The output value of the mini game industry is running forward at a rate of 300% year-on-year, with a total output value of 20 billion+.
At the "Game Growth Trend Forum" held by Douyin Mini Games and the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association, Zhang Yijun, the first vice chairman of the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association and chairman of the Game Working Committee, issued a speech saying: "Mini games are initially becoming a new growth pole for industrial development with their advantages of more accurate distribution, higher user conversion rate, lower R&D costs, and stronger scenario applicability. "Changes in technology, market, and categories have triggered a new ecology, and this year, large, medium, and small manufacturers have come out one after another, game types are emerging in an endless stream, and the revenue of mini games is also rising, and everyone does not want to miss this hard-won new outlet.
In particular, the Douyin platform, which has always been regarded as a traffic pool for mini games, has also begun to upgrade a series of capabilities to attract developers to enter Douyin mini games, and its amazing DAU growth rate of 150% is the best recognition of the potential of the Douyin mini game platform by manufacturers and users. In order to further gain insight into the trend of the Mini Game industry and help developers explore the advantages and dividends of the Douyin Mini Game platform, Wang Xiangbin, founder of Dataeye, Yao Liwen, head of Douyin Mini Game, Wang Zijun, general manager of Giant Engine Interactive Entertainment Business, Hou Tianle, CEO of Changsha Youpin Technology, Zhang Yuchen, partner of Beijing Tuyue Technology Co., Ltd., and other guests shared their insights from the perspectives of the industry, platforms, and manufacturers.
When you combine these insights with the rapid development of Douyin Mini Games in the past year, you will probably find that new product ideas and development opportunities in the Mini Game industry are being nurtured. The popularity of the mini game was intuitively reflected in the popularity of the forum that day, the venue was full of people early, and the participants who did not have a place to sit also surrounded the venue.
Towards the end of the forum, the author deliberately looked around the venue, and there were almost no fewer people, and everyone would rather stand and listen for more than two hours rather than miss any dry goods in the mini game industry. And the series of numbers that follow speaks volumes even more about why the participants are persistent. According to the "2023 China Game Industry Report" released by the Game Working Committee, the domestic mini game market revenue in 2023 will be 20 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 300%.
In the face of such rapid growth and expanding fundamentals, how can manufacturers not be tempted?Judging from the author's exchanges with many practitioners, one of the core reasons for manufacturers to actively deploy mini games is that they believe that mini games are an incremental market. The characteristics of the mini game are that it does not need to be **, it is fast to start, easy to contact, and the threshold is very low, even users who don't usually play games can easily get started.
Since mini games mostly adopt IAA and hybrid monetization models, and have a more mature ** model, the high growth rate is accompanied by manufacturers' confidence in revenue. From the perspective of manufacturers, the R&D and marketing costs of mobile games are rising, users have entered the stock era, and the lower R&D, purchase costs, user thresholds and faster ** cycle of mini games have allowed many manufacturers to find new growth opportunities, which is regarded as a possibility for the game industry to return to the incremental market.
In the future, the marketing scale and growth trend of mini games should not be underestimated, and we can no longer think of it as a casual game or a carrier of light entertainment as in the past, it may really be a very important form of Chinese games in the future. This is also the reason why Douyin Mini Games is actively deploying in this field. If the mini game industry in 2023 is running at a high speed, then Douyin mini games can even be said to be soaring.
According to Yao Liwen, the person in charge of Douyin Mini Games, in the past year, the user time of Douyin Mini Games has increased by 30% month-on-month, the number of platform mini games has increased by 80% compared with last year, the revenue of in-app game purchases has increased by 28 times month-on-month, and the 7-day retention of new users has increased by 44% year-on-year, which can be described as an absolute explosive growth. As early as this year's CJ, Wu Jiawei, vice president of the content consumption business of the giant engine, specifically mentioned that this year, the platform will focus on Douyin mini games, and there will be a wave of new growth and scale dividends in the industry. In the first half of the year, the overall development of Douyin Mini Games has far exceeded expectations, and it will continue to inspire more new growth possibilities in 2024.
