Newsflash, game developers: China represents a goldmine for gaining traction. To illustrate just how vast the opportunities are, a new “China Video Game Industry Report” revealed that China had 366 million mobile gamers during the first half of 2015 alone—more than the entire population of the U.S. and Canada combined. The only problem? It’s impossible to strike success if you don’t know how to cater to the audience there. This is especially challenging given that China's Android app market is highly fragmented: In fact, it's made up of roughly 200 third-party stores. That’s where Oniix comes in: The Waltham-based company helps facilitate the distribution, monetization, publishing and promotion of apps in China so that developers don’t have to worry about it.
The value of localization
Oniix’s most recent game publication, Tap Titans (from Game Hive), has achieved more than 5 million downloads in China on Android alone, made the Top 50 all-time downloads in its category on 360 Assistant (the No. 1 Android store in China) in just five months, and was the China Mobile app store’s top download and top grossing new game in March. The company just signed a new game from a Polish gaming studio, and is about to launch Toy Defense 3 this month—which BesTV, the media giant that exclusively represents the NBA and English Premier League in China, picked up as a strategic partner. Moreover, Oniix just landed a marketing and distribution deal with Tencent—the world’s largest gaming company—exclusively for iOS.
Evidently, Oniix’s approach is effective. But there’s a key ingredient to their secret sauce: localization.
“One of the biggest hurdles to succeeding in China is you need a product that resonates with the audience,” Oniix’s Head of Publishing, Everett Wallace, told BostInno. “So our goal is always to adapt a product so that it appears to have been made for Chinese users.”
How exactly does Oniix accomplish that? In a myriad of ways. It helps that it was founded by two experts: Chinese Americans with extensive careers in bridging Western markets with China.
“The Chinese have a very specific taste, and everything needs to be catered around that,” explained Wallace, a Massachusetts native. “It starts with the aesthetics. Everything from the dialogue to the instructions needs to be not only translated, but culturally relevant—and ideally tie into current events, if possible. The monetization is very important as well. The way users purchase and their motivation for purchasing in China is totally different than in the West.”
In addition, Oniix takes into consideration a variety of other crucial factors, such as IAP issues with Chinese app stores; fending off piracy; and integrating with local payment, advertising, analytics and social media systems. Since standing out in China’s saturated app stores is no easy feat, Oniix’s team prides itself on having a deep understanding of Chinese marketing methods and trends. For each title it chooses, Oniix crafts a customized distribution and promotion strategy. By leveraging its connections with top Chinese app stores, the company can remove pirated apps and replace them with the official versions, often even directly taking over the pirated user base. When Oniix discovered pirated and copycat version of Tap Titans, for example, they worked with Game Hive to remove 90 percent of pirates and copycats on iOS and Android in China.
"We believe we also succeed because developers trust us," Wallace told BostInno. "When it comes to China, trust must be earned, so we work nonstop to gain the trust of our partners."
"One of the biggest hurdles to succeeding in China is you need a product that resonates with the audience."
By the way, Oniix’s services cost nothing—partnerships are based on revenue share, ensuring that everyone involved has vested interest. And for those devs that want to brave China on their own, Oniix provides in-depth consulting on the market.
Business development head Mario Alvarez, a College of the Holy Cross alum, says that right now Oniix has been seeing increasing demand. In order to determine which apps and studios to work with, the company has a rigorous vetting process.
“There’s a huge need for casual, fast-paced games,” he explained, “So we have a pipeline of people we’re interested in working with, which makes it easier for us to screen and be selective about what we know is going to do well in China.”
Wallace added that a core part of their strategy is betting on studios that they already know or have relationships with, and that demonstrate a strong track record.
“There’s a science to it, but also a gut instinct element as well,” he noted.
Plans for diversifying
While Wallace and Alvarez emphasized that Oniix will be continuing to focus on games for its core business model, they've been seeing a high level of demand from other categories—specifically, education and social media companies. And they recognized that these realms all represent valuable opportunities in China. So over the next couple of months, Oniix—which has just under 20 employees—will be hiring for both its local headquarters and office in Shanghai. Luckily, being based near Boston, Everett noted that Oniix has had easy access to a “passionate young talent base” from local universities and colleges, many of which offer mobile-geared programs for development and design.
And what glues the team together, unsurprisingly, is a genuine love of gaming.
"Almost everyone in the Oniix Shanghai and Boston offices is a gamer," says Alvarez. "One of our designers, for example, is an avid Vain Glory player since launch, and plays direct with one of the original developers. While it’s true that we're all passionate for the industry, what really made us see the opportunity in this industry is the massive disconnect between top gaming studios and the dominant players they partnered with in China. Two years ago, we saw the opportunity to change the status quo for what a partner in China looks like."
To date, Oniix has been privately funded by its founders, but Wallace says they’ve been contemplating raising outside capital to fuel growth and broaden the company’s foundation. Recently, Oniix has been in talks with several investment groups.
“We don’t necessarily need the funding,” Wallace explained, “we’re growing healthily. But we’re open to it—if we find the perfect partner.”
Ultimately, the duo maintains that the goal remains finding new ways to help more studios get their games into China. To this point, Oniix has developed what it calls an “enabler technology” for apps, which it’s revealing limited details on for now but will be rolling out soon.
“We’re continually looking for new innovative ways to expand on our capabilities,” said Wallace.
All photos provided by Oniix.
