About the fight against pirates and promotion in the Chinese market of Android applications
Can I make money on the Android application in China? Can you answer this question?
The author suffers from doubts about the answer, and even the diploma of a translator of the Chinese language received in due time does not help at all in this situation.
Why the question arose and how we surrendered without a fight.
')
The author works in a small mobile game development company and from time to time tells management about illegal versions of our applications in Chinese markets and catalogs. It was customary to turn a blind eye, but everything changed after the following infographic was shown to the management:
Below we clearly read: placing an application on alternative markets will increase downloads by 200%.
Ok, post so post. The author went to study the 10 Chinese catalogs listed above and, unexpectedly, each of them already has our games. The author sends a letter to each market, where he politely explains in Chinese that he is a representative of the owners of the games, and they have them illegally posted on their website. Further should be asked to understand this situation and the promise of future cooperation. Answers came from 5 (2 of them are automatic), two requested documents confirming copyright, and only one of 10 stores removed pirated applications and promised to contribute to the promotion of our official (by the way, there were 25 pirated versions of our game in this store, most of them with built-in third-party advertising).
But! In China, more than 400 android markets . Although this is not surprising, after all, 33% of Chinese people use smartphones and 38% of them on Android. A rough estimate shows that this is at least 170 million people. By the way, this is the data for 2012 (can be found here ), so the figure 170 can be safely multiplied by two. It turns out that half of android users live in China .
And despite this, the main android store Google.Play does not allow Chinese users to buy applications or pay for internal purchases. (Chinese users of Apple products have the option of paying with a bank card or a gift card (which, by the way, are actively trading on Taobao), while the adherents of the android have no possibility of paying on Google.Play .)
After discussions, we identified the main ways in which android developers can go in our situation.
1. Localize the application in Chinese.
2. Agree with Chinese mobile operators and integrate Chinese payment for in-ups into it.
3. Agree with 10-400 markets that they will not host a pirated application, but will place yours. Engage in promotion and marketing.
The bottom line: in half a year, make a profit from the Chinese market.
1. Make a separate version of the application for Google.Play in Chinese without internal purchases (Chinese Google.Play users will not see your application, even if it is free, but contains internal purchases).
2. Embed advertising into the application.
3. Your application will still be duplicated on Chinese markets, but you may receive advertising revenue from it.
Bottom line: receive advertising revenue.
1. Do not localize the application in Chinese and ignore the Chinese market.
The bottom line: do not get any income and do not spend any effort.
1. Contact the companies that are engaged in localization, promotion, etc. in China (for example, www.cocoachina.com/goeast or www.yodo1.com ).
2. The aforementioned Wado1.com promises deep localization (they can change pictures, sound, etc.), embed internal purchases into your application, promote and marketing. Share profit 50/50. I can’t say anything about reliability, but communicate adequately and offer NDA.
The bottom line: make a little effort and get 50% of the hypothetical profit.
Our company has not yet decided on the choice of the path. The last option seems attractive, but there is always the likelihood that the Chinese will make a clone of your game and will receive 100% of the profits, and you nothing.
I wanted to share with you the ways we see and ask about your successes in this area. What do you think, friends?
The author suffers from doubts about the answer, and even the diploma of a translator of the Chinese language received in due time does not help at all in this situation.
Why the question arose and how we surrendered without a fight.
')
The author works in a small mobile game development company and from time to time tells management about illegal versions of our applications in Chinese markets and catalogs. It was customary to turn a blind eye, but everything changed after the following infographic was shown to the management:
Below we clearly read: placing an application on alternative markets will increase downloads by 200%.
Ok, post so post. The author went to study the 10 Chinese catalogs listed above and, unexpectedly, each of them already has our games. The author sends a letter to each market, where he politely explains in Chinese that he is a representative of the owners of the games, and they have them illegally posted on their website. Further should be asked to understand this situation and the promise of future cooperation. Answers came from 5 (2 of them are automatic), two requested documents confirming copyright, and only one of 10 stores removed pirated applications and promised to contribute to the promotion of our official (by the way, there were 25 pirated versions of our game in this store, most of them with built-in third-party advertising).
But! In China, more than 400 android markets . Although this is not surprising, after all, 33% of Chinese people use smartphones and 38% of them on Android. A rough estimate shows that this is at least 170 million people. By the way, this is the data for 2012 (can be found here ), so the figure 170 can be safely multiplied by two. It turns out that half of android users live in China .
And despite this, the main android store Google.Play does not allow Chinese users to buy applications or pay for internal purchases. (Chinese users of Apple products have the option of paying with a bank card or a gift card (which, by the way, are actively trading on Taobao), while the adherents of the android have no possibility of paying on Google.Play .)
After discussions, we identified the main ways in which android developers can go in our situation.
Active.
1. Localize the application in Chinese.
2. Agree with Chinese mobile operators and integrate Chinese payment for in-ups into it.
3. Agree with 10-400 markets that they will not host a pirated application, but will place yours. Engage in promotion and marketing.
The bottom line: in half a year, make a profit from the Chinese market.
Passive.
1. Make a separate version of the application for Google.Play in Chinese without internal purchases (Chinese Google.Play users will not see your application, even if it is free, but contains internal purchases).
2. Embed advertising into the application.
3. Your application will still be duplicated on Chinese markets, but you may receive advertising revenue from it.
Bottom line: receive advertising revenue.
Very passive.
1. Do not localize the application in Chinese and ignore the Chinese market.
The bottom line: do not get any income and do not spend any effort.
Trust the professionals.
1. Contact the companies that are engaged in localization, promotion, etc. in China (for example, www.cocoachina.com/goeast or www.yodo1.com ).
2. The aforementioned Wado1.com promises deep localization (they can change pictures, sound, etc.), embed internal purchases into your application, promote and marketing. Share profit 50/50. I can’t say anything about reliability, but communicate adequately and offer NDA.
The bottom line: make a little effort and get 50% of the hypothetical profit.
Our company has not yet decided on the choice of the path. The last option seems attractive, but there is always the likelihood that the Chinese will make a clone of your game and will receive 100% of the profits, and you nothing.
I wanted to share with you the ways we see and ask about your successes in this area. What do you think, friends?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/185036/
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