There are only a handful of products on the market that have performed well this year.
Editor’s note: This article comes from the WeChat public account “ Game New Knowledge ” (ID: youxixinzhi ), The author Xin Zhijun.
(Disclaimer: This article is from the contribution of game purchasers in South China, and does not include any commercial cooperation or commercial implantation.)
The advertising purchase model originated in South China, and has become one of the mainstream promotion methods in the market. With the fierce competition, the purchase market is no longer the original blue ocean. Under the current market environment, the purchase market is more like a battle of beasts, depending on who can persist to the end.
What exactly caused the change in the buying market? Individually, based on my experience in the industry, I summarize a few reasons, and I will state them one by one.
Cause one: “Product shortage”
Looking back at the whole of 2019, aside from the purchase of the head channel of the 37 series, there are only a handful of products with outstanding performance on the market this year. Only a few products, such as “Blinking Light”, “The Legend of the Three Kingdoms”, “Masters of Business” and “I am in the Rivers and Lakes”, have reached a monthly volume of more than 100 million, and many of these products are old products launched last year.
The channel monopoly situation has basically formed, and it is very difficult for new buying companies to get involved. However, the buying company must have a product to push. Without a good product company, it must continue to search for products in the industry until it finds the next explosive product.
Recently, a certain military-themed IP game product has been on fire, and many game companies have flocked to it. In order to receive this product, it spends a lot of money. The developer of this game relies on agent prepayment to easily raise over 100 million , Created a new idea of the purchase volume distribution model. This scenario is the most typical portrayal of the current purchase market problem, and the phenomenon reflects the shortage of products in the purchase market.
Product shortage is not to say that there is no product. The game industry itself is opening with the version number, and there are still a lot of new products on the line. The quantity can meet the needs of the industry. With so many products, why is there a product shortage?
For the gaming companies that buy, what they lack is quality products. The characteristics of high-quality products are low unit prices, multiple recycling, and short cycles. Just like in reality, girls look for boyfriends, high-quality products are similar to Gao Fushui, with extremely high quantities.Scarce, not easy to come across. Those B- or C-level game products are just like reeling, and they are selectively ignored.
The deep-seated reason for the product shortage is the increase in market requirements, which has led to increased demand from game companies for all aspects of the product. There are fewer high-quality products and the impact of the development cycle.
Reason 2: User acquisition costs are too high
With the solidification of channel traffic in traditional app stores, the living space of small and medium-sized manufacturers is shrinking. But the rise of the buying model has made many small and medium-sized game companies see new hope.
Under the purchase mode, a startup team that has been established for less than one year can easily reach more than 30 million monthly sales, which can be described as the second spring of mobile game startups. Guangzhou-based buying company, mainly based on Junhai, is a typical representative of the rise in this model.
Under such a boom, many capital companies are rushing to set up a buying team, and hundreds of buying companies, large and small, have sprung up for a while.
So why are user acquisition costs getting higher and higher?
Before that, you must first understand the basic logic of the purchase volume model. The purchase volume play method is based on the user bonus, which is a low unit price and a wide audience. Most of the successful purchase products are not game-driven. , The theme is more subject-oriented, and the theme is to deeply dig into the user’s bonus expressions, such as the more successful “Red Police Tank” in recent years, Palace Fighting, Legend, Three Kingdoms, Westward Journey products, most of them are A logical embodiment.
Of course, game-driven casual games have also recently appeared on the market. These games have unique and novel gameplay and are very absorbent. However, this type of game has a relatively large disadvantage that the commercialization depth is not enough, and it is not the same as most purchased games. Company heavy attributes do not match very well.
Another level, the core promotion logic of information streaming media is bidding. Accounts with high bidding and high consumption can get more exposure, which means more users.
Based on the logic of buying volume model and advertising promotion logic, when a large number of buying teams in the market influx, competition will inevitably be intensified. For the same product, multiple buying companies will promote it together. In order to obtain traffic, each of them has to continuously increase their bids. Increased promotional bids also mean higher purchase costs.
