Local chess and cards find a unique way to dig local market value

Chess and cards are classified as classic games. I believe that many people have played online chess and card games such as Mahjong or Doudizhu, but these are national chess and cards and adopt international rules. The local chess that has regional characteristic is like spring grass grows wildly however the thing that produces nearly two years, influence factor has the following respects.

First, the popularity of chess and cards is very wide. Mahjong, known as one of the quintessence of China, is not only an athletic event, but also a means of public entertainment no less than square dancing. Therefore, chess and card game users are also the largest group of online game users. According to the Statistical Report on China’s Internet Development, the number of domestic online game users has reached 422 million by June 2017, while another market survey shows that about 62% of online game users are chess and card players.

At the same time, board and card games also have the best payment rate and retention among mobile games. Data shows that the payment rate of board and card games reaches 3.77%, and the next day, seven days and month retention rates are also ahead of many other mainstream games.

Second, the vertical development of mobile games is the trend of the past two years, in the comprehensive mobile game market is difficult to match the giant game developers, are doing their best to explore various segments, and local chess is one of them. Although the emergence of chess and card games can be traced back to a long time ago, and the national chess and card game has been monopolized by Tencent, Boya and other enterprises, the local chess and card market is still a small but beautiful and undeveloped treasure when the national chess and card market is approaching saturation.

China has a vast territory, and residents in various provinces have different living habits and ways of entertainment. In the process of spreading chess and cards, various new features and titles have been derived. For example, mahjong is divided into Sichuan mahjong, Guangdong mahjong and many other kinds. What is more, within a single province, chess and cards play can continue to be subdivided by county as a unit.

However, the users of local chess and cards mainly come from small and medium-sized cities and rural areas. In the past, due to low network coverage and scattered demand, the users in these areas could not meet the needs of regional characteristics of chess and cards in national chess and card games, and national chess and card also increased the cost of re-learning for them. It is conceivable that local chess and cards can be excavated widely.

Third, the average profit of chess and card games is high, accounting for about 40%. In 2016, the market size of mobile chess and card games has reached 2.8 billion. These two years out of the show xianlai mahjong only use four months then turned a loss into a profit, was Kunlun Wanwei with 2 billion yuan price acquisition, xianlai success let developers and investors have seen the local chess market mining value, local chess and cards in the leisure after springing up like bamboo.

From random matching to acquaintance matchmaking, the gold rush of local chess has arrived

Although named local chess and cards, it is mainly based on “cards”, such as mahjong, douzhu, etc., on the one hand, because most chess games have high learning costs, such as chess, chess, etc., is not easy to learn, the user group is not as much as card games; On the other hand, board games have not yet explored a viable profit model.

Local chess and cards can be roughly divided into two modes. The first is the random matching mode, also known as the gold mode, which appeared relatively early. It is the same as the national chess and card modes such as “Happy Doudizhu”. Some random matching local chess and card apps also have the setting of points for exchanging physical prizes.

The other is the acquaintance game model initiated by Xianlai last year, also known as the room card model, is also a popular push hand of local chess. The room card mode is an acquaintance route. Players need to buy the room card to create a game room, and then share the room number to wechat, Weibo and other social platforms or copy the room number to their friends to invite them to join in and make profits by selling the room card. Room card mode is like moving offline chess and card room to online, so it has the advantages of both online chess and card game and offline chess and card room.

Players can make an appointment with friends through the APP at any time and anywhere, or play several rounds of hometown characteristics mahjong with friends and relatives in their hometown. It is close to people outside the employment and also helpful to improve the situation that parents are addicted to playing mahjong and have no time to take care of their children. And this is the group that the past board and card games have not covered, the content that local board and card can excavate is very huge.

The housing card mode mainly obtains users through offline promotion and adopts the agency system. As wechat business is divided into multiple levels, pushed by the agent, so the publicity routine of the room card mode is also consistent with wechat business, with the slogan that everyone can “earn ten thousand gold a month” to develop the player to become an agent. After the fire of this mode, the random matching mode of chess and card games in the past also began to add acquaintance matchmaking this play, QQ game hall of happy mahjong online friends room, and netease just launched netease Chengdu Mahjong also has a similar function.

Since JJ competition launched competition mode, competition has become one of the important means in the promotion of chess and card games. In order to increase user engagement and increase user activity, local chess and card games are often held in different places. For example, Xiailai mahjong has been held in Anhui, Guangdong, Shaanxi and other provinces. The winners can get cash and room cards, which increases users’ enthusiasm for the game.

