Mail.Ru Group: Europe is a more promising market for Android games

More than three months ago we took from Mail.Ru Group interview in connection with the release of their project Jungle Heat on Google Play. After the game appeared on iOS, we decided to ask publishers about how they worked on its promotion on Android, and what they expect from the App Store. 

He answered our questions Mikhail Ryazanov, Head of the mobile direction Mail.Ru Games.

Mikhail RyazanovHello, Mail.Ru Group!

For us on App2Top.ru Jungle Heat became a project that occupied the niche of Clash of Clans on the Android platform (before its appearance, those who do not have an iPhone were only forced to “lick their lips” on the Finnish game). The fact that you first started on the Google platform seems to be a very right step from the outside. But how was the decision made within the team? Was there any temptation to launch the project immediately on iOS, and if so, why was it abandoned?We decided to start with Google Play for two reasons.

Firstly, there is already a similar game on iOS from our Finnish colleagues, and on Android, as you correctly noticed, the niche was free. Secondly, we did not want to delay the release of the game and decided to focus on the wishes of the players themselves. Gradually, new features were added, and therefore they came out on iOS with a project that is in no way inferior in functionality to games with similar mechanics.

The game appeared on Google Play in June. It turns out that more than three months have passed and it is possible to make any results. What conclusions about the Google Play market did you make for yourself after the release?So far, we see that Europe is a more promising market for promoting Android games.

Even more promising than the USA or Russia. Germany, France, Sweden, and the Benelux countries consistently show excellent results in the number of installations. It was also interesting for us to work with the Google Play rating system. Now we know the optimal ratios, how many days and how many installations per day we need to receive in order to get to the top places in Google Play Overall.

If you go back three months ago, what would you change in terms of marketing or promotion?I think we would have done the same thing, only faster and more confident.

How exactly did you promote the project, with what tools? Which of them proved to be the most effective side?As in the promotion of any other product, it is important not to focus on any one tool.

We have worked equally actively both in the direction of media advertising and in terms of PR promotion in Russia and abroad. Of course, it is difficult or almost impossible to convert PR activity into the number of downloads, but this does not mean that this tool should be abandoned. Promotion should be comprehensive.

In which region was the largest number of installations received without the use of promotion?We have not launched media advertising in Asia and the Middle East.

We are just getting ready to launch in Korea and Japan, and in China we plan to work through local publishers, as this is a very specific market. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of installations in Arab countries, especially in Turkey and Saudi Arabia. We are thinking about starting to work more actively with the markets of these countries.

How do you work on user retention? Has the retention increased in the last three months? Thanks to what?We don’t do anything specifically for retention.

We are just constantly improving the project, promptly fixing bugs, if there are any, constantly adding new interesting features. This helps to retain users best of all.

If we talk about Europe, where is the most expensive user today (in terms of buying it)? And in which country is the ROI from the acquisition of users the best? Can you share the average user price across Europe (including Russia)?The price of a user in Europe is very different.

From 50 cents to $4. It depends on the type of traffic (initiated or not), on the country, volumes and additional options like targeting tablets/smartphones. The most expensive users in Europe are the British. But this does not mean that the UK has the highest ROI. According to this indicator, France and Germany are still leading, and Sweden is also catching up with them.

Returning to Jungle Heat. Now the game is in the box office top 10 Google Play overall in 16 countries. Including in France in second place. And in this regard, we have a provocative question: where is it better to be in terms of money? In the top three in a European country, in the top ten in Russia, in the last positions in the UK box office top thirty or in the top 50 in the USA?It is most profitable to get into the top three in Australia or Japan.

But otherwise there will be no sensations: in Europe it is better to be in the top three of any of the countries. But the most useful thing will be getting into the ratings in France. We are seeing the best results there so far.

What exactly do you expect from the App Store? First of all, we want to attract a new audience:

both novice users who have not played games with such mechanics before, and experienced gamers.

And a couple of questions about the industry. The number of activated Android devices in the world today is more than iOS gadgets. There are also more downloads for Google Play. However, the App Store is still ahead in terms of total revenue. You had projects on both platforms. In this regard, the question is: if we take your total revenues from the mobile games market for 100%, how much does Google Play account for?As the number of Android devices grows, so does the income of developers.

Now the share of our revenue from Google Play has already reached about 40% of the total revenue for mobile projects.

According to the latest report “M.Video”, 68% of smartphones purchased in Russia in the first half of this year cost Android. iPhone is “responsible” for only 21% of the domestic market. Last year, the difference was noticeably more modest. Has it affected your income, how much? Is it possible to say that the revenue from the domestic Google Play comes close to the revenue from the App Store?As mentioned above, revenue from Android projects is growing along with the number of devices purchased.

Google Play is gradually catching up with iTunes in terms of revenue. If you look at our income, there is very little Android left. We think that within a year the indicators will be equal.

The developer of Jungle Heat was an internal studio Mail.Ru Group – Studio Nord. As we were told, by the scale of the company, it is not very large: it employs about 50 employees. The team is located in St. Petersburg and was created a long time ago. The guys already have a lot of serious projects behind them, from casual hidden objects and social farms to browsers and clients.