腾讯的全球增长切入点

    就在中国互联网公司阿里巴巴（Alibaba）在美国的IPO一举创下纪录之际，另一家互联网巨头——腾讯（Tencent）则蓄势待发，准备在网络游戏和移动游戏领域谋划巨大的增长。据市场调查机构IDC和CNG的最新报告显示，2014年上半年，中国的移动游戏用户人数较2013年上半年同期增长了89.5%，达到3.25亿人。据视频游戏调查机构Newzoo的数据，腾讯在去年的全球游戏市场中，以57亿美元的年营业收入高居榜首，而且在未来的这几年里，也有望保持龙头位置。Newzoo总裁彼得•沃曼预测，如果腾讯继续保持当前的增长势头，到2017年时，将有望在全球游戏市场中占据10%以上的份额。

    “我们正在见证中国市场的惊人成长，所以我们目前的战略重点是跟上这一增长趋势，”腾讯游戏副总裁王波在被问及公司未来在美国及其他市场的扩张计划时，如此答道，“事实上，腾讯游戏平台在中国的移动游戏领域内处于领先地位。截至2014年3月底，移动QQ和微信（在中国以外地区使用的名称为WeChat）上日活跃用户数稳定在1.8亿人的水平上。此外，微信和移动QQ这两大平台上的移动游戏营收，在2014年第二季度达到了4.88亿美元。移动游戏在中国尚处于早期发展阶段，预计市场还将继续增长。”

    2014年头7个月里，腾讯在中国iOS应用商店的免费下载和营收均位于发行商前列。这要归功于若干超高人气的免费游戏，譬如天美艺游工作室（Timi Studio）内部开发的《天天爱消除》（Timi Match Everyday）和《天天酷跑》（Timi Run Everyday），根据应用程序数据分析公司App Annie公布的数据，目前这些游戏吸引了逾6,000万名日常用户。天美艺游通过微信（中国最知名的移动社交应用平台，月活跃用户人数逾4亿人）和移动QQ（月活跃用户人数逾8.48亿人）向中国的游戏玩家们交叉推广新游戏。

    自从移动游戏平台于去年上线以来，腾讯已经先后发布了20款游戏，涵盖类型广泛，拼图、动作和模拟均有涉足。英国游戏公司King数据娱乐（King Digital Entertainment）开发的《糖果传奇》（Candy Crush Saga）和日本游戏公司史克威尔艾尼克斯（Square Enix）开发的《三国志乱舞》（Sangokushi Rumble），这两款游戏的中国大陆版在微信和移动QQ的游戏平台上均有提供下载；此外也可通过myapp.com下载，这是腾讯面向中国大陆用户推出的安卓（Android）应用发布平台，因为谷歌应用商店Google Play在中国的使用人数不多。

    王波认为，随着中国移动游戏市场日趋成熟，新的游戏类型，譬如动作类游戏（ACT）、动作角色扮演游戏（ARPG）和卡片类游戏（CCG/TCG，前者指卡片搜集游戏，后者指卡片交换游戏）也会日渐盛行。智能手机和平板电脑正在迅速涌现出一批新的玩家，对于有意这一业务的游戏生产商而言，将会打开新的机遇。

    “我们与西方开发商的合作经验丰富，比如我们曾经与艺电体育（EA Sports）进行合作，将该公司开发的体育竞技类游戏《NBA Live》和《FIFA》本地化，然后将其作为网络游戏在中国大陆地区发行代理权，”王波说，“移动游戏在中国大陆地区借助微信和移动QQ平台所取得的成功证明，这一领域蕴藏着巨大的市场空间，有待游戏开发商们深入发掘。”

    With Chinese Internet company Alibaba BABA 1.73% breaking IPO records, another Chinese Internet company, Tencent, is poised for huge growth in the online and mobile games business. According to a recent report by IDC and CNG, the number of mobile gamers in China in the first half of 2014 increased 89.5% to 325 million over the first half of 2013. According to video game research firm Newzoo, last year Tencent moved to the number one position in the global games market with $5.7 billion in annual game revenue, and the company shows no sign of leaving the top in the years to come. Peter Warman, president of Newzoo, forecasts Tencent could take over 10% of the global games market in 2017, if it maintains this pace of growth.

    “We are seeing incredible growth in the China market and are focused mainly on keeping up with that growth for now,” said Bo Wang, vice president of Tencent Games, when asked about his plans for expansion into the U.S. and other markets. “In fact, the Tencent mobile game platform is the leader in mobile games in China. As of the end of March 2014, the number of daily active users on Mobile QQ and Weixin (known as WeChat outside of China) was a stable 180 million. In addition, revenues of mobile games on the WeChat and Mobile QQ platforms reached $488 million in Q2 2014. Mobile games are in the early stage of development in China. The market is forecast to continue to grow.”

    Tencent was the top publisher in China’s iOS App Store for free downloads and revenue for each of the first seven months of 2014, thanks to the popularity of free-to-play games like Timi Studio’s internally developed Timi Match Everyday and Timi Run Everyday, which has over 60 million daily users, according to App Annie. Timi Studio uses WeChat, China’s leading mobile social communications platform with over 400 million active monthly users, and QQ Mobile, which has over 848 million monthly active users, to cross-promote new games with Chinese gamers.

    Since launching its mobile games platform last year, Tencent has 20 titles covering a wide range of genres including puzzle, action and simulation. Localized versions of King Digital Entertainment’s Candy Crush Saga and Square Enix’ Sangokushi Rumble (now known as Battle of Sango in China) are available on WeChat and Mobile QQ as well as through myapp.com, which is Tencent’s distribution channel of Android apps for local users since Google Play is not popular in China.

    Wang believes as the Chinese mobile games market matures, new categories such as action games (ACT), ARPG (Action Role Playing Games) and card games (CCG, Collectible Card Game, or TCG, Trading Card Game) will become popular. This will open up new opportunities for game makers interested in navigating this burgeoning new audience of smartphone and tablet gamers.

    “We have a lot of experience working with Western developers, having partnered with EA Sports EA 0.39% to localize and launche their NBA Live and FIFA franchises as online games in China,” said Wang. “The successes of mobile games on WeChat and Mobile QQ in China prove there is a market for developers to explore.”