Local chess and cards worry much, play edge ball is common

Idle launched to mahjong room card mode, the average daily income in more than 300 ten thousand yuan of above, local chess strong cashability, let small and medium-sized game CP (content provider) and the capital, where all kinds of room card model board APP have mushroomed in general, animating the whole board, the development of the market in 2017 was also fired into the first year of chess. Data shows that in August of the mobile games approved, chess and card games accounted for 478, more players market problems will be exposed.

First of all, although the profitability of local chess and cards is high, a local chess and cards is only a small market segment, and the user scale of each product is very limited. Different from other mobile games, local chess and cards have already formed fixed features offline before they become online. Faced with the same group of chess and card users, it is inevitable that “one mountain cannot allow two tigers”. Players who are interested in playing local chess and cards are bound to choose one of them instead of playing several at the same time.

However, statistics show that as of April 2017, nearly 5,000 chess and card game companies in Hunan province alone hosted their servers on a well-known cloud server. In a market with multiple games competing in the same genre, local board games are inevitably locked in price wars over which card is cheaper in order to gain users. At this time the shortcomings of the agency system also highlighted, by the agent to maintain the player, means competitors to dig agent, users will follow, small and medium-sized games in the process of “digging” is likely to appear vicious competition.

Second, as a hot room card model, coupled with board games development costs low, make a lot of small and medium-sized CP are produced as long as literally launched a local chess game we will be able to make rich illusion, will focus on the “room card” two words, rather than the content of the local board games or technical innovation, operation. However, chess and card games are one of the most frequently attacked and plugged-in game types, and the lack of technical strength of game CP obviously cannot guarantee the normal experience of players. In addition, the vast majority of local board and card games just move offline play to online, use local dialects in the game, and simply add local representative elements on the UI, which has undoubtedly fallen into the homogenization competition.

Third, the privacy of the room card model may provide a breeding ground for gambling. A large part of the acquaintance game players are offline gambling players. In the comments section of the app market, many users also reported that they lost a lot of money in the game, and Idle Mahjong has been exposed as suspected of online gambling for many times.

Although the game does not provide real currency exchange function, operator, no smoking, but promotion way dependence on the pattern of room card agent, the agent in order to “win” users tend to build WeChat group or group of the deposit, and for the players to pull people group, and some of them use cash settlement of players, and provides the guarantee deposit system is for the sake of cash settlement.

The agent as a cooperative relationship with the game platform, if the game platform does not act, is undoubtedly tantamount to an accomplice. Local chess and card games lack effective mechanisms to regulate gambling behavior, so if the development goes on, local chess and card games in the housing card model may bring short-term benefits, but they are like acrobats on a tightrope, which will not lead to healthy development of the whole industry.

Finally, local chess is not a new game that suddenly appeared in the last two years. The reason why it is so popular at that time is not only the lack of market development in the past, but also the existence of capital speculation factors. The brilliance of local chess and cards is only afraid of the brief prosperity of the capital under hot speculation, and continue to develop in a disorderly state. After the short-term outbreak, it is bound to encounter cold.

conclusion

The reason why local chess and card games can become popular in the target market in a short time is due to the innovation of room card mode. However, the latecomers have fallen into homogeneity in the pursuit of this mode. Nowadays, not only small and medium-sized CP’s are in fierce competition in the local chess and card market, but also big players such as 360 and netease are also laying out their positions in this market. Only by continuing to innovate on the basis of predecessors can the local chess and card market emerge from the thousands of armies and horses.

At present, the development of local chess and cards on the market is concentrated in the direction of competition or gambling, which is less interesting. However, just as many people play national chess and cards such as “Joy douzhu” for recreation, there must be a large number of such casual players in local chess and cards. It is undoubtedly an innovative way to develop in the direction of fun. It is understood that some chess and card games have achieved good results through the combination of livestreaming, and netease’s “netease Chengdu Chess and Card” is undoubtedly a new attempt to add livestreaming, plot and other elements in the game. In addition, in the face of a cluster of local chess, go deeper into the county-level market segmentation, adding more gameplay is undoubtedly one of the ways to find a new way to gain market recognition…

In a word, with the joining of netease, 360 and other big CP, the disorderly local chess and card market will develop in an orderly way.

Liu Kuang, meditation on the Internet, wechat official account: Liukuang110