The theme bonus mentioned earlier has changed from the blue sea to the red sea under the promotion of many buying game companies, and the theme bonus has gradually disappeared. One year ago, the unit price of the three-country theme Android CPA was 40-50 yuan, and this year it is also the unit price of the three-country theme may be 60-70 yuan.
Due to the lack of new theme bonus development and the reduction of stock users in the market, the unit price of buying volume will always maintain a high or rising price.
A high unit price means that it is difficult to recover the cost. If the product LTV (life time value)If the cost of product promotion is not met, the company will lose money or even go bankrupt. This problem has a very direct impact on the purchase market.
Reason 3: Utilization of product operation model
The life cycle of mobile games is generally only about 6 months. The purchase of products is affected by the pressure of market recycling, and a lot of commercialization activities have been put in the game.
A Westward H5 game product is a typical representative of this type of product. The entire game interface is full of a variety of operational activities. There are various core commercial recharge activities on 30 days and 26 days a month, selling various high-value items. Once the activity effect weakens, add a new cultivation point, put in new systems to develop props, and so on until the player is finally bored with the product.
Everything has its advantages and disadvantages.
Behind the high degree of commercialization, the impact on the user experience is very large. A large amount of game resources are acquired by head recharge users. There is an insurmountable gap between civilian players and head players. In a highly competitive game environment, Next, civilian players lack a living space, and they may run out in less than a month. After the underlying model of the user ecological model starts to break, it will eventually lead to a shortened entire product effective period.
In order to alleviate the problem of user churn, many products have iterated the small server ecosystem and cross-server gameplay in the operation model. These two methods are used to increase interaction between users, diversify user competition, and further tap user consumption potential. It also reduces the pressure of buying promotion, which is an effective strategy for multiple purposes.
But all of the above operating strategies are based on squeezing user value, and users ’actual gaming experience has not been greatly improved.
The utilitarian operating model is the “common problem” of most purchased games, so that some card products have peaked at tens of millions and can be discounted by half the next month. In the next few months, there will be no flow, and the flow will decline Let buying game companies continue to look for new quality products. Form a vicious circle.
Fourth: Outflow of funds
The biggest illusion for a buying game company is that the buying model is a business where middlemen make a difference. But in fact, the game company that buys a lot is leeks, doing white flour selling, earning profits from selling cabbage, and working for media and R & D companies. Especially the media, a head media company has grown rapidly in recent years, and has contributed a lot to game companies.
Most of the cost of a game company is mainly distributed in advertising, R & D sharing, and human maintenance. Even if the project is operating well, after all the consumption links are allocated, the net profit on the annual financial statement may be negative in the end. I believe this The owner of the company who buys less is well aware.
Conventionally, a game company that buys a lot of money consumes a lot of money. The cost of buying promotion will account for more than 70% of a company’s annual revenue, which is a lot of losses.
With the solidification of channel traffic in traditional app stores, the living space of small and medium-sized manufacturers is shrinking. But the rise of the buying model has made many small and medium-sized game companies see new hope.
Under the purchase mode, a startup team that has been established for less than one year can easily reach more than 30 million monthly sales, which can be described as the second spring of mobile game startups. Guangzhou-based buying company, mainly based on Junhai, is a typical representative of the rise in this model.
Under such a boom, many capital companies are rushing to set up a buying team, and hundreds of buying companies, large and small, have sprung up for a while.
So why are user acquisition costs getting higher and higher?
Before that, you must first understand the basic logic of the purchase volume model. The purchase volume play method is based on the user bonus, which is a low unit price and a wide audience. Most of the successful purchase products are not game-driven. , The theme is more subject-oriented, and the theme is to deeply dig into the user’s bonus expressions, such as the more successful “Red Police Tank” in recent years, Palace Fighting, Legend, Three Kingdoms, Westward Journey products, most of them are A logical embodiment.
Of course, game-driven casual games have also recently appeared on the market. These games have unique and novel gameplay and are very absorbent. However, this type of game has a relatively large disadvantage that the commercialization depth is not enough, and it is not the same as most purchased games. Company heavy attributes do not match very well.
