The9 Shares 3 Ways To Boost Gaming Revenue in China

This article is part of our coverage of the 2011 China Mobile Developers Conference.

The9 (NASDAQ:NCTY) is a China-based gaming giant that provides SDKs for game developers to leverage its plug-and-play social gaming solution, Game Zone. Shen Guo Ding, vice director and manager of The9’s Mobile Internet business, says that there are many problems in the mobile gaming ecosystem in China. One of the largest problems is that gamers in China are so used to downloading free games online. Gaming companies can’t monetize based on pay-per-download, but Shen still sees opportunities.

It’s simple — Free games usually attract more gamers which in turn makes the game more fun; the more the merrier. And with more gamers on board, developers can construct the in-game business model to ensure that the game is fun and yet able to be monetized by selling virtual goods. Shen shared three ways to motivate games to buy virutal items in-game:

• PK and leaderboards: Gamers who PK (i.e., fight against other players) want to win. And to win, most gamers wouldn’t mind spending a dollar or two to buy better equipment. While winning is a major push for folks to buy virtual goods, the gamers’ desire to look good is also another motivation that triggers buying of virtual goods. Winning in style is a good phrase to sum up this point.
• Make gamers “chase/wait for” something: This point is pretty clear if we use Farmville as an illustration. Farmers often have to wait for hours or even days to harvest a money-making crop. The wait is frustrating and gamers often find themselves buying tokens to speed up the harvest. The same principle can also be applied to mobile games.
• Making games social: Shen admitted that this point is basic but still felt the need to emphasize it. He says that the key to making a game social is by making it a default destination whenever a gamer logs on to his PC. The actual gameplay should attract a gamer, as should the friends who he/she has met in the game. Some quick tips Shen gave were to add a chat room within the game and also make sharing available to other social platforms like Weibo.

Previously, we have also covered how The9 has helped Tomb of Qin – a game made by China’s Dragon Team Interactive – to hit 500,000 downloads across all of its outlets in China.