With the success of ‘Black Myth: Wukong’, the gaming industry has experienced a boom in the third quarter – a report by Gamma Data and the Game Working Committee shows that in Q3 2024, the Chinese gaming market reached a historical high of 917.66 billion yuan in market size, greatly boosting the confidence in the gaming industry. On November 6, 2024, 360 Smart Business successfully held a private game industry customer event themed ‘Feet on the Ground, Eyes on the Stars’.
The event gathered gaming industry partners to explore new growth spaces in the gaming industry, focusing on long-term operation and stable revenue of gaming products, innovation in game launch strategies, and the role of media platforms in assisting game distribution. Ms. Ma Yi, General Manager of 360 Commercialization Industry Division I, delivered a speech. Ma Yi pointed out that over the past decade, the gap between PCs and mobile devices has widened, leading to neglect of PC value, resulting in incomplete infrastructure and slow innovation. However, the recent surge in AI large model technology has brought more opportunities for the PC platform, with traffic re-concentrating on PCs. Giants like WeChat, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin, born in the mobile internet era, are actively laying out for the PC platform – traffic equity has become a new trend, laying a solid foundation for the reconstruction and value return of PCs.Ms. Ma Yi, General Manager of 360 Commercialization Industry Division I, has adapted to the trend and re-evaluated the marketing value of PCs. 360 Smart Business will focus on and upgrade technologies and strategies such as game landing rates, PC mini-program links, video advertising, and oCPX model reconstruction in 2024-2025. This will help gaming industry partners achieve deeper and more accurate conversion effects and jointly explore the incremental value of PCs. At the same time, the rapid development of AI technology has also provided new ideas and paths for PC marketing. For example, based on 360 AI search, we have carried out traffic cooperation with many manufacturers, and we will also customize traffic services for gaming businesses in the future to expand cooperation space. On the other hand, 360 Software Manager has achieved a comprehensive upgrade this year. Relying on the strong demand of 360 users for games, we will polish the 360 Software Manager into a more ‘game-oriented’ personalized app store, providing one-stop marketing and joint operation services from pre-order to long-term operation, and building a new PC operation field for end-game partners. By continuously iterating and innovating in small steps, capturing these small but precise opportunities, 360 Smart Business will fully assist gaming industry partners in long-term operation and stable growth.
During the meeting, Li Xiaosi, 360 Commercial Integration Marketing Manager, brought a theme sharing titled ‘Big Games Can Be Done, Innovation Drives New Spaces’.
As the integration marketing manager of 360 commercialization, Li Xiaosi points out that in the context of economic downturn and consumer downgrading, how to reduce costs and increase efficiency in game user acquisition and explore new growth spaces is also a considerable challenge for game clients. With the explosion of large AI models, the PC scenario is on the rise – factors such as the growth of user scale of generative AI tools, the increase in PC shipments, and the explosion of PC and cross-platform games represented by Heiwu will further stimulate the marketing potential of PCs. As the number one media on PC, 360 will rely on its strong PC traffic resources and a large number of high-net-worth game users to comprehensively help partners explore new increments through innovations in dimensions such as algorithm upgrades, style revisions, and traffic expansion. For example, after the upgrade of oCPX technology, it can realize the free combination setting of dual conversion goals. Through real-time feedback of effect data, it intelligently optimizes the bidding strategy in depth and helps improve the placement efficiency. Compared with traditional ‘single oCPX’ placement, the ‘dual bidding 2.0’ model has higher precision and better bidding strategy. With a simpler cooperation link, it helps games achieve cold starts efficiently. At the same time, 360 Smart Business takes advantage of AI technology to build a new marketing ecology for the game industry – 360 AI search, the ‘dark horse of growth’, is becoming a new field for ‘intelligent seeding’ for game users. 360 AI brand-direct advertising, which integrates generative AI technology and traditional PC brand-direct advertising, upgrades the interaction experience with’search that can enable characters to interact with players’, providing new ideas for game marketing. In addition, 360 Smart Business will also help the growth of new games through the ‘special support and incentive plan for new games’. With optimizations and upgrades in multiple dimensions such as technology, advertising styles, traffic, and policies, 360 Smart Business will work with partners in the game industry to consolidate the industry’s fundamentals and jointly explore new incremental spaces.
In addition to innovation at the levels of technology, style, and traffic expansion, 360 Smart Business also continuously improves the construction of the PC-side business ecosystem through measures such as opening up the PC link for mini-program games and upgrading the 360 Software Manager to help partners in the game industry deeply tap the traffic value of the PC side. Focusing on PC mini-program games and the 360 Software Manager, Quan Junqi, the sales leader of the game industry of 360 Smart Business, brought a theme sharing of ‘PC’s Comeback: New Opportunities for Traffic Migration’.
