Author | Chen Chen
Edit | Lin Xiu
Southeast Asia is the overseas emerging market with the highest domestic mobile game revenue. The data shows that in 2020, Vietnam's mobile game revenue accounted for 8%. According to many analysts, Vietnam has become one of the important strategic places for domestic mobile game manufacturers to lay out overseas. According to Nativex, in Vietnam, 69% of MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game publishers in 2020 were Chinese companies. Under the background of the new crown epidemic, Vietnam's mobile game industry is expected to usher in a new round of growth, which further enhances the willingness and confidence of Chinese mobile games to go to Vietnam.
Under this significant trend and the reality of fierce competition in the domestic mobile game market, Xiamen Muyou Network's game "Shining Star" chose to focus on the Vietnamese market on the line, with a high proportion of 52.75% in Vietnam. This strategy received positive feedback in the market: the game won the first place in the iOS and Google Play double charts on the first day of its launch in May 2021, and entered the top ten of Vietnam's 2021 spending list.
"Shining Stars"
The story of "going to Vietnam" dates back to 2005. Li Hongming and Kingsoft introduced Sword Man Adventure in Vietnam, and the game flooded with 120,000 players on the first day of its launch, which showed the world the huge potential of the game market in this mysterious country.
Change happens quietly. With the rapid development of smartphones and the rise of young consumer groups, games have gradually become the mainstream way for Vietnamese youth to pass the time. According to media observations. In Ho Chi Minh, there are fewer and fewer young people wandering the streets, and more and more Internet cafes, and rows of small electric donkeys are always parked at the door; in cafes, young people sit around the table, but not talking, everyone's fingers are quickly tapping on the screen, where there may be a fierce battle going on. Opportunities are changing, and App Annie statistics show that Vietnamese mobile game users spend an average of 3.9 hours a day on games. More importantly, compared with mature game markets such as Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States, the cost performance of promoting games in Vietnam is relatively high.
New opportunities lie in new changes. As "going to sea" becomes the choice of more domestic game companies, the competition in this "enclave" inevitably gradually shows a tired trend. The story needs a new twist, and the breaking point may be in the long-blank market of women to mobile games. The fact that women's consumption power is rising has projected new inspiration and possibilities in this market. At present, it has some optimistic and reverie-worthy practices.
01 "Women to" game to break the game, listen to what "she" said
In Shining Stars, the heroine's path to advancement is a thrilling counterattack: respawn trainees from behind the shadows, and slowly uncover the secrets behind the gorgeous entertainment industry on this journey. This plot is consistent with the common "big heroine" plot in the online text.
Vietnamese audiences (players) and Chinese fans have fairly close tastes, perhaps because, as a neighboring country and one of the radiation areas of Chinese culture, Vietnam has a very similar cultural background with China.
The historical narratives of women in both countries are highly consistent. Before the reunification of the north and south of Vietnam, it was far-reachingly influenced by the three religions of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism in the Central Plains, and ideas such as the "Three Principles and Five Constants" were generally accepted by all classes, which also meant that women were mostly in an oppressed position. However, after the reunification of the North and the South and the opening of the country, the rapid development of Vietnam's economy has also changed people's concepts.
In the 1990s, the Vietnamese government approved the development strategy "For the Advancement of Women (1995-2000)", followed by the "Women and Children's Development Programme", etc., with the aim of improving the status of women and protecting their rights and interests. But traditional beliefs that have been steeped for so long are difficult to change quickly. For a long time, Vietnamese women have been taking on low-level jobs such as vendors, waiters, and construction workers. Much of what people know about Vietnamese women is limited to the "Vietnamese bride," a symbol that is constantly reinforced in the media narrative — evidence of the low status of local women. In this reality, Vietnam's female consumer market has long been undervalued. Initially, when Chinese manufacturers set their sights on Vietnam, the games for this market were basically based on war strategy SLGs.
Even now, in terms of a broad historical narrative, the improvement of vietnamese women's social and economic status is still in progress. But in the field of games, women have outlined more and more important contours in the market in recent years, and have gradually grown into a must for games to go to sea. From this perspective, we may be able to glimpse some clues to this historical process.
The gaming industry is a tributary of the entertainment market. With the development of the economy, Vietnam's entertainment market has gradually shown a booming trend. According to the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam, the share of Vietnam's entertainment industry will increase by 8.5% in 2020, exceeding the world average of 5%. Among them, a meaningful signal is that Chinese TV dramas are becoming more and more popular in Vietnam, and various "big female dramas" are widely loved by Vietnamese audiences. For example, when "The Biography of Chu Qiao" was broadcast on Hunan Satellite TV, the Vietnamese online translation was simultaneously broadcast live, and Zhao Liying became one of the most well-known Chinese actors in Vietnam. "Yanxi Raiders" was also introduced into the remake after the hit.
Circuits such as online texts and variety shows are also attracting the attention of domestic seagoers. Byte's online platform Fizzo focuses on advertising materials in Southeast Asia, and NovelToon, a platform with a large number of free e-books and fan fiction, has made Vietnam one of the most popular online platforms in Southeast Asia. iQIYI has also used Vietnam as the largest buying market, and the talent show "Youth with You 2" has received extremely high ratings in Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines.
