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Inside Virtual Goods: Spending and Usage Patterns of the Social Gaming Audience 2011, Is Here

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 07:00 PM PDT

If 2010 is remembered as the year that games on social networks became a billion dollar business, 2011 is quickly becoming the year that the industry is starting to mature. Facebook is mandating Credits effective July 1st, creating massive changes in the monetization ecosystem, last year’s hit games are fighting for their lives, and new developers and games are climbing the leaderboards. At the same time, larger players are consolidating smaller studios and teams, and large media companies and traditional game developers continue to plot their social gaming strategies.

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That’s why we’re excited to announce today the release of a new original study in our Inside Virtual Goods series by co-authors Justin Smith and Charles Hudson that is exclusively focused on spending and usage patterns in the social gaming market, entitled Inside Virtual Goods: Spending and Usage Patterns of the Social Gaming Audience 2011. The second annual installment of this report.

Most of the studies on player spending and usage patterns in social games over the last year have actually been conducted by industry vendors. Inside Virtual Goods: Spending and Usage Patterns of the Social Gaming Audience 2011 is our exclusive independent look at the virtual goods spending and behavior patterns of social game players on Facebook — data you won’t find anywhere else.

About the Report

Inside Virtual Goods: Spending and Usage Patterns of the Social Gaming Audience 2011 gives you an inside view of the market at this critical juncture in the intersection of social networking and online games.

We have surveyed nearly 2,000 players of social games on Facebook from around the world and across the demographic spectrum. Inside Virtual Goods: Spending and Usage Patterns of the Social Gaming Audience 2011 is the most in-depth independent survey of player behavior and spending patterns in the social gaming market.

What We Cover

  1. Spending Habits and Payment Methods in Top Games – It’s easy to compare games based on audience numbers, but which games monetize better? What payment methods do players use most often in top games? How is the shift to Credits affecting player behavior? We investigate how spending patterns compare across top social games.
  2. Frequency of Play and Methods of Game Discovery - As Facebook has cut down on developer access to viral channels, designing an engaging and viral game is becoming both increasingly important and challenging. We investigate which games people play most frequently, and which methods of social game discovery are most effective for top games.
  3. Demographic Differences by Region, Age, and Gender – While the social gaming market is increasingly global, the audience is also becoming increasingly diverse by age and gender. How do different segments of the audience differ in terms of spending and usage patterns inside social games? We take an in depth look.
  4. Brand Recall for Social Games – How important are brands, and how well can users identify developers of top games? We investigate brand recall amongst social game players.

See the full table of contents below:

Table of Contents

I. Methodology and Respondents

1. Introduction
  • About Inside Virtual Goods
  • About the Authors
  • Survey Objectives
2. Research Methodology
  • Target Population
  • Respondent Acquisition Method
  • Survey Structure
  • Potential for Bias
3. Survey Respondents
  • Description of Total Respondent Population
  • Total Number of Respondents
  • Overall Breakdown

II. Overall Results

4. Favorite Game
  • Distribution of Favorite Game
  • Frequency of Play
  • Favorite Game Discovery
  • With Whom Do You Play?
  • Spending on Favorite Game
5. Payments
  • Frequency of Payment Methods
  • Consumer Perception of Facebook Credits
6. Play Patterns, Spending, and Brand Recall for Top Games
  • Frequency of Play in Top Games
  • Spending in Top Games
  • Aided Brand Recall for Top Games

7. Mobile Platform and Game Adoption by Social Game Players

  • Smart Device Ownership
  • Mobile Games Played by Active Social Games Players
  • In-Game Mobile Purchase Activity by Active Social Gamers

III. Demographic Differences in Usage Patterns and Monetization


8. Regional Differences

  • Game Discovery and Spending
  • Favorite Game
  • Payment Types
9. Age and Gender Differences
  • Who are the Social Gaming “Whales”?
  • Spend Across Games

Appendix

  • Survey Questions

More Data, More Actionable Insights

In 2009 and 2010, social games began to show what kind of value can be created on top of social networks. 2011 will be an even more important year as the industry continues to mature.

Social gaming, powered by virtual goods, is this year's industry to watch. If you're involved, or are considering jumping in, Inside Virtual Goods will be one of your most important tools.

One year of original data and exclusive in-depth reports delivered on a quarterly basis is $2,495 and contains:

  • A detailed overview of the current state of the industry
  • Specific estimates on market size by segment
  • Diagnosis of key opportunities and issues by segment

Get The Annual Membership

Get Annual Membership (Includes Report + 3 Additional Quarterly Issues): $2,495


OR Buy Single Report: $995

The one year subscription includes three quarterly updates on key developments in the space, including future editions of our annual reports, Inside Virtual Goods: The US Virtual Goods Market 2010-2011 and Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2011.

Or, you can download just this report. The price is US $995.

