Author: Lucy

Mobile gaming competition is huge this season

| December 30, 2013

Developers have been waging war throughout the Christmas season, and now they wait to see the results.

When it comes to the holiday season, mobile gaming is just as competitive an industry as everything else, as developers do everything they can to make sure that their games will top the list of downloads that gift recipients make when they unwrap their new smartphones and tablets, this year.

It is believed that this year’s user acquisition and marketing costs will have been the highest ones yet.

Moreover, it is also believed that these expenditures could likely surpass any revenue that mobile gaming will bring in throughout the festive season. The cost associated with obtaining new users by way of smartphone apps and on social networks with pay per click ads is rapidly heading skyward.

This year, mobile gaming has more competition than ever before in the hopes of becoming the next big thing.

Mobile Gaming CompetitionDevelopers are spending a lot of money in the hopes that their games will be the next “Clash of Cans”, “Angry Birds” or “Candy Crush Saga”. This also presents those developers with a massive challenge, particularly to smaller independent studios that are hoping for the best but don’t have the marketing budget of some of their much larger competitors.

Throughout the holidays, spending from consumers around the world hits a peak, making it one of the most important times for developers to do everything in their power to be able to try to draw the largest possible number of Android and Apple device users, particularly on Christmas morning, when the number of those users suddenly spikes.

This year, the typical revenue gains of up to 200 percent for mobile gaming developers on Christmas will likely be greatly wiped out as a result of the massive competition that led the amount spent on marketing and CPI (cost per install) to double or even triple. After these massively expensive campaigns have been put into place, and now that the presents have been unwrapped, all the developers can do is to hope for the best and watch their figures to see how effective their strategies have been, this year.

T-commerce may be the most important side of mobile shopping

| December 24, 2013

Overall, the channel has shown growth of approximately 35 percent.

There have been two reports that have recently been published that have indicated that while mobile shopping is taking off, it is likely t-commerce that is having the largest impact in that area.

Smartphones and tablets are becoming an important channel for content consumption.

In this area, they are being used more often for activities such as social networking and viewing videos, but this also involves finding out information about products and comparison shopping. That said, as much as more people shop over mobile as a whole, it looks as though it is t-commerce that is headed toward taking over the channel, despite the fact that its penetration isn’t nearly as great.

Both the number of sales and the value of the purchases is greater over t-commerce than smartphones.

t-commerce mobile shoppingThe first study was from 41st Parameter, and its information shows that there has been an overall increase in mobile shopping from last year to this year. Comparatively, in the whole of ecommerce, there was an increase of 15 percent. Non-mobile online shopping still made up 80 percent of the total purchases, but the share that belonged to smartphones and tablets was still notable, considering that it has increased by 6 percent when compared to the same time last year.

Another study, this one by Adroit Digital, indicated that if given the choice, 55 percent of consumers would replace their desktop computers with a tablet. More than half (52 percent) of tablet owners use their devices for watching television, while another half (50 percent) report that they also used them for seeking out information. Equally, the general manager of the company, Scott German, reported that the popularity of these devices is not surprising.

What they found notable was the shift in behavior toward using the devices for t-commerce, and viewing content, in addition to researching purchases. German stated that “If brand marketers and advertisers don’t have a plan for tablet messaging, advertising, and commerce, they can risk their brand’s relevance.” This is particularly true as 56 percent of tablet users would rather use those devices to engage with ads than on their personal computers.