Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING JUNE 2018 30 particularly media providers, often use this model in the form of a “paywall” protecting premium content. 3. Paid/Premium – Pay your money and get your game, the old-fashioned way. Parents, many of whom have decried IAPs as honey-traps, tend to like this model. Minecraft, for example, is a global smash hit and can be purchased once and played almost infinitely. Savvy and successful operators optimize trigger activities and focus on microdata detail. For example, what prompts a player to purchase an IAP? Trigger activities like getting stuck on a level or having to wait 30 minutes for some seeds drive IAPs. Understanding how these trigger activities work and analyzing individual or macro-level data is critical for showing the right paid products to the right players at the right time. For operators today, the main challenges are the rise of user acquisition and ongoing development costs. Compared to running an online casino site these costs are still much lower, but nevertheless, as any operator will tell you, having good marketing strategies to fish where the fish are is the difference between success and failure. Not only do social casino developers have to compete with their direct competitors, but also with successful online operators, land-based casinos and other social or mobile game developers that are looking to enter the social casino market. The key is to focus on new markets and opportunities such as Asia. In addition, developing new distribution channels beyond Facebook, iOS and Google Play as well as continually working on product innovation is a must. Long story short, social casino gaming is a rapidly expanding market segment with new and emerging markets like Asia providing the best opportunity to enter and find success. As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats, and that is something we are definitely seeing through the Asia Pacific region. In the US, gambling requires the presence of three elements: consideration, chance and some sort of prize. Players bet on the outcome of an uncertain event to win a larger amount. Social games are not gambling if they eliminate one of the three elements. COLUMNISTS