About the Authors

justin-smith-headshotJustin Smith

Founder, Inside Network

Justin Smith is the founder of Inside Network, the first service dedicated to providing news and market research to the Facebook platform and social gaming ecosystem. Justin leads Inside Network’s analyst services, manages Inside Network’s AppData service, and serves as co-editor of Inside Facebook and Inside Social Games. Inside Network was acquired by WebMediaBrands (NASDAQ:WEBM) in May 2011.

Prior to Inside Network, he was Head of Product at Watercooler, now Kabam, a leading social game developer on the Facebook Platform. Prior to Watercooler, Justin was an early employee at Xfire, the largest social utility for gamers, which was sold to Viacom in 2006.

Justin holds a degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford University, where he was a Mayfield Fellow and a recipient of the Terman Award in Engineering.

charles-hudson-headshotCharles Hudson

Venture Partner, SoftTech VC, CEO and Co-Founder, Bionic Panda Games

Charles Hudson is a Venture Partner with SoftTech VC and the CEO and Co-Founder of Bionic Panda Games, a mobile games company based in San Francisco, CA.

Until February 2010, he was the VP of Business Development for Serious Business, a leading producer of social games. Zynga acquired Serious Business in February of 2010. Prior to Serious Business, Hudson worked at Gaia Interactive, Google, IronPort Systems, and In-Q-Tel. Hudson also founded Third Power LLC, a conference and events company that was acquired by WebMediaBrands. Charles holds an MBA and BA from Stanford University.

Facebook Allows More Descriptive Page Tab App Names by Extending Character Limit to 100

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 01:29 PM PDT

Facebook has greatly extended the length of names permitted for Page tab applications. While before names could only be 16 characters or less, they can now be up to 100 characters, though long names will cause fewer different tabs to be displayed above the fold.

The change will allow admins to more accurately and descriptively name their tabs, and use long names to draw attention to certain tabs. For instance, rather than naming a sweepstakes tab “Enter Contest”, it could be named “Enter to Win a 10-Day Vacation in Hawaii”.

When Facebook released the February 2011 Page redesign, Page tab apps moved from atop the wall to the navigation menu beneath the profile picture. While no longer front and center, this extended the permitted character length for tab app names to 16 and allowed more app to be displayed before a fold. Later Facebook increased the number of tabs visible above the fold and allowed reordering of apps.


However, even 16 characters wasn’t always enough to accurately describe a tab. Short, confusing names may have prevented users from knowing what they were missing by not clicking through to the tab app. For instance, MTV had to call one of its tabs “JS Game” instead of the more compelling “Jersey Shore Game” because of the character limit.

Now, with a maximum length of 100 characters, Page admins have much more flexibility with how they can use the navigation menu. They can list prizes or entry mechanism within the names of contest apps, for example “Subscribe to Emails to Win $10,000″. They can explain the function of utility apps for coupons or discounts, such as “Coupon Codes For Our Online Store”.

Admins could also get more creative, adding urgency to a tab name by listing an expiration date, such as “Only 10 More Hours To Enter Our Contest”. Or they could fill most of their navigation menu with a single tab name rather than try to drive clicks to several different tabs.

To edit Page tab app names, admins can click the Edit Page button on their own Page, then visit the Apps tab, then click “Edit Settings” on the tab they want to rename. To reorder tabs, visit the Page, and click the “Edit” link beneath the tab app navigation menu, or click “More” and then “Edit” button to drag-and-drop the tab apps.

Short, easy to read names are usually best, but when those don’t properly convey an app’s function, Page admins can rewrite them. We’ll watch and see what creative and effective uses are made of this newfound freedom, so check back for more ideas.

[Thanks to Kevin Evanetski for the tip]

Facebook Partners With RockMelt to Outsource Development of Social Web Browser

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 10:01 AM PDT

Third-party social web browser developer RockMelt announced today that it has established a long-term partnership with Facebook’s engineering and design teams to build the newly released RockMelt Beta 3 and future products. Along with an improved Chat and integrated Notifications, Requests, and Messages experience, Facebook.com appears differently when browsed through the new version of RockMelt, with elements including Chat and alerts hidden from view since they appear in the browser.

The partnership with the 40-employee RockMelt will allow Facebook to guide the development of a web browser without expending nearly as many resources as would have taken to release one itself. It could also lend legitimacy to RockMelt, which says it has only had 1 million people try its product to date, though its few hundred thousand active users log an average of 6.5 hours a day on the product.

Six months ago RockMelt launched the private beta of its social web browser, designed to pull frequently used parts of Facebook, Twitter, and blogs inside the browser chrome. Beta2 saw the addition of multi-friend Chat support, further updates allow it to pull in data from YouTube and RSS, and the public beta launched 10 weeks ago.

User adoption of the Andressen-Horowitz-backed project or other social browsers such as Wowd has yet to explode. Still, founders Eric Vishria and Tim Howes are optimistic. "Over 500 million people have switched browsers in the last three years,” they told us. “81% of our users are 34 or younger. For those in the social generation, it just makes sense. Conversion rates and retention are high. They just get it."

