Virtual Goods Forum

* Price for 1st Delegates. Delegate 2 (15% off); Delegate 3 (25% off) & Delegate 4 (50% off)

Serge Soudoplatoff, Founder, Hyperdoxe and Strategic Advisor, Kzero and Professor, Hetic and ESCP

09:00 Who wants to be a billionaire? Leveraging Asia’s virtual Goods best practices

China

’s online game market was worth 3.75B USD in 2009 - mostly virtual goods. 9 companies are market-listed

China

’s TenCent is the world’s third largest Internet company after Google and Amazon. 90% of their revenue is from users

Korea

’s online gaming companies are expanding overseas aggressively with licensing or direct operation

09:30 Beyond Facebook and Myspace: Opportunities for publishers and app/game developers outside of open platforms

n How the virtual goods landscape is expanding beyond Facebook and Myspace; identifying key differences as well as hidden opportunities

n Increasing revenues, maximising profits: How to build a sustainable business model with virtual goods

n Overview of past condition, high expectations and reality for the mobile entertainment industry in 2010+

n Lack of prospects for classical mobile JAVA ME developers and the possibilities, but also problems in smart phone development and porting like iPhone, Android etc

n SOFTGAMES’ pioneer work as the worlds first mobile developer to generate new revenues by selling virtual goods in mobile browser games

n Habits of mobile browser users and their willingness to purchase virtual goods

n What are your users’ motivations (kudos, connections, curiosity etc.) and how can you cater to them?

n Monetisation platforms and pitfalls to avoid. Things to consider for internationalisation and how to map out your virtual economy

n Examples of good implementations of virtual currencies and lessons that can be drawn from those

Japan

leads the world in mobile internet diffusion and monetization - 90% 3G penetration rate and contents and commerce market of USD1.3B

n Virtual goods (avatars and in-game items) as monetization engine for mobile SNS platforms and application providers

n A gold rush emerging in social application with estimated market size of USD1-2B

13:45 PANEL DISCUSSION: Optimising monetisation methods within a single game and including a whole variety of different methods - what do the monetisation players and what do the publishers think?

The blended business model: in the virtual goods space people have been testing a lot of monetisation methods – some do pure advertising, others do CPA offers and payments from consumers. Publishers look to incorporate a whole variety of different monetisation methods within the same game so that they can maximise profits across a broad set of consumers. With some consumers preferring to pay Ł10 a month and getting extra benefit for that, others are casual users – no one size fits all. Panellists will bring their experience to the table to discuss pros and cons of integrating multiple paying methods in single games.

n Small one-off payments – easy to handle and trust for the customer

n Mobile versus web: why mobile devices are an easier way to engage customers in a payment

n International billing models

Panellists include:

Adam Caplan, Vice President - Virtual Currency, Adknowledge, inc.

Karl Mehta, Founder & CEO, PlaySpan Inc.

Phil Guest, Executive Vice President Global Ad Sales, Sulake

14:30 Spotting trends and niche markets and monetising them before others do

Social media opens new opportunities to interact with people (users, consumers, etc.)

n Mobile is the ultimate social medium (it is personal, always on, always present) and offers built-in billing channels. It also is c. 3x the size of the Internet at large!

n The crux is to develop along relevant points of contact and interaction (theory of object-centred sociality): if the offer (product, virtual item, service, etc.) is within context, it will be received by the person on an eye-to-eye basis and not as an (attempted) rip-off

n Games and apps are interactive by definition. The addition of virtual goods, items, etc. allows for new business models that are fairer, more transparent and honest

n The above offers tremendous opportunities for brands to connect with people and, at the same time, carefully develop ancillary and incremental business

Casual games are a funnel. You pour users in at the top (by brand marketing, word-of-mouth, viral game play or online advertising) and profits pour out the bottom. But only if you know how to get your users to sign up, enjoy your game and spend lots of money. Nicholas Lovell offers a practical guide to finding the levers that will supercharge your business. Debunking the jargon of cost per acquisition and lifetime value, of conversion rates and viral coefficients, he shows how every developer can and should track their key metrics, tweak their game and predict the profits that will follow.

16:30 Virtual goods sales as a business model: How do all the different business aspects come together

n How can the virtual goods sales business be described with an academic business model framework

n How segmentation, game mechanics, virtual economy, social interaction mechanics, value propositions, customer relationship, pricing etc. can be planned and described under one framework

n How business/game developers can benefit from using conceptual business model tools

Juho Hamari, Researcher, Helsinki Institute for Information Technology

17:00 PANEL DISCUSSION: Meet a selection of consumers and potential consumers. What do they want?

n Have you ever bought virtual goods? (on social networks, in game, music etc…?)

n If not, why wouldn’t you?

n What would make you consider buying something?

n What kind of price point is reasonable?

n The key intellectual property issues arising from virtual goods and how to avoid problems