Japan Mobile Social Game Market – 2012
New report by Enterbrain, with survey details, forecasts Japan mobile social gaming market to hit $3.4B in 2012: http://bit.ly/QZCmQm
Japan’s mobile social game market will reach $3.4 billion in 2012
According to a new report from Enterbrain the market for social network games in Japan continues to soar and is expected to increase from 211.7 billion yen (about $2.6billion) in 2011 to a forecasted JPY 270 billion (about $3.4 billion) in 2012.
Most all of this revenue is generated from the mobile free-to-play model that generates revenue from consumers paying for premium content that enhances the game experience. In addition, there are multiple social network platforms in Japan with Gree and Mobage emerging as market leaders by focusing on the Japan mobile social network market. The situation in Japan is in contrast to the United States or Europe where the biggest social network game success has been Zynga on Facebook.
To understand Japan’s game consumers, leading Japan research provider Enterbrain surveyed over 69,000 individuals in the market with a detailed survey of 1,600 Japanese social gamers. The research indicates that 46% of Japanese consumers age 15-59 use a social network, with the most popular social network in Japan being mixi, followed by Twitter and Facebook.
However, among social network gamers the most popular networks are mixi, Mobage and Gree. Mobage and Gree had the most premium content users at 14% and 16% of users, while networks such as mixi and Facebook had only 5-6% of their user base as premium content users.
A big issue revealed by the survey is that consumers are hesitant to make their first purchase but after doing so are becoming more comfortable at making future purchases. The average time between starting a social network game and making a first purchase is 140 days. The average first purchase was JPY1,293 (about $16) and 80% of premium content purchasers made additional purchases with 50% being frequent purchasers. Overall the comfort spending level for consumers was 1,500 yen a month (about $18).
Full details via this new report ‘The Secret of Gree & Mobage’s Success – How to succeed with in-App Purchase in the Mobile SNS Market’ consists of an 85-page PowerPoint summary of the survey results along with detailed profiles of the major Japan social network game companies and overall market forecasts.