Table of Contents:
1. Overview of Southeast Asia
2. Mobile Games in Southeast Asia
3. Local Marketing Strategies
To get the full report of Mobile Games Marketing In Southeast Asia, please download it Here.
1. Overview of Southeast Asia
Among the regional economic entities, Southeast Asia ranked No. 5 globally. The GDP would keep growing smoothly from the estimated year of 2016 till 2026. The amount of GDP for Indonesia is estimated for the first ranking in Southeast Asia.
The major structure focuses on the young generation of citizens
There're around 670 million citizens in Southeast Asia. The number of the population occupies at 8.58% in the worldwide population roughly.
The people in Malaysia and Philippines are relatively young. Thailand’s and Singaporean citizens are comparatively old. The ratio of people’s life span from 15 to 64-year old is appropriately 67% in total. The entire population structure is still relatively young. The demographic dividend is very huge.
Source: Southeast Asia 2019 Digital Economy Report
The Internet penetration rate is huge and the extent of the use rates among mobile clients are frequent.
In the Southeast Asian market, the Internet penetration rate is very large. Among the member states, Singapore’s rate reaches 83% of its population. Meanwhile, Thailand and Malaysia have 82% and 77% respectively.
Based on the investigation, 90% of the Southeast Asian Internet users are mobile client’s users or customers. Thus, the extent of the popularity via mobile clients is super high.
However, though the Internet is distributed widely, the speed of the Internet is very slow, and the collocation or allocation is extremely weak. In that case, the application developers are supposed to care about the quality of the video ads or the size of the application (.apk).
Source: Nielsen-”What's next in Southeast Asia”
2. Mobile Games in Southeast Asia
The revenue growth rates of the mobile game in Southeast Asia is the highest in the world
In respect of the anticipation, the income of the mobile games raises above 90% roughly from 2020 till 2023. The absolute number of the ratio is far above the average raising rate in the global market.
Source： SensorTower
Marketing Size by countries
CAGR shows that the region keeps growing fast, especially Cambodia , Laos, and Myanmar. Indonesia had the biggest market size and lowest CPI. Singapore had the highest ARPU out of the selected countries with average revenue of 73.04 U.S. dollars per user.
Source： Statista
According to the data, Role Playing， Action, and Strategy ranked the top level in the market. The download distribution indicates that the download amount of the Action & Casual game is the largest. Thus, Action & Casual games are the most prevailing game type among the local community in South-East Asia.
The trait of the Game Players
In Southeast Asia, players usually use mobile equipment while playing formally. The data indicates that approximately 80% of the people using the mobile facility for the game, 69% of users playing through the PC (personal computer) client, and 57% of the operators using the individual machine as the X-Box or the single devices.
Most of the players concentrate on the younger generation of the citizens and the group of female players growing a lot.
The data shows that most of the latest players are adolescents, aged from 14 to 19-year-old.
Alternatively, the group of female players is a prominent user locally. For instance, in Thailand, the age of twenty-first to thirty-five female users occupy at 21%; the synchronous rate in the Philippines is 48%. The state of Malaysia has the greatest number of female game players, aged from ten to twenty-year-old.
3.Local Mobile Games Marketing Strategies in Southeast Asia
Localization of the Language
In Southeast Asia, there're numerous dialects and there're also certain deviations between the formal language and local dialects among distinct communities. Under the impact of colonization, the word English becomes the official language in many Asian countries. So, the enterprises or corporations can apply the source of materials in English mode in partial states while promoting abroad. Though the word English belongs to the normal language, not all the residents in Southeast Asia could speak in English as well as the people do in Western society. Hence, developers could compose the ad materials with respect to the regional dialects.
Avoiding the Religious Taboo
In circumstances with complicated religions, most of the residents are theists. People are super likely to violate the heterogeneous rules or principles in Southeast Asia.
The number of Muslims is the greatest among member states. Thailand is the greatest Buddhist country in the world. Philippines has the most amount of Catholics in the eastern hemisphere. Moreover, there are numerous Hindus, Judaists, and animists among the communities.
Firms must care about the modification of marketing strategy and treat the details of the material seriously. Developers need to respect the religious culture and try to avoid using the malicious, spiteful, or cruel stuff in the ads.
For instance, Muslims are not allowed to drink or have pork for food. By the way, the subject of terrorism is a controversial and sensitive topic for Muslims.
The style for the Ads
Art Style
Comparatively, the inherent ability to create cultural IPs is weak. Under the deep impact of the Korean, Japanese, or Mandarin cultural IPs, designers could reference that art style spontaneously. Otherwise, following the tradition of Buddhism in Thailand, the aesthetic prefers to utilize glittering items. Following the tendency of a rapidly growing number of female players, game designers would pay attention to satisfying the females’ aesthetic demand is mandatory.
Creative Type
It's suggested that mobile games utilize the mode of video materials or animation sources. On the one hand, the propagation of information is much more explicit or clear. On the other hand, the amination or video clips are vivid and impressive. The frames are alluring and tempting.
Source: App Growing Global
Marketing Case Of Festival
Arena of valor
With the support of the Tourism Authority in Thailand, the Arena of Valor set the Designers’ Competition in two years serially. Referenced with the local festival of Phi Ta Khon, the published functions of purchasing the inner roles’ derma or ornament are responsive among Thai players.
Source: App Growing Global
Real Person Marketing Cases
Mobile Legends： Bang Bang
Based on the perception and research, the ratio of applying the real person's creativity is relatively high in South-East Asia, and most of the creative focus is on the story or drama series. The elements or working theorems are similar to the mode in China.
As the demonstration of the clip, the real person story of the Mobile Legends concentrates on the progress of the couple and affiliated development mainly. The insert of Mobile Legends becomes the clue of the subsequent relationships or effective variation. Subscribers find it quite simple to view the entire advertisement intuitively.
Source: App Growing Global Image Agent Marketing Cases
Garena Free Fire
During the Spring Festival in 2022, the game of Garena Free Fire launched the product of virtual clothing in the Vietnam market. The game developers assign their famous domestic soccer players as the advertising endorser for the goods.
Source: App Growing Global
IP correlated Marketing Cases
Garena RoV: Dragon Kingdom
The game Garena RoV: Dragon Kingdom cooperated with the Japanese comics & animation One Punch Man. The firm creates popular cosplay roles and dedicated events for the communication activity.
Mutual Roles & Local Marketing
เรียกข้าว่าฮ่องเต้
Elements of the video game เรียกข้าว่ฮ่องเต้ utilize the delicate role style to satisfy the Thai aesthetic demand. Following the targeted females’ preferences, the game combined the opera of the ancient dynasty in the story. The information is expressed explicitly, and the frames are vivid. Thereafter, the extent level of the prevailing rate is excessively high among the community.
Esports has been the essential mode for the higher-ranking products in South-East Asia
Besides the rapidly growing scale of mobile games, the region of SouthEast Asia refers to the vital growing market for the Electronic Sports industry. The diagram implies that from 2019 till 2024, the group of CAGR will increase by 20.8% in estimation. In 2024, the industry value will reach above 72.5 million US dollars.
The table demonstrates that the state of Indonesia will rank the highest amount of revenue, which could be 17 million US currency. The state of Vietnam and Philippines will be the next ranking level respectively.
To get the full report of Mobile Games Marketing in Southeast Asia , please download it Here.
