The Register is running a report by Screen Digest about mobile games and why they are taking off. As mobile penetration approaches saturation point in many western markets the carriers have to look for other ways to generate revenue, and the advent of downloadable games offered a simple and billable platform for the delivery of games. The market in Western Europe and the US was predicted to have grown by 500% in 2004, ten times as much as Japan and Korea.
This is a very interesting report which explains why mobile games are so popular in Japan and Korea compared to Europe and the US. Koreans use a pay-per-play method, but the price is a lot cheaper – about US$1.30, which is offset by download rates being 10 times as high as elsewhere, so ARPU is high as well. It’s well known that NTT DoCoMo’s all you can eat model is the reason for the success of mobile games in Japan, but this is the first time I’ve read that the Japanese incumbent encourages the practice because it makes its money out of the “airtime component”. However airtime in Europe is a lot cheaper than Japan so the business model may not be viable…
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