Ryan Hoover is Halfway Nerdy

Fun With Numbers from Casual Connect

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend my first Casual Connect in Seattle. Armed like a student, I went to three days of sessions with my computer and notepad, prepared to digest knowledge and take notes. Although some of the speakers found it as an opportunity to give hundreds of attendees their sales pitch and others selfishly (and wisely) held back their meaty trade secrets, the event was overall very insightful. Here are the numbers I found most interesting:

• APRU (average revenue per user) is $0.25-0.35 with a predicted increase to $0.30-0.40 in 2012 as more users pay and play social games – John Pleasants (Playdom)
• Projected average LTV (long term value) per user – Rex Ng (6waves):
  • North America: $0.55
  • Asia: $0.22
  • Australia: $0.32
  • South America: $0.16
  • Europe: $0.41
• Most games lose money, paying $1 CPI (cost per install) – Rex Ng (6waves)
• Average viral coefficients have dropped from 1-2 to 0.4 due to Facebook policy changes – Rex Ng (6waves)
• Japan’s mobile ARPU is 2x the U.S.’s – Rex Ng (6waves)
• 50% of paying users make repeat purchases – Jia Shen (RockYou)
• Average DAU/MAU (daily active user/monthly active user) industry ratio is 20-40% (measurement of engagement) – Kai Bolik (Game Duell)
• ARPU for typical display advertising (ie banner ads) is $0.10/month where as skinned or branded games deliver $25 CPM (cost per thousand views) – Shannon Callie (Microsoft)
• App usage on Facebook is down 10%, 3rd party app DAU is down 13%, and the top 3 Facebook game makers’ DAU is down between 10-50% since policy changes – Dan Fiden (PlayFish)
• 20 countries make up 80% of Facebook’s population – Nick Berry
• In Facebook game Family Feud, 40% of players publish to their feed on a given day and 90% of players return to the app after their first visit – David Nixon (Oberon Media)
• 91.25% of purchases on Mochi Media’s platform are between $0.25-1 – Josh Larson (Mochi Media)
• ARPU ($/DAU/monthly) per genre on GSN’s platform – Jeremy Shea (GSN):
  • RPG’s: $1-2
  • Sim’s: $0.50-1.50
  • Poker: $2-3
• It takes 30 clicks to download, install, and play the World of Warcraft demo – David Perry (Gaikai)

While not a number, my favorite quote of the conference came from Zynga’s Erik Bethke: “Expensive people + whiteboards – metrics = fail”

Finding a Job in Today’s Web 2.0 World

(image courtesy of Boston College)

I follow a number of video game and marketing related groups on LinkedIn.  Yes, it’s full of spam and constant self-promotion but I find them useful as a networking and Q&A tool.

A few days ago a post from the group Gaming: Passion and Profession caught my eye: “Tips how to break into the industry?”  Here are his questions:

Hi all as some of may remember I’m trying to break into the industry as a QA tester, however even that may prove a daunting task. So if I can’t find a job as a tester in a game company, maybe I could find one in a game website. Even if it’s fan made, I’m going to make sure I get to work for something video game related.

Being a recently employed member of the video game industry, I responded:

Hi [name redacted],

I recommend looking for available internships. That is how I got into the industry along with many of my coworkers. Yes, you may work 40+ hour weeks without pay, but it’s worth it. Even if you don’t get hired, it will earn you valuable experience and resume material.

A day later and after a few other suggestions from others in the group, he replied:

Some nice advice guys, but now comes an equally important question.

Where do I go to search up for these unpaid internships[...]? I live in Vancouver, are there any that you would recommend?

I wanted to yell, “GO OUT AND GRAB ONE!!!” …and maybe I should have.  Yes, the job market is tough but there are an abundance of opportunities (especially for free labor), you just have to make them happen.  Here was my reply:

Check sites like Monster and even Craigslist.  If you’re a student, take advantage of your university’s resources.  Many companies reach out specifically through those channels.

LinkedIn is another good resource.  Join a variety of video game groups and search their job postings.  Reach out and make it known you’re looking for an internship.

Twitter is also a great tool.  Search #jobs or #internship hashtags for positions.  Network with those in the industry and ask them if they have any internships available.  Tweepsearch is a great tool for searching Twitter bios.  Want to work for Activision?  BAM!

Be prepared to write a solid cover letter, custom to the company you’re applying to.  Make sure your resume is pristine.

Good luck!

The point is, those looking for a job need to use the non-traditional resources now available in today’s Web 2.0 world.   Be proactive and think outside the Monster.

If you’re not on LinkedIn, you should be.  While you’re there, connect with me.

TweepSearch, My Favorite Twitter Networking Tool

Everyone’s familiar with search.twitter.com.  Its ability to scour an infinite supply of tweets is very useful when measuring community opinion or monitoring brands.  I frequently use it to engage with other users with similar interests.  It may seem odd but I’m curious what Joe Schmo thinks of Freakonomics, my most recent audiobook endeavor.  I’ve also found myself replacing Google with Twitter’s search – many times it yields better results.