In the past, we often thought that the attributes of the Douyin content entertainment platform were not easy to cultivate users' Xi of playing mini games, but this year, Douyin mini games started from the platform attributes, attracted mini games that meet the platform attributes to settle in, guided developers to make mini games with more content attributes, and continuously optimized platform functions in terms of commercialization capabilities, opened up closed-loop business links within the platform, and launched a variety of support policies, which prospered the Douyin mini game ecology in a two-pronged manner. The latest Douyin Mini Game data not only confirms Wu Jiawei's words, but also makes people look forward to how far the development of Douyin Mini Games can go in 2024.
With the rapid development of the mini game industry, users are bound to ask for more mini games with high-quality content, which is exactly what the author said at the beginning, the Douyin mini game platform will bring new product ideas to developers. To briefly summarize the current popular product strategy of Douyin Mini Game: traffic + content. Of course, almost every game product is inseparable from these two aspects, but specifically in the field of Douyin mini games, it refers more to the traffic of a product content. In the second half of this year, a small game called "I Raise You" became popular on the Douyin small game platform, telling the story of a bankrupt rich man who re-attacked through various channels, and the theme of the game itself is actually closer to the more popular "counterattack" routine in the short**, and the corresponding advertising materials are also easier to attract users**click.
Hou Tianle, CEO of Changsha Youpin Technology, the developer of "I Raise You", said that when setting up a mini game project, in addition to paying attention to the gameplay itself, it is also necessary to consider how to obtain traffic. Traffic acquisition needs to be taken into account during research and development, and it is actually relatively passive to rely purely on late-stage publishing positions to attract users. In this regard, Youpin summarized a process from project initiation to distribution of mini games of "analyzing the core, sorting out ideas, sorting out the framework, adjusting before launch, and going online".
Indeed, the attributes of the Douyin content platform determine that mini game products need to obtain traffic through content forms such as ** and live broadcasts, so whether it is the core expression of mini games or the purchase of materials, if they can hit the market hotspots and user psychology at that time, they will have a better chance of achieving success and success.
This is actually telling the manufacturer that the data damage caused to the product by the wrong material is irreversible. According to Hou Tianle's observation, the overall ROI of the goods-to-version of the same game will be much higher than the data cast with the wrong version of the material, so that you can make things with higher profit margins.
In a sense, the platform attributes and traffic path of Douyin Mini Games also play a key role in industry norms, and at the same time, it seems to be giving birth to a new form of Mini Games.
Zhang Yuchen, a partner of Beijing Tuyue Technology Co., Ltd., another manufacturer representative at the forum, said that Tuyue Technology was founded in 2022 and decided to focus on the field of Douyin mini games since the beginning of this year, and their core team is from the Huangpu Military Academy Crazy Games of small games. The core reason why Tuyue Technology decided to focus on Douyin Mini Games is that they believe that "the publisher plan + direct investment is an advanced and efficient game promotion model".
These two promotion models are very familiar to game developers, and Douyin Mini Games is one of the contents within the Douyin platform, and the publisher plans to directly connect users, influencers and Mini Game products, users get content, influencers get traffic and revenue, and products get feedback and revenue, and the Douyin platform itself has also prospered the content ecology.
Xiang Jilang, a partner of Changsha Finger Color Network Technology, also holds a similar view, he believes that the closed-loop distribution method of Douyin mini games can greatly stimulate the creativity and imagination of developers, thus giving birth to a series of new designs and new gameplay methods that are different from traditional games. The commercialization capability of Douyin mini games has been upgraded again
According to the author's observation, at the beginning of this year, the Douyin mini game platform was mainly based on IAA's puzzle and casual games, and with the continuous improvement of functions, links, and business models, especially after the revisit ability has been greatly enhanced, a number of mixed monetization types of mini games have also begun to emerge on the Douyin mini game platform, and the product type has shown a trend of medium to heavy. Since the second half of this year, Douyin has also launched a package of profit concession policies, such as a mini game converted from Unity technology, within 180 days of launch, the platform will make a profit of 10%;The developer will set up the project according to the hot spots provided by the platform, and the platform will also make a 10% profitThere will be certain preferential policies and platform concessions for the launch of the massive engine and the purchase of volume through the channel of "Mega Star Map x Game Publisher Program".
Wang Zijun, general manager of the interactive entertainment business of content consumption of the massive engine, said that after nearly a year of rapid growth, Douyin Mini Games will continue to deepen and exert efforts in the delivery capacity, and help developers find solutions together from the stable first-day ROI, the exploration of the best value crowd, and the global delivery ability.