Another level, the core promotion logic of information streaming media is bidding. Accounts with high bidding and high consumption can get more exposure, which means more users.
Based on the logic of buying volume model and advertising promotion logic, when a large number of buying teams in the market influx, competition will inevitably be intensified. For the same product, multiple buying companies will promote it together. In order to obtain traffic, each of them has to continuously increase their bids. Increased promotional bids also mean higher purchase costs.
The theme bonus mentioned earlier has changed from the blue sea to the red sea under the promotion of many buying game companies, and the theme bonus has gradually disappeared. One year ago, the unit price of the three-country theme Android CPA was 40-50 yuan, and this year it is also the unit price of the three-country theme may be 60-70 yuan.
Due to the lack of new theme bonus development and the reduction of stock users in the market, the unit price of buying volume will always maintain a high or rising price.
A high unit price means that it is difficult to recover the cost. If the product LTV (life time value)If the cost of product promotion is not met, the company will lose money or even go bankrupt. This problem has a very direct impact on the purchase market.
Reason 3: Utilization of product operation model
The life cycle of mobile games is generally only about 6 months. The purchase of products is affected by the pressure of market recycling, and a lot of commercialization activities have been put in the game.
A Westward H5 game product is a typical representative of this type of product. The entire game interface is full of a variety of operational activities. There are various core commercial recharge activities on 30 days and 26 days a month, selling various high-value items. Once the activity effect weakens, add a new cultivation point, put in new systems to develop props, and so on until the player is finally bored with the product.
Everything has its advantages and disadvantages.
Behind the high degree of commercialization, the impact on the user experience is very large. A large amount of game resources are acquired by head recharge users. There is an insurmountable gap between civilian players and head players. In a highly competitive game environment, Next, civilian players lack a living space, and they may run out in less than a month. After the underlying model of the user ecological model starts to break, it will eventually lead to a shortened entire product effective period.
In order to alleviate the problem of user churn, many products have iterated the small server ecosystem and cross-server gameplay in the operation model. These two methods are used to increase interaction between users, diversify user competition, and further tap user consumption potential. It also reduces the pressure of buying promotion, which is an effective strategy for multiple purposes.
But all of the above operating strategies are based on squeezing user value, and users ’actual gaming experience has not been greatly improved.
The utilitarian operating model is the “common problem” of most purchased games, so that some card products have peaked at tens of millions and can be discounted by half the next month. In the next few months, there will be no flow, and the flow will decline Let buying game companies continue to look for new quality products. Form a vicious circle.
Fourth: Outflow of funds
The biggest illusion for a buying game company is that the buying model is a business where middlemen make a difference. But in fact, the game company that buys a lot is leeks, doing white flour selling, earning profits from selling cabbage, and working for media and R & D companies. Especially the media, a head media company has grown rapidly in recent years, and has contributed a lot to game companies.
Most of the cost of a game company is mainly distributed in advertising, R & D sharing, and human maintenance. Even if the project is operating well, after all the consumption links are allocated, the net profit on the annual financial statement may be negative in the end. I believe this The owner of the company who buys less is well aware.
Conventionally, a game company that buys a lot of money consumes a lot of money. The cost of buying promotion will account for more than 70% of a company’s annual revenue, which is a lot of losses.
The biggest illusion for a buying game company is that the buying model is a business where middlemen make a difference. But in fact, the game company that buys a lot is leeks, doing white flour selling, earning profits from selling cabbage, and working for media and R & D companies. Especially the media, a head media company has grown rapidly in recent years, and has contributed a lot to game companies.
Most of the cost of a game company is mainly distributed in advertising, R & D sharing, and human maintenance. Even if the project is operating well, after all the consumption links are allocated, the net profit on the annual financial statement may be negative in the end. I believe this The owner of the company who buys less is well aware.
Conventionally, a game company that buys a lot of money consumes a lot of money. The cost of buying promotion will account for more than 70% of a company’s annual revenue, which is a lot of losses.