How often do you play games on your mobile? From puzzle games to platformers, RPGs and beyond, around 2.85 billion people across the world indulge in some form of gaming on their smartphones. Many of these apps are social gaming apps, and most are downloaded and played for free. This revenue model has taken the world by storm. But what lessons can businesses learn from it?
What is Social Gaming?
Social gaming is a type of entertainment prevalent on social media and applications. It involves utilizing people’s social connections on like Meta to grow players and an audience. What’s most interesting for businesses is that it tends to use a free-to-play model. Revenue is therefore instead acquired through advertising and in-app purchases.
There are many apps that have grown huge through this method, from games like Wordle to dating apps like Tinder. Online card games have also benefited from the freemium social gaming phenomenon.
Global Poker is one brand that has risen to prominence, allowing people to play without having to deposit money. Players gain chips as daily bonuses when they log in, and can purchase additional ones in the game if they wish. So successful has this been that it has led to a host of free sites similar to Global Poker that also allow people to play using this model, many of which are being officially recognized and reviewed in their own right by experts in the field, who know the ins and outs of the game.
Hence, the thing about a freemium model is that it sets a competitive bar for the rest of the industry in terms of value-for-money. Where one business does well, others will soon follow, and while they might not make as much money off each individual copy of the game as they would if they had set a standard price for each copy, the benefit of social gaming is that through the sheer number of people playing, huge profits can nevertheless be generated over time.
What Lessons Can Businesses Learn from Social Gaming?
The biggest lesson is that mobile technology continues to dominate. A device is with a customer 24 hours a day, sitting in their pocket. This gives businesses unparalleled access to them and their social circle. Being able to update them with notifications and having a constant presence is much better than sending out sporadic letters and emails.
This shows that the concept of paying for a good or service, and then getting it, is becoming an outdated notion. There are new revenue schemes, gained from upselling services or in-app purchases. These can be supplemented with advertising revenue and other streams. Old methods may be great for some products, but not for all.
Of course, the best way to get started with this is with an application. It does not need to be a game but can be a useful tool related to your business. For example, interior designers may have apps related to color schemes and palettes. Speak to a developer and use this as a springboard, leveraging the power of socials to increase your conversions.