TweepSearch takes a different approach.  Best described as a bio search engine, it looks into users’ 160 character bios.  This is very useful when searching for specific company professionals.  Looking to get in touch with someone from GamerDNA?  Run a query and you’ll see results like this:

Tagged as the proverbial dial tone, Twitter enables users to connect, interact, and engage.  If you’re looking to build a business partnership with Admob or dream of working for InstantAction, use this tool.  Build relationships and introduce yourself with a simple @reply.

Facebook, Twitter – Gimme Social Media Analytics!

The viral, organic nature of social media requires a divergence from traditional metrics.  Companies need to reevaluate what and how they’re measuring success.  Calculating the success of social media marketing has always been difficult – but it doesn’t have to be.  I blame social networks.

Twitter has yet to provide any analytical tools.  Although I have no doubt this is in their future monetization strategy, their laggardness is frustrating, especially in a Web 2.0 world.

On the other hand, I must commend Facebook for providing “Insights” for fan pages.  It’s demographic information alone is very useful and fascinating.  However, it’s like a three-legged donkey at the Kentucky Derby.  It does not provide any information on referral traffic, outgoing clicks, time spent on the page, percentage of new visits, bounce rate, and other metrics used by real analytic tools.

Yes, these metrics go against the “new measurements of social media” but they are just as important.  If Facebook wants to become the premier place for business social media marketing, they need to expand their offering.  I do not expect them to develop these services from the ground up – I expect them to open the platform and integrate with existing analytic tools.  I want Google Analytics on my Facebook fan page!

Is the Future of Gaming in the Cloud?

In the near future, you may never have to buy an expensive console or continually invest in updating your gaming PC.  Instead, gaming hardware may be housed on the server side.  OnLive recently demoed their technology, playing Crysis on their “gaming service”.  Player’s input is transmitted through the net to a server for processing.  The video, resulting from their actions, is then sent back to the user’s video decoder.  The internet is simply utilized as an extremely long extension cord from the player’s home to OnLive’s gaming hardware.

This is crazy!  If this is successful, this may drastically change the industry, creating new business models.  I once thought of a similar idea, however, I’m amazed that today’s technology can actually support this.  I’m very skeptical of how OnLive’s service will actually perform in the real world.  There must be a near instantaneous response time for this to work.  It would surprise me if the average household’s internet connection could keep up, especially with substandard performance in the U.S.

I commend OnLive for taking on such an ambitious idea.  This technology is definitely coming some day – when, is the question.  Take a look at Venture Beat’s thorough article for more detail.

Edit: Checkout Gamespot’s video demonstration.

Twitter May Not Be Making Money, But YOU Can!

Twitter has yet to announce their monetization plans.  There’s no doubt in my mind they will eventually make millions, but their hesitation surprises me.  Although everyone’s Web 2.0 sweetheart hasn’t made a dime, its community has the ability to monetize the platform.

Twitter enables users to communicate to the world.  Its power tweeters such as Kevin Rose, Jimmy Fallon, Leo Laporte, Shaquille O’neal, and Veronica Belmont (check out We Follow to find more) have a ridiculously huge reach of hundreds of thousands of followers.  Their reputation and influence in the twittersphere is more valuable than most could imagine.  Many don’t understand the power of twitter and what makes it so special.  It’s simply a personalized communication service, unlike anything else.  AND in turn, arguably the best new marketing tool.

HootSuite

So how can one turn 140 characters into cash?  There will no doubt be new, crazy innovations that I only wished I could dream of.  One of the tools available today is HootSuite.  Previously known as Brightkit, this rebranded service allows you to track and measure the success of shortened URL’s (simplified to http://ow.ly/1hf8, for example). Although there are many other similar services, HootSuite allows you to embed Google Adsense ads into the top frame of the page.  Although I’m skeptical of the effectiveness of this technique, it no doubt provides a unique offering to an otherwise archaic technology:

Adjix

Adjix offers a similar approach by placing ads above the linked page’s content.  They also provide in-tweet ads by adding a brief message of your choice to outgoing tweets:

Magpie

Magpie offers a different approach in which it tweets ads on your behalf.  Revenues earned are based on a combination of pay-per-click, view, lead, or sale.  The success of this heavily relies on the number of followers.  Magpie attempts to target ads relevant to the content typically tweeted.  They claim their click rate is twice as effective as any other online advertising – quite a claim, but I’m not surprised.  Just like any of these monetization methods, having a large number of followers is necessary to earn big dough.  Although this technique may severely hurt ones reputation, it can lead to massive revenues for power tweeters:

Twittad

Lastly, there is Twittad which allows users to display ads on their twitter.com page.  This is the least invasive, which in turn, makes it the least effective.  While I commend Twittad on their unique approach to online advertising (hell, I’m actually quite jealous), I don’t think it serves much use for advertisers because of the nature and evolution of how twitter is used.  A majority of its active tweeters use applications such as TweetDeck (my personal fav), Twhirl, Twitterific, or any one of the million of other tools out there.  Rarely does the community view individual twitter pages.