In terms of policy support, first of all, before the developer launches, Douyin Mini Games will provide developers with guidance such as 1v1 Mini Game access, revisit capability access, advertising callback, and delivery creation.
Entering the initial testing stage of the Mini Game, Douyin Mini Game will also guide the developer on the delivery problems and strategies of the Mini Game, help troubleshoot the effect problem, and give dual support to both organic traffic and advertising traffic.
Douyin has always been regarded as a decentralized content distribution platform, but in the field of mini games, Douyin mini games also provide centralized resources such as game centers to help high-quality mini games do initial testing, and this year also opened interactive forms such as social, screen recording and sharing, and search to help mini games carry out social fission and user reach, so as to achieve full-scene promotion and traffic distribution. Support policies alone are obviously not enough to convince developers to devote themselves wholeheartedly, so around the growth plan of Douyin Mini Games, Giant Engine has given a strong voice of "from entry to breakthrough".
For customers who have not entered the game, there will be delivery matrix products, including products such as creative materials, conversion goals, efficiency improvement tools and other products to help quickly get through the cold start stage of the launch period," Wang Zijun said, "For customers who have already entered the game, we will also provide special products such as alienation cards, content marketing, and position management on the Douyin platform to help improve the scale of marketing." "In the subject matter, the huge engine integrates the very bright mini-game products on the platform, such as the "Eliminate Cute Monsters" that integrates match-3, synthesis, tower defense and meat cutting gameplay, and it is recommended that developers give priority to works with a relaxed art style, recognizable and easy-to-use gameplay when trying, such products can better adapt to the casual mentality of Douyin players and achieve a breakthrough in the player group.
In terms of drainage creativity, original or secondary creation is carried out based on the real content of the game to ensure the authenticity and originality of the content, and to avoid mismatch. For example, the practical and classic three-stage creative method: **beginning, middle gameplay history, and end** guidance, can fully mobilize the interest of players. In addition to project selection and promotion creativity, at present, Douyin Mini Games have supported a variety of monetization models such as IAA, IAAP, and IAP, among which the ** cycle of IAA is within 3 days, the hybrid realization is about 7 days, and the payment** is greater than 7 days. At present, in response to the demand for increasing the ARPU value of advertising, Giant Engine recommends that developers focus on two aspects, one is the basic running volume tools, which can help new products quickly cold start and complete the account volume, and also pay attention to the coverage of native ads.
After entering the game, game developers will face stiffer competition. With the trend of medium and heavy and content-based, user retention and revisit of Mini Games are becoming more and more important. Earlier this year, some developers reported that Douyin's platform attributes and interface design do make it slightly less convenient and willing for users to revisit than other platforms. Focusing on the challenges of the growth of Douyin mini games, Giant Engine has come up with solutions and sincere suggestions.
For example, with the construction of sidebar entrances, alienation cards, ** anchors and other revisit capabilities, the user and retention of Douyin Mini Games have increased by 20% and 40% compared with last year and even in the first half of this year. The unique revisit function of Douyin mini games such as alienation cards can increase the retention by 20% and increase the ARPU value by 15%, and the click-through rate of some customer alienation cards that have done well has even reached 40-60%. 
The second is content marketing, the publisher plan launched by the giant engine and the giant star map solves the content marketing distribution through the talent short**, reduces the operating costs of developers, and helps developers continue to obtain traffic through content marketing on Douyin.
What is the use of this Douyin characteristic marketing method?Wang Zijun explained that the core of PUGC content is to guide users to convert, reactive, and return through influencers, content, and mounting anchors. The ** released by Douyin influencers and content accounts has a very weak sense of marketing and does not have the attributes of an official position, so the user's natural resistance will be weaker, and the conversion effect will be better. At the same time, some of the more dazzling operations and interesting explanations of the talent will also give users more ** body sense and awaken the interest of the game. For example, a game with the theme of the Three Kingdoms, because the gameplay is more casual and the viewing is good, the positive feedback is very fast, and it quickly exploded on Douyin. At the same time, the competition for good gameplay in the market is very fierce, so it will encounter an extremely serious phenomenon of homogeneous delivery of materials. By using the publisher's program to get a large number of influencer works, the developer has produced a lot of differentiated talent-native content, achieving misplaced competition, and finally the activation cost has been significantly reduced by 40-50%.
