Dated: 2024.05.31
This article's information has been translated from the original article: link
We live in an era of content overload, where games operate in a business that competes for users' time. However, the time users spend playing games is decreasing, while the time spent watching short-form content is on the rise. In this context, Nexon's biggest competitor isn't another game company—it's TikTok.
<Jun-sik Gong, Supercent CEO>
On the 30th, Supercent CEO Gong Jun-sik addressed the challenges and opportunities in the mobile gaming industry at the 2024 International Game Industry Conference from Indiecraft. Founded in 2021, Supercent specializes in hyper-casual games. Within just three years, the company has released 12 games surpassing 10 million downloads each and achieved a cumulative total of 500 million downloads. Gong, who began his career in 2013 as a project manager for ‘Anipang’ at SundayToz, has extensive experience developing and managing small-scale games.
Gong summarized the current state of the mobile gaming market with four key points:
He explained that as human attention spans continue to shorten, it has become increasingly difficult to acquire or retain users. Other forms of content, such as social media and streaming services, compete with games for users' time and spending. Policies limiting the tracking of user data have also reduced the effectiveness of advertisements. Furthermore, the mobile gaming market has reached a mature phase, creating higher barriers for new games to enter.
Gong introduced the term “time efficiency” (시성비) to describe the value of time spent. He remarked, “Traditionally, games offered maximum value for minimal cost compared to other forms of entertainment. However, the emergence of short-form content has disrupted this model.The short-form format provides more opportunities to experience content and is gaining an advantage across the business.”
