Social media applications as a marketing tool
I would like to touch on a topic that is so fashionable today as social networking apps. Recently, most Internet resources have focused on applications as a way to make big money in a short time. The first part of this article will analyze the most promising application markets that have shown rapid growth in recent years - the United States, China and Russia. In the second part of the article, the applications will be considered from a slightly different angle - we will discuss their use as a full-fledged marketing tool.
According to a study by Inside Virtual Goods, the US virtual goods market in 2009 reached a turnover of 1 billion dollars.
The study took into account both virtual gifts that Facebook and social network users buy each other, as well as a variety of products used in online games to more effectively fight rival players or monsters. The $ 1 billion figure is about 2 times higher than the income from virtual goods for the previous year.
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It is possible that in the future the turnover of the market for virtual goods in the United States will reach 1.6 billion dollars. One way or another, 2009 will be remembered as a crucial time when the market rapidly took off. “I don’t know if anyone expected such rapid growth,” said study co-author Justin Smith, “The Facebook platform started from scratch and came to millions of dollars in just two and a half years.”
Creators of gaming applications are experiencing a real boom: the total income of three companies - Zynga, Playdom and Playfish - this year may reach $ 300 million. A new game company Zynga, Cafe World, gathered 10 million users per week.
Note that applications to the popular social service Twitter today still do not bring such income, but everything is ahead - especially since investors are actively investing their capital in them. one
Nevertheless, it is worth noting that applications to Twitter.com earn a little less than the microblogging service itself. According to the company Chubby Brain, for the first week of June 2009, startups associated with Twitter, in the aggregate earned 23.3 million dollars. 2
Qzone , the leading Chinese social network for teenagers (376 million users), is the largest in the world. Tencent, which manages this network, recently announced that its revenue for 2008 was more than a billion dollars. 3
At the same time, only 12% of Qzone's network revenue accounts for advertising - the rest comes from the sale of virtual goods, including various applications . In total, in 2009, China is going to spend about $ 1.7 billion on online advertising, which is 4% of all advertising expenses (while in the US they are going to spend $ 25.7 billion on online advertising in 2009). 4 This rather small budget of online advertising in China is mainly distributed among the four main news portals, which receive the main income from online advertising. This forces social networks and other sites to search for more advanced methods of traffic monetization - for example, intensifying the application development process.
The volume of the Russian market of applications in social networks was about $ 30 million in 2009 5
According to the research holding ROMIR, 20% of users of social networks in Runet pay for additional services. Every third person buys emoticons, and every fourth pays for the use of an expanded photo and video gallery, and also gets rating points. Those who are already spending money on such sites make up a huge audience - 3.78 million users. According to experts, the situation, due to the penetration of broadband access (broadband Internet access), will change - the Runet’s audience will expand and the average client will become more active.
According to analysts, the market for developing client applications and games for social networks in the near future will turn into a separate segment of the RuNet economy with turnover of tens of millions of dollars annually.
However, one should not forget that any branded VKontakte application can be a full-fledged marketing tool. For example, Snickers has already launched a branded gaming application not only in social networks, but also on the usual gaming portal miniclip.com
In addition to Snickers, branded applications on Facebook have brands such as BMW, Lays, Nike, Heineken and others. The Russian market presents a kind of vacuum, which has not yet used its full potential, because it is just starting to fill with high-quality content.
The executive director and director for work with clients of the Daily Profit advertising agency ( http://dailyprofit.ru ), Yuriy Fedin and Mikhail Butaev, agreed to analyze the main problems of the Russian market of client applications for social networks.
“The main problem of the Russian market lies in the fact that there are practically no professional teams in Russia that work effectively with social platforms. The problem is aggravated by the fact that even with a quality product, Russian developers are not able to correctly bring it to the market, ”says Fedin.
Solution of the problem, according to Fedin, is the development of a full-fledged marketing strategy for bringing the product to the market. “The scheme of work is simple: our employees develop application projects in close cooperation with the IT department: we do not create an application, and then we think about what to do with it. First, a concept is written, then a painstaking analysis of possible product prospects on the market goes, and only after that we start implementing the IT component of the project. We are aware of how this process should be built, and we recruit professionals into our team: we have creators, there are people involved in analyzing the financial part of the project, people who have extensive experience in managing IT projects and, of course, marketers who analyze the potential of the project as a viral marketing tool. Now we are capable of solving the highest tasks that the client sets for us - it is for this that we have assembled a team of highly qualified specialists.
