In 2014, Frost & Sullivan noted that mobile gaming in Southeast Asia experienced an impressive growth, with $1 billion of total revenue. This is claimed to be the best growth in the world, compared to any other regions. Good news is, it’s unlikely stopping there, as it’s predicted to reach $7 billion by 2019.
Frost & Sullivan was sure that the mobile gaming trend in Southeast Asia will keep growing until the next few years. Although Malaysia and Singapore still dominate the industry, Indonesia and Thailand are two rocketing players who’ll be there in no time, while other countries like Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Myanmar are still in the initial phase.
The shift from feature phone to smartphone makes people in the region easier to access games. The trend of playing games on social media also grows. The interesting fact is, although the market of tablet doesn’t level with that of smartphone, tablet’s users contribute significantly to the revenue of mobile gaming. In Southeast Asia, tablet results on 4,2 times bigger ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) than the use of smartphone. However, with more size and specification, it’s almost certain that smartphone will exceed the percentage of tablet by 2019.
The payment issue is still the main theme in most of Southeast Asian countries, since credit cards aren’t that popular to be used to shop online. In Singapore and Malaysia, the number hardly reaches 10 percent, let alone in other countries. Nonetheless, the carrier billing method is currently blossoming in some countries, including Indonesia. Other solutions like Bitcoin is currently growing in the region.
Regarding the operating system, Android still dominates the figure. It’s almost unparalleled, thanks to the flood of Chinese Android-based products in the regional market, although most of them are categorized to be low-end ones, forcing developers to think out of the box to design great games with low-end hardware requirement.
Another interesting thing is that numerous games are run on messenger platform. LINE has enjoyed he benefit out of it, as many of its games become people’s favorites, especially in Thailand and Indonesia. Social-conferencing platform-based approach indeed is still new, and quite successful, making players like Facebook Messenger lurk around to hit at the right moment.
Last but not least, social media also plays an important role in the growth of mobile gaming penetration. Jakarta, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur are three cities with most Facebook users. Social media-based games are also in the spotlight, thanks to the helpful marketing done by the social media.