Quan Junqi, sales leader of the game industry of 360 Smart Business As the marketing value of PCs is reexamined, the integration of PC and mobile ecosystems has become an inevitable trend. Undoubtedly, PCs provide a huge market space for mini-program games.On the PC platform, the exclusive experience window supports users in opening three mini-games simultaneously, enhancing the gaming experience with a larger screen. Compared to the frequent page jumps and information reading on mobile devices, PC offers a more straightforward access path with immediate play, providing a high-efficiency conversion environment for games. Moreover, its multi-tasking capabilities increase users’ acceptance of advertisements. Data from the 360IAA mini-game platform shows that the average number of ad views on PC has increased by 30%, which is crucial for the commercial growth of mini-games. To date, 360 has supported over a billion traffic requests for front-end ads to launch mini-games with a single click. Subsequently, 360’s smart business will assist more mini-game clients in integrating into the PC mini-game ecosystem through technological upgrades and policy support, including algorithm integration, traffic support, funding injection, and creative support, aiding in the ‘cross-platform’ growth of mini-game clients throughout the game distribution chain. As a national-level PC application distribution platform, since its complete upgrade in May this year, 360 Software Manager has maintained an industry-leading position in terms of monthly distribution volume and product listing quantity. With the innovative ‘game reservation’ feature and the full lifecycle support of the Dian Jing platform’s full matrix products, the ‘new software manager’ has created a new growth loop for PC game distribution. Taking the recently popular ‘Delta Force Operation’ as an example, during the pre-launch warm-up period, 360’s smart business S-level customized resource positions and DMP big data platform crowd selection helped ‘Delta Force’ to attract potential customers across the network. At the same time, 360 Software Manager’s hot search recommendations, game rankings, and new game reservations provided strong exposure, boosting game popularity and improving game reservation efficiency during the user cultivation and reminder stage. Entering the public testing period, 360 Software Manager served as the main platform, with full platform resource coverage, fueling ‘Delta Force’s’ popularity. Additionally, with the support of national-level products like 360 Navigation, 360 Browser, and 360 Search, continuous outreach to core audiences, esports audiences, competitive product audiences, and potential audiences stimulated players to seize the first release hotspots, causing a network-wide explosion. After the roundtable forum sharing session, a roundtable forum hosted by Ma Yi, the general manager of 360’s commercial industry division, gathered industry veterans such as Wang Kai, the person in charge of 360’s game web game business, Li Yiming, the person in charge of Tanwan web game business and Tanwan distribution operation, Hu Yuqing, the director of 602 web game business division, and Pei Dashi, the executive president of Black Peach Interactive, to share experiences and insights on game distribution and buying strategy adjustments under the current market environment, as well as long-term operation and stable growth of game products. Wang Kai, the person in charge of 360’s game web game business: Under the current market environment, games need to provide users with more refreshing and upgraded experiences to stimulate consumption.
As a game publisher, our strategy is to build a bridge between game developers. By sharing data closely from front-end to back-end and optimizing advertising placement and product research and development strategies in real time in both directions, we can ensure the longer-term and stable development of games.
Li Yiming, person in charge of Tanwan web games and person in charge of Tanwan’s publishing and operation: Short-term blockbuster games can indeed enjoy traffic dividends, but the product life cycle will not be very long. After the market’s great waves wash away the sand, what can keep our continuous attention must be game enterprises that do a good job in long-term operation. I hope everyone will not be blinded by the early data. Only by adhering to in-depth operation and serving users can game products achieve long-term operation and stable growth. Hu Yuqing, director of the 602 web game business department: The traditional game publishing strategy still has its feasibility. Only in the current general environment, the requirements for game buying volume are more stringent. I think that content innovation and advertising style innovation are crucial for game promotion at present. Under the wave of AI technology, we believe that in the future, AI technology can be deeply empowered in levels such as intelligent advertising placement and real-time data analysis. Pei Dashuai, executive president of Spade Interactive: IP is of course important, but from the user’s perspective, what is more emphasized is whether the game is fun. We started from legendary games. Through in-depth communication with users, it is not difficult to find that they are very interested in styles such as magic and darkness. This is our opportunity to make non-legendary game categories. By strengthening user operation, providing official guidance, maintaining long-term relationships, and establishing communities to collect feedback and quickly iterate games, we are closely connected with users and become an inexhaustible driving force for our survival, development, and growth in the market. Be down-to-earth and consolidate the basic market of the industry; conform to the trend and expand new incremental space; look up at the stars and create new growth in the industry. In the future on the way forward, 360 Wisdom Business will accompany all the way. Relying on technological upgrades, product and cooperation innovation, and the construction and continuous improvement of the PC business field, it will fully exert its strength to help game industry partners achieve decisive growth.
