at several conferences and written occasionally about opportunities for social games on (Web) networks other than Facebook. When I first moved into social gaming, some of the most exciting international economies (Germany, Brazil, Russia, Japan and China) were dominated by social networks not named Facebook. As the landscape has evolved, however, this opportunity is now less important for social game companies.
Continue reading “Whither social networks other than Facebook”
Friday offered some more great sessions on consumers’ decision making that are relevant to the social games industry. For those who did not see my post on Friday, I spent last week at the Behavioral Decision Research in Management Conference (BDRM) in Boulder. My major takeways on Friday were as follows:
I want to share some thoughts from the first day of the Behavioral Decision Research in Management Conference (BDRM). There were several interesting presentations that have relevance for the social game space.
The big news this week in the tech world is Microsoft’s unveiling of its Surface line of tablets. For those who missed it, Microsoft had a major press event on Monday in which where it unveiled the 10-inch Surface tablets. The first tablet will launch this fall with an ARM-based processor and featuring Windows RT. It will be followed, about 90 days later, with a third-generation Intel Core processor running Windows 8. I am not the person to be reviewing new gadgets so if you are looking for more details on the Surface, please just Google Microsoft Surface and you will have great options.
It seems that now is a good time to declare officially that Google+ is not an option for social game companies. The news that PopCap and Wooga are pulling their games from the platform is the final nail in the coffin. Given that they are not only stopping new development for Google + but have actually decided to sunset their existing titles on the platform shows it is not a viable business.
Social game company executives should be looking at Airtime and thinking about ways it could be used to leverage their businesses. To make a long story short, Airtime is a video chat service (Airtime article in Bloomberg Businessweek) started by Napster co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning (you may know Parker also as the billionaire former President of Facebook).
Facebook’s decision to explore the 13-and-under market may present more opportunities for social game companies than the potential legalization of online gambling, but it is not generating nearly as much buzz. I think it is inevitable that Facebook finds a way to allow children under 13 to legitimately use the Facebook service. As the Economist pointed out, a recent study found that 5.6 million US children under 13 were already using Facebook (and undoubtedly millions more throughout the world). If Facebook does not address this issue, not only are they missing out on a business opportunity, they are leaving themselves open to litigation.
This is a topic I did not expect to be writing about but a recent article in The Economist got me thinking about opportunities for social game companies in Africa. To be perfectly open, this is not a region I have focused on professionally since the late 1980s and I have no first-hand experience with monetization opportunities there. That said, I am going to be exploring the region further and think it may hold potential.
Here are the reasons I am giving Africa a look and ones you may want to consider:
I recently read an article on pricing in the Harvard Business Review, “Pricing to Create Shared Value,” that has direct implications on monetization strategy in the social gaming space. It is so counter to the current strategy of so many social game companies, I am sure many of you will either disregard it or just think I am wrong. Before you do, keep in mind the underlying article was written by star professors from Harvard Business School (John T. Gourville) and the London School of Business (Marco Bertini), based on years of research, so maybe the 20-something monetization whiz in the Bay Area does not know it all.
I have been part of many discussions about the best way to build competitive advantage for a game company, and a recent article in the MIT Sloan Management Review has helped crystallize my thinking. The article, “Creating Value Through Business Model Innovation,” shows the benefits of focusing on creating competitive advantage through your business model rather than through product or branding. That is, it is more important to create a unique, sustainable and innovative business model than better games or unique branding. The article pointed to a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit that found that a majority of business managers favored new business models over new products and services as a source of competitive advantage.
Continue reading “How a social game company should create competitive advantage”
The Business of Social Games and Casino 