Entries tagged as virtual world
Thursday, November 22. 2007
Wrong Forecast on Cyworld Vietnam
Eight months ago
I was sitting down with a cool guy discussing the future of web business
in Vietnam. He asked me when the Web 2.0 boom would start in Vietnam, I
said firmly end of this year and added the success of the Cyworld Vietnam could be a great part
of the hype. I guestimated Cyworld Vietnam would target 1 million
members after one year since open beta. I told him it was so hard to
reach the target since 500K members could make other web services
companies crazy. My forecast then was 300K members for Cyworld Vietnam
by year end. The reported current number is about 100K. What was wrong
with my forecast? Cyworld is a virtual world/social networking service,
proven
success in Korea. Its revenue model (item sales through mobile sms
payment) can work quite well in Vietnam. There can be a number of
reasons to the slow adoption of Cyworld among Vietnamese users but I
think the main reason is the lack of local seasoned management team that
can work out properly.
Hints: if you had a great idea, concept, prototype and even revenue model you would need a great team to turn it around.
Disclosure: the cool guy had left Cyworld Vietnam to start his own web service six months ago.
Hints: if you had a great idea, concept, prototype and even revenue model you would need a great team to turn it around.
Disclosure: the cool guy had left Cyworld Vietnam to start his own web service six months ago.
Wednesday, July 25. 2007
Why Vietnameses are So in Love with Swordsman Online MMOG
JX Online or Swordsman
Online (SMO) is a martial art MMOG published by China's Kingsoft.
Introduced in Vietnam by Vinagame in 2005, the game
instantly became a big hit in online entertainment with millions of
registered players. This put Vinagame on top of online
game operators and made it the best company in IDGVV's
portfolio. Even in China, the game was ranked 5th or 6th, left far
behind WoW.
Looking into its unique context now. SMO game script based on famous Chinese novelist Jin Yong's fictions blended with the five elements philosophy. More than two decades ago, his fictions were Vietnamese kids' favourite books. Low living standard and closed culture made kids dream wandering the swordman life. In 2005 those adults could make their dream come true with SMO MMOG. Those late 20 and 30 something guys were eager to enter a sort of virtual world. Many players were first time MMOG users (estimated more than 60%). This is different from China scene, where 30 something people are more mature (higher living standard and accessed to outside world earlier), left MMOG playing to 15 - 25 year old gamers, who prefer international titles such as WoW, Legend of Mir II.
Furthermore, Swordsman Online is a 2D MMOG, so that office workers could play with low specs PC (easy penetration) and play many characters (roles) on the same PC at the same time. Now the life cycle of SMO is at downtrend, many hardcore gamers had tried some new titles but most players still stick with their dreams. Perhaps among those people many would play SMO as their only MMOG in the lifetime.
Hints: younger generation now like something more social, more human in social networks and virtual worlds. Player killing MMOG market segment is not as big as some game operators think.
Looking into its unique context now. SMO game script based on famous Chinese novelist Jin Yong's fictions blended with the five elements philosophy. More than two decades ago, his fictions were Vietnamese kids' favourite books. Low living standard and closed culture made kids dream wandering the swordman life. In 2005 those adults could make their dream come true with SMO MMOG. Those late 20 and 30 something guys were eager to enter a sort of virtual world. Many players were first time MMOG users (estimated more than 60%). This is different from China scene, where 30 something people are more mature (higher living standard and accessed to outside world earlier), left MMOG playing to 15 - 25 year old gamers, who prefer international titles such as WoW, Legend of Mir II.
Furthermore, Swordsman Online is a 2D MMOG, so that office workers could play with low specs PC (easy penetration) and play many characters (roles) on the same PC at the same time. Now the life cycle of SMO is at downtrend, many hardcore gamers had tried some new titles but most players still stick with their dreams. Perhaps among those people many would play SMO as their only MMOG in the lifetime.
Hints: younger generation now like something more social, more human in social networks and virtual worlds. Player killing MMOG market segment is not as big as some game operators think.
Sunday, May 20. 2007
New Virtual World Cyworld Vietnam Should Watch
The Flash
based MyMiniLife just joined
the league of virtual world/social network with Habbo Hotel, Cyworld, Hive7. Since Cyworld Vietnam opened Beta last
month, number of new users rising fast, many users of top social network
Yahoo360 moved to Cyworld or
maintaining both with less care of their old Yahoo360 “home”. With
embedded MyMiniLife Flash
widget, Yahoo360 fans could show
their minihomes to visitors. Let's enter my minihome.
Friday, May 11. 2007
Can Shanda Win With Secondlife Clone
FT.com
reported Shanda plans to imitate Seconlife in China.
Shanda Interactive Entertainment, a leading Chinese online games operator, plans to launch a title similar to the ground-breaking US internet role-playing title Second Life, according to Chen Tianqiao, the group’s founder and chairman.
However, Mr Chen said the success of a game like Second Life depended on the rapid creation of a large “virtual community” of players, giving Shanda – which already boasts millions of players on its other MMORPGs and “casual” online games – a key advantage.
When Shanda Management still think Second Life is a game, it begins with the end failure. It is quite different from running MMORPGs with virtual world for creative minds. Gamers play pre-set tracks while Second Lifers build things from scratch.
Posted by Jason
at
11:37
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Defined tags for this entry: secondlife, virtual world
Monday, April 23. 2007
China Second Life
Posted by Jason
at
01:29
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Defined tags for this entry: secondlife, virtual world
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