So what’s next?  I’m excited to see what innovations arrive to capitalize on the fastest growing social network on the web.  Twitter may be able to substitute for a part time job for some or a retirement plan for a genius few.  For those of you doubting this, remember when people were surprised to hear about blogging for money?

What other money-making twitter applications do you know of?

How Do You Discover?

Search engines have become the staple of WWW discovery.  They are best used to find specific content – which is great – however, how do you find something you’re not looking for?  First off, you may wonder why anyone would care to do this.  As we all know, we don’t stumble across this hilarity by randomly searching for techno viking.  We don’t wake up in the morning and decide to search for Michael Kirkpatrick’s list of the top 5 Greasemonkey Add-Ons.  Without some previous knowledge of the content, search engines yield less than optimal results.  This void is filled with push information applications.  Today’s Web 2.0 platforms and tools enable discovery of the unknown and enlighten users with a wealth of information.

Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, and StumbleUpon are just a few popular platforms powered by the collective contributions of millions.  These social networks virally spread information in which the most interesting, useful, important information is surfaced through human filtration.  RSS is another architecture for push technology.  Sites like Alltop and PopURLs utilize this to aggregate feeds from hundreds of sources.  Amongst all of these, Twitter is arguably the most powerful platform for the spread and discovery of information.  It has vast potential and its adoption continues to grow.  Numerous applications have been built around its architecture.  Sites like Tweetmeme and Twitturly publish the most popular links across the “tweet-isphere”.  This filtration allows for the most important content to be discovered.  URL shortening sites like Bit.ly also publish and tweet popular links.  Follow @bitlynow as it tweets the most popularly shortened url every hour.

The Internet is still so young, yet we’ve seen SO many creative applications that empower the world to learn and discover new things.  Imagine the tools we’ll be using in 2, 5, 10 years from now!

There are thousands of other push information technologies out there.  What do you use?

Edufailure

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA&eurl=http://online.wou.edu/file.php/103/unit10_overview.html&feature=player_embedded]

Derek Brandow (@derekbrandow) shared this awesome video with me and the rest of the YB Group.  This basically summarizes the group’s purpose and Derek’s mission.  It truly is a revolutionary concept to traditional education.

I feel a lot like the networked student.  I have always been motivated to teach myself and learn about topics I find interesting.  This is especially true over the past few months as my assigned school studies have been put on the back burner in lieu of other learning “projects”.  Although I’ve learned a ton throughout my 17 years of academia, this last term has been a perfect summary of education’s failure.  My tenured marketing teacher is a lazy (I’m using his words) talking head, my business strategy professor seems to think assigning busy work (“doable’s”) isn’t a complete waste of time, and my human resource class is a bore of legality and political correctness.

I’ve learned more about marketing and in particular, the future of marketing through technological disruption of traditional media, from my own studies.  This is especially depressing considering the money and resources poured into universities and education in general.  Although I’m very appreciative of the opportunity and privilege to attend the U of O, I will be thrilled to wave it goodbye in only a few months so I can move onto something new and (get ready for the cheese) start a new chapter in my life.

When it comes to education and learning…

Throw a kid a laptop and with the right motivation and direction, he can learn anything.

GameFly's Stealing My Idea!

During fall term of 2008 in Launching New Ventures (MGMT 335), my team and I proposed a video game rental kiosk.  The low cost and cheap operation of vending machine automation seems to be becoming more popular.  It is no longer a model for beverages or cheap carnival toys.  $300 iPod’s are now available from the push of a button.

Our service, GameGrab, takes Red Box’s model and does it for video games.  At $2/day, customers could rent the game as long as they liked before returning it to the machine.  We chose to target students and position our machines throughout various campus’.  Interestingly, this is also GameFly’s model, for the time being.  Texas Tech University students have access to the G-Box for convenient, quick rentals at $2.49/day.  I’ll be very curious to see how the company expands its brick and mortar offering.

DRM Promotes Pirating

(Sorry for the cheesy image.  I just figured this blog could use a little Johnny Depp.)

Pirate software is a huge problem for software developers.  The Internet is a beast that cannot be regulated.  Those who wish to steal software, will.  So how can companies fight against this?  Restrictive Digital Rights Management (DRM) has been their answer, however, it doesn’t work.  Punishing paying customers with crippling DRM, which pirates simply bypass, only leads to a frustrating experience.

Although many pirates will never pay for software that they don’t have to, there is a portion that choose to illegally download their wares in order to bypass DRM.  More importantly, DRM’s limitations and annoyances may persuade legitimate users to become pirates.

Companies need to quit treating their customers like criminals and embrace the reality of the digital age.