“At the moment, applications have turned from a profit tool into a marketing tool. And this tool justifies itself, because the main task of any client application is to integrate the brand into the social environment, ”says Mikhail Butaev. “Do not forget that the contact of the target audience with such an advertising medium is hours, not seconds or even minutes - the user returns to the application almost every day, subconsciously gaining confidence in the brand during the game.”
“Our advertising agency specializes in promoting social media and doesn’t work fundamentally with contractors - this is why our experience allows us to control the process of project implementation, starting from the moment of its development and ending with the achievement of target indicators of the ongoing advertising campaign. We have been doing viral marketing since 2006, so effective integration of the viral component into the application is not a problem for us, ”Butaev said.
According to Juniper Research, by 2012 the number of active users of social networks in the world will reach 600 million people, whereas in 2007 this figure was only 14 million. It's time to act.
View the Daily Profit flash presentation by applications.
[1] “Web-Planet”: an online business magazine, 10/15/2009, “Facebook has inflated interest in virtual goods”, http://webplanet.ru/news/service/2009/10/15/virtualgoods.html
[2] Chubby Brain Investment and Startup Information Portal, 06/16/2009, "$ 23.3 Million Has Is It Just The Beginning?", Http://www.chubbybrain.com/blog/2009/06 / 233-million-has-flow-to-twitter-based-startups -–- is-this-just-the-beginning /
[3] “Web-Planet”: Internet Business Magazine, April 7, 2009, “Chinese Social Networks: America Resting,” http://www.webplanet.ru/review/business/2009/04/06/china_social_net. html
[4] “Web-Planet”: Journal of Internet Business, April 7, 2009, “Chinese Social Networks: America Resting,” http://www.webplanet.ru/review/business/2009/04/06/china_social_net. html
[5] Vedomosti, 03.11.2009, Mail.ru, VKontakte and Happy Farmer, http://www.sostav.ru/news/2009/11/03/cod4/
US application market
According to a study by Inside Virtual Goods, the US virtual goods market in 2009 reached a turnover of 1 billion dollars.
The study took into account both virtual gifts that Facebook and social network users buy each other, as well as a variety of products used in online games to more effectively fight rival players or monsters. The $ 1 billion figure is about 2 times higher than the income from virtual goods for the previous year.
')
It is possible that in the future the turnover of the market for virtual goods in the United States will reach 1.6 billion dollars. One way or another, 2009 will be remembered as a crucial time when the market rapidly took off. “I don’t know if anyone expected such rapid growth,” said study co-author Justin Smith, “The Facebook platform started from scratch and came to millions of dollars in just two and a half years.”
Creators of gaming applications are experiencing a real boom: the total income of three companies - Zynga, Playdom and Playfish - this year may reach $ 300 million. A new game company Zynga, Cafe World, gathered 10 million users per week.
Note that applications to the popular social service Twitter today still do not bring such income, but everything is ahead - especially since investors are actively investing their capital in them. one
Nevertheless, it is worth noting that applications to Twitter.com earn a little less than the microblogging service itself. According to the company Chubby Brain, for the first week of June 2009, startups associated with Twitter, in the aggregate earned 23.3 million dollars. 2
China Application Market
Qzone , the leading Chinese social network for teenagers (376 million users), is the largest in the world. Tencent, which manages this network, recently announced that its revenue for 2008 was more than a billion dollars. 3
At the same time, only 12% of Qzone's network revenue accounts for advertising - the rest comes from the sale of virtual goods, including various applications . In total, in 2009, China is going to spend about $ 1.7 billion on online advertising, which is 4% of all advertising expenses (while in the US they are going to spend $ 25.7 billion on online advertising in 2009). 4 This rather small budget of online advertising in China is mainly distributed among the four main news portals, which receive the main income from online advertising. This forces social networks and other sites to search for more advanced methods of traffic monetization - for example, intensifying the application development process.