Zhang Yuchen also shared that it is precisely because of the perfect ability and commercial closed loop of the Douyin mini game platform that the three products developed by Beijing Tuyue Technology, "How Good Is It to Be an Emperor", "Civilian Counterattack" and "Modification Operation" have achieved success through the issuer's first-day explosion, long-term launch and long-term retention and return respectively. Like the female-oriented hit "Modification Battle", its long-term retention and return data is better, and this also benefits from the rich return scenes of Douyin mini games. For example, the proportion of anchor reflow based on the issuer's plan has reached 27%, and the sidebar and alienation cards also account for about 10%. These cases fully demonstrate that Douyin Mini Games currently has the commercialization ability to help all stages and categories of Mini Games gain and benefit from customers.
Among the many commercialization capabilities and plans of Douyin Mini Games, the author is most concerned about the ability of Douyin Mini Games to open live streaming at the end of this year, after all, everyone should have seen a lot of live broadcast with games sweeping the game circle in the past two days. Compared with short**, the interaction of live broadcast is more real-time, user stickiness is relatively strong, and the conversion link and effect are more visual. Players can get timely feedback from streamers, who are able to aggregate players' opinions about the game to developers. For example, Douyin's "Little Jelly Bean" conversion component allows users to play mini-games while playing live broadcasts on the anchor in a picture, helping users overcome the threshold of getting started with the game and driving users to pay.
At present, the manufacturer-platform-guild-anchor-user link built by Douyin Live is very mature, and it is not difficult to expand it to the field of mini games. And at present, there is almost only one Douyin mini game that can have enough user scale and distribution capacity to run through large-scale live broadcast and play streaming, which can be said to be the only ability to promote and build an ecological matrix. This year, the number of content and live broadcasts of Douyin mini games exceeded 13 million and 300,000 times respectively, generating 85 billion short games and 7.5 billion live broadcasts, of which the live broadcast of small games has just started in the second half of the year, and the number of users of live games per day has reached 40 million, indicating that it still has great potential to explore.
At the same time as the construction of anchors and KOLs matrix, developers can also build their own positions on Douyin to operate enterprise accounts, or even 1+N account matrices of enterprises + individuals + employees, and use enterprise accounts to realize the collaborative management of business, public and private domain traffic, so as to maximize the reach of people. It is worth mentioning that the enterprise account also provides unique topic functions and fan group capabilities, which is convenient for developers to do private domain construction and help developers to manage private domains and convert active users. Especially in enterprise accounts, the huge engine provides unique topic functions and the ability to facilitate manufacturers to build a fan base for private domain to help private domain management. In terms of the homepage component, it also provides additional mounting of Douyin's enterprise applet, so when the developer does private domain management or position management of the enterprise account account drainage, you can directly have a good conversion anchor.
The massive engine will also be launched in the future, and there will be some special tab capabilities customized for the mini game industry on the "my" tab page of the enterprise account, which has been tested. Enterprise account traffic usually has a higher conversion rate than ordinary business domain traffic, because the players who come to the enterprise account are themselves interested groups, and the accuracy of the traffic is higher. Conclusion
Generally speaking, after finding out the attribute positioning of Douyin's "content platform" and the development trend of "content + traffic" in the mini game industry, Douyin Mini Games has continuously improved a series of platforms and commercialization capabilities such as access, promotion, and revisit, so as to find its own development path. In particular, Douyin Mini Games focuses on product content, native advertising and other attributes, and is leading the Mini Game industry from the extensive development model of the past to content-based and high-quality products, helping small and medium-sized game manufacturers to become bigger and stronger with a lower threshold and more diversified business model. At the same time, it also cultivates a group of new users for the game industry, actively helps the game industry in the stock era to find increments, and lays a solid foundation for the future incremental development of the game industry.
At present, the traffic exploration of Douyin Mini Games in the entire ecology of Douyin is far from reaching the ceiling, and the functions, links, and models that help the development of Douyin Mini Games are also constantly innovating. In 2024, I believe we will witness the extremely amazing changes and development of Douyin Mini Games to the Mini Games industry.