Discussion: Mobile Gaming in Southeast Asia (Live Blog)

While Android is on the rise in Southeast Asia, it’s still a very fragmented market. There are lots of feature phone users and browser-based games as well. To discuss this, we have onstage (pictured left to right):

• Tetsuya Mori, managing director at DeNA Asia
• Evan Spytma, regional director at Popcap Games
• Alvin Yap, founder at TMG

All three are good friends of the blog – and important figures in this very mixed mobile gaming landscape. Our guest moderator is Anton Soeharyo, founder at gaming studio Touchten. Here’s the Startup Asia live blog:

#12:17: Mori-san says that, in Southeast Asia, Singapore is “very important and unique” and it’s the hub for the region. A good play for the affection of the local audience! Meanwhile, DeNA (TYO:2432) has been active and acquiring in Vietnam.

#12:19: Evan says that it’s focusing on Indonesia where it’s expanding a lot, and also in the Philippines where he’ll be relocating too. China is a big area for PopCap too.

#12:20: Alvin: Indonesia is number one priority for TMG, and then Thailand, the Philippines, and also India – all major places for finding feature phone users.

#12:21: Alvin: For localization, SEA is a challenge. For example: the Philippines is more like a western market in terms of gamers’ likes and dislikes. For his startup, language versions, especially, Thai, is a difficult aspect to adapt.

#12:23: Evan: For China, they opt to break down the games into in-app sections for easier monetization. Chinese consumers like in-app purchasing so that a game can be free/low cost.

#12:24: In contrast, for Japan, Evan says that PopCap had to focus on characterization in the games – such as the way it put characters into Bejeweled, which included “attractive women – which is needed in a game in Japan”.

#12:25: Mori-san explains that DeNA continuously develops, tweaks, and localizes almost weekly. And, yes, the games do need sexy girls in them.

#12:27: Anton concurs with Evan that cultural adaptation is important, and he targets that aspect at TouchTen as well.

#12:28: As for handsets, DeNA focuses on iOS and Android. Evan says that feature phones are still present, but not in major markets like China. As Evan read here on Techinasia, Android makes up about 86 percent of smartphone sales in China.

#12:30: Alvin says that in his markets, even Android users are on very basic, low-budget phones.