Russian application market
The volume of the Russian market of applications in social networks was about $ 30 million in 2009 5
According to the research holding ROMIR, 20% of users of social networks in Runet pay for additional services. Every third person buys emoticons, and every fourth pays for the use of an expanded photo and video gallery, and also gets rating points. Those who are already spending money on such sites make up a huge audience - 3.78 million users. According to experts, the situation, due to the penetration of broadband access (broadband Internet access), will change - the Runet’s audience will expand and the average client will become more active.
According to analysts, the market for developing client applications and games for social networks in the near future will turn into a separate segment of the RuNet economy with turnover of tens of millions of dollars annually.
However, one should not forget that any branded VKontakte application can be a full-fledged marketing tool. For example, Snickers has already launched a branded gaming application not only in social networks, but also on the usual gaming portal miniclip.com
In addition to Snickers, branded applications on Facebook have brands such as BMW, Lays, Nike, Heineken and others. The Russian market presents a kind of vacuum, which has not yet used its full potential, because it is just starting to fill with high-quality content.
The executive director and director for work with clients of the Daily Profit advertising agency ( http://dailyprofit.ru ), Yuriy Fedin and Mikhail Butaev, agreed to analyze the main problems of the Russian market of client applications for social networks.
“The main problem of the Russian market lies in the fact that there are practically no professional teams in Russia that work effectively with social platforms. The problem is aggravated by the fact that even with a quality product, Russian developers are not able to correctly bring it to the market, ”says Fedin.
Solution of the problem, according to Fedin, is the development of a full-fledged marketing strategy for bringing the product to the market. “The scheme of work is simple: our employees develop application projects in close cooperation with the IT department: we do not create an application, and then we think about what to do with it. First, a concept is written, then a painstaking analysis of possible product prospects on the market goes, and only after that we start implementing the IT component of the project. We are aware of how this process should be built, and we recruit professionals into our team: we have creators, there are people involved in analyzing the financial part of the project, people who have extensive experience in managing IT projects and, of course, marketers who analyze the potential of the project as a viral marketing tool. Now we are capable of solving the highest tasks that the client sets for us - it is for this that we have assembled a team of highly qualified specialists.
“At the moment, applications have turned from a profit tool into a marketing tool. And this tool justifies itself, because the main task of any client application is to integrate the brand into the social environment, ”says Mikhail Butaev. “Do not forget that the contact of the target audience with such an advertising medium is hours, not seconds or even minutes - the user returns to the application almost every day, subconsciously gaining confidence in the brand during the game.”
“Our advertising agency specializes in promoting social media and doesn’t work fundamentally with contractors - this is why our experience allows us to control the process of project implementation, starting from the moment of its development and ending with the achievement of target indicators of the ongoing advertising campaign. We have been doing viral marketing since 2006, so effective integration of the viral component into the application is not a problem for us, ”Butaev said.
According to Juniper Research, by 2012 the number of active users of social networks in the world will reach 600 million people, whereas in 2007 this figure was only 14 million. It's time to act.
View the Daily Profit flash presentation by applications.
[1] “Web-Planet”: an online business magazine, 10/15/2009, “Facebook has inflated interest in virtual goods”, http://webplanet.ru/news/service/2009/10/15/virtualgoods.html
[2] Chubby Brain Investment and Startup Information Portal, 06/16/2009, "$ 23.3 Million Has Is It Just The Beginning?", Http://www.chubbybrain.com/blog/2009/06 / 233-million-has-flow-to-twitter-based-startups -–- is-this-just-the-beginning /
[3] “Web-Planet”: Internet Business Magazine, April 7, 2009, “Chinese Social Networks: America Resting,” http://www.webplanet.ru/review/business/2009/04/06/china_social_net. html
[4] “Web-Planet”: Journal of Internet Business, April 7, 2009, “Chinese Social Networks: America Resting,” http://www.webplanet.ru/review/business/2009/04/06/china_social_net. html
[5] Vedomosti, 03.11.2009, Mail.ru, VKontakte and Happy Farmer, http://www.sostav.ru/news/2009/11/03/cod4/
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/94054/
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