Kamcord opens Japan office as it surges past 25 million mobile game videos shared

Kamcord, the US-based startup that makes an in-game video recording SDK for mobile games, has opened up shop in Japan, a company representative told Tech in Asia. The new office comes as the number of videos shared online using its software topped 25 million, nearly doubling in the last three months.

To put that into perspective, Twitch, the PC gaming video portal that Amazon is buying for US$970 million, has about one million people uploading content every month. Kamcord, while far fewer users watch its videos, has 1.3 million uploaders in the past 30 days.

“We’re not saying that [Kamcord] is bigger or better than Twitch, but it’s a broader statement about mobile gaming,” says company front man Aditya Rathnam. The broader appeal of mobile games and Kamcord’s simplicity makes it a hit with gamers.

Backed by China’s Tencent and Innovation Works, Kamcord started offering localized versions of its in-game recording and sharing SDK in Chinese and Japanese back in February, when it also announced partnering with major Japanese game studio Namco Bandai. Now Kamcord can be found in a number of games from Sega, Gree, Square Enix, and DeNA as well.

It’s most popular Japanese games include musical beat game Cytus and tactical card battle game Terra Battle, both of which ranked in Google Play’s top grossing list for the country. But the bulk of Kamcord’s uploaded videos still come from the west. Out of the 25 million videos, 10 million came from a single game: My Talking Tom. The virtual pet app remains Kamcord’s number three game, following first-person shooter Killshot and racing game Beach Buggy Racing.

The new office in Japan will focus on business development and sales and offer tech support to Japanese developers. Rathnam says while the company is looking to open offices in South Korea and China next, it’s more concerned about getting a jump on the up-and-coming competition in Japan for now.

Those rivals, like OpenRec by CyberZ, offer similar video recording SDKs for mobile games. Rathnam is confident that Kamcord is more stable and has less impact on games’ performance.

Kamcord also announced it is the first to be compatible with Metal, the new graphics engine made by Apple.

Who uploads mobile game videos?

Since Kamcord first launched its SDK two and a half years ago, Rathnam says he’s seen the reasons people share gaming videos evolve. At first, it was mostly about high score bragging rights and showing off epic crashes. Then it became a method to discuss strategies, like how to build your squad in Brave Frontier or talk about your latest Minecraft creation.

Now some users are using Kamcord’s voice recording feature to share a sort of personal diary or blog. While playing the game, they talk about their daily lives – how school is going or what they did over the weekend. Rathnam says these users have developed relationships and communities with like-minded people.

One such case is Talie Bell, a freshman in high school who sings and plays piano while recording. The young star has gained a following on Kamcord’s video portal and has even created a 10-episode series and hosts AMAs. Check out one of her videos below:

See: When should a Chinese VC firm head to the US? A look at Innovation Works’ growing US portfolio