Whether it is the various opportunities that flood the online text or the film and television track, to a certain extent, they depict the contours of the rise of female consumer forces, and also provide a signal for women to be associated with the game. As the entertainment track becomes more crowded, this signal is gradually projected into the field of gaming, which is relatively unfamiliar to women.
The trial and success of the palace fighting game in Vietnam is a notable example. For example, Kuchuang Interactive's "Call Me Official Lord" and Muyou Network's "Queen Auspicious" were first launched. Just in the Vietnamese market shows a strong ability to absorb gold, which is regarded as a kind of thermal radiation of the palace fighting drama in Vietnam.
3D billboard for Ho Chi Minh Street Game Vo Lam Truyen Ky
In a saturated market, a new attempt, if it takes root, is often growing well. In app Anneie's 2020 Vietnam's popular games subcategory, role-playing games have been able to dominate action games, in which women to the story category of role-playing belongs to the section, in the user spending even reached an annual growth rate of 75%.
Game Teahouse has interviewed The founder of Lefuyou Technology Jack and the founder of MISaigon spend less, Jack introduced that the CPI (cost per new user) in Vietnam is generally less than 2 US dollars, and the cost of women buying products from or with popular IP is lower. Hua Shao also revealed that a certain women's love game in Vietnam only cost $0.2 CPI, and bought more than 600,000 downloads in one week, which shows the potential of the Vietnamese women's game market.
Technology determines the field but not the content. Taking a longer-term view and a broader scope, historical and social processes may provide another layer of thinking for "going to sea".
02 The long-term development after the break defines the "female orientation" game in multiple dimensions
These cases and data show that in the traditionally male-dominated field of gaming, women's spending power cannot be ignored and has great potential. However, a problem that should not be ignored is that compared with the rich routines and mature mechanisms formed by the long-term development of "male-oriented" games such as war and fighting, the foundation of women's games is still shallow, and the materials and ideas are limited, how to make them "more fun" and continue to deliver motivation for players is another topic worth thinking about. Whether it is going to the world or watching the local area, game manufacturers should focus on the long-term development.
Newzoo's 2021 Global Game Market Report sorts out the motivations for paying for RPG games, with unlocking more playable content being one of the main motivations. Many media views believe that compared with Chinese players, Vietnamese players have high loyalty and stronger willingness to pay, and the current market situation is good, but as more manufacturers enter the game in the future, the most core track for women to the game is still quality and innovation, and the plot is the top priority.
A staff member working on game planning told Geek Park that in the field of games, copywriting is not as important as other technical jobs. However, for a game, good planning can play a role in structuring the world and driving the plot, especially in RPG games, where players crave a new and interesting story. But compared to the freedom and richness of "male" games, women are more likely to be bound to a certain "what women should play" thinking.
The considerability of market data obscures this thinking to some extent. Domestically, women earn more than $45 billion a year to the gaming market. However, through further examination of the glossy data, women to the game after the otome direction, dressing to the market weakness, still focus on polishing the "most cost-effective" and "most visible income" skin, but in the game content and connotation part of the lack of strength, resulting in a continuous lack of new products but explosive models.
It can be said that the "big heroine" setting born from the entertainment industry has opened up the beginning of women's transition to games. "Big Heroine" satisfies a certain psychological projection of the vast female audience, so it constantly creates a ratings myth. But when this concept became a popular "packaging" method of capital, a series of uneven "products" were produced. Gradually, the "big heroine" was also spurned by the "pseudo-feminist" narrative in some film and television works, which triggered a re-discussion and thinking about gender equality in society. How this kind of thinking can be taken over by the game industry is a lagging but very critical topic.
In Muyou Network's "Shining Star" in Vietnam, four excellent male NPCs satisfy the player's fantasy of love, but if the game idea is only so far, missing the plot of rebirth and counterattack and the exploration and revelation of the ecology of the entertainment industry, will this game still be so charming? In other words, are the labels "love brain" and "big heroine" really enough to accommodate the richness and excitement of the proposition of "female growth"?
Thinking happens constantly. In recent years, in the state of stagnation of women's games, game manufacturers such as NetEase and Tencent have successively added new ideas to the traditional narrative of "big heroine".
At the end of 21, NetEase launched "Absolute Interpretation", and the plot of the protagonist grew from an 18-line small transparent to a dazzling female star ("dream showbiz"), reducing the proportion of love stories, and focusing on the "big heroine" who fought hard. Before the game was launched, NetEase launched Sichenkova on the B station: "You have to walk with your head held high, remember, this day is up to you to support, the ground to let you step!" 」 The message in marketing reinforces that women should be independent, proud and strong.
Subsequently, Tencent Games also released the entertainment industry agent growth mobile game "Brilliant Star Road". In this game, the role of the player is no longer a star but an agent, and by running a studio, he has signed artists to become big stars. In the interaction with many NPCs, in addition to love, players can also experience more vivid and rich emotions such as girlfriend love and friendship.
Whether the two games can gain the love of users has yet to be verified, but at least in the game design, we can read out things beyond love fantasies and dressups, a change of expectation and joy.
In short, the breakthrough point of women to the game lies in how to understand "women" in a richer dimension. Whether it is "guarding the customs" or "going to sea", this is the hard work that domestic game manufacturers need to do.
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