A deeper integration with Facebook offering unique value could kickstart growth.”There’s no way this release would happen without them,” Vishria and Howes told us. “We’re interacting with them five times a day to get this done.” Though Facebook is hiring for a Seattle-based desktop software team, RockMelt said it was working with a Palo Alto team from Facebook headquarters. This may support our prediction that Facebook’s desktop team isn’t building a browser, but instead software such as media usage scrobbling widgets that will help users share their music listening and video watching habits.

RockMelt Beta3′s New Features

Downloadable starting at 10am PST today, RockMelt Beta3 features several new features that allow browser chrome customization and streamline social experiences. Users can now swap the dock-like App Edge and the buddy list-esque Friend Edge between the left and right rails of the browser. The Friend Edge can be clicked to expand and show the names of friends instead of just their profile pictures, which can be hard to identify.

When a friend in the Friend Edge is clicked, it starts a Facebook Chat with them that automatically imports your Chat history. RockMelt Beta3 works with Facebook’s unified messaging product to seamlessly switch from Messages to Chat if a friend is online. A user’s Notifications, Requests, and Messages all appear in the top center of the chrome with counters denoting new activity.

Perhaps most interesting though is what Facebook’s team has done to change Facebook.com when visited through RockMelt. Rather than appear redundant, a user’s Chat buddy list and alerts don’t appear on the site, only in the browser. Clicking within Facebook to initiate a Chat opens the Chat in RockMelt instead, so users can carry on the conversation even as they browse other sites.

Outsourcing the Facebook Browser

Vishria and Howes tell us RockMelt Beta3 is “the beginning of what the modern browser looks like”. They say there’s many more social features to build out as part of the Facebook partnership, including “creating an unbelievable photo experience, Places, Like integrations — we’re constantly brainstorming and collaborating.” The companies may have been connected by Marc Andressen, both a Facebook board member and a core RockMelt investor who believes RockMelt could be the fifth browser to reach over 100 million users.

RockMelt’s 40-person engineering and design-focused team builds on Google’s Chromium open source browser which has 200 devs, which is turn built on WebKit that has its own army of open source devs. Without an overwhelming user demand for social browsers, developing one internally could be a strategic misstep for Facebook, but working with RockMelt might accomplish similar goals much more efficiently. This way, Facebook can work on more crucial or unexpected projects while still keeping its small size and startup culture.

Martin Lawrence, Katy Perry, YouTube, Coca-Cola and More on This Week’s Top 20 Growing Facebook Pages

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 10:00 AM PDT

Comedian Martin Lawrence topped our list of growing Facebook Pages by the number of Likes, probably due to a Page consolidation. Then there was a group of big brands, a range of movie and TV shows, but most of the list was made up by musicians' Pages. The Pages on our list grew from between 562,300 and 1 million Likes, we measure the growth of Pages with our PageData tool.

Top Gainers This Week

Name Likes Gain Gain,%
1. Martin Lawrence 3,992,451 +1,084,230 +37%
2. Katy Perry 28,882,983 +1,054,324 +4%
3. Facebook 45,750,505 +1,036,208 +2%
4. YouTube 39,151,934 +995,846 +3%
5. Shakira 34,252,803 +863,806 +3%
6. Rihanna 37,891,862 +863,606 +2%
7. El Club de la Comedia 852,279 +852,279 +0.0%
8. Eminem 40,789,843 +842,400 +2%
9. The Simpsons 30,013,366 +729,391 +2%
10. Lady Gaga 38,336,808 +697,470 +2%
11. AKON 25,717,879 +681,783 +3%
12. Coca-Cola 30,675,401 +667,006 +2%
13. Family Guy 33,285,307 +617,104 +2%
14. Black Eyed Peas 20,816,578 +598,130 +3%
15. Linkin Park 30,562,645 +589,013 +2%
16. Avril Lavigne 22,113,699 +582,765 +3%
17. South Park 29,992,401 +579,774 +2%
18. Harry Potter 26,505,637 +574,827 +2%
19. Usher 21,076,163 +567,564 +3%
20. Beyoncé 24,060,001 +562,250 +2%

As mentioned, Martin Lawrence's Page grew more than 1 million Likes to 3.9 million over the course of one day; this is most likely to do a Page consolidation. Big brands on the list included Facebook, growing over 1 million Likes to 45.7 million, and  YouTube, growing 995,800 Likes to 39.1 million.  Coca-Cola also made the list, adding 667,000 Likes to push past 30.6 million.

An interesting list of TV and movie Pages made our list, too.

"El Club de la Comedia" is a Spanish language comedy show that said on the Page it's "back" on TV, consequently adding all of its 852,300 Likes this week. "The Simpsons" grew by 729,400 Likes to surpass a total of 30 million; the Page featured a show-related quiz this week. "Family Guy" grew to 33.2 million by adding 617,100 Likes this week after promoting the show and related merchandise. "South Park" added 579,800 likes to come in just under 30 million; the Page promoted related Comedy Central and creators' projects this week. Finally, "Harry Potter" saw 574,800 more Likes, taking the Page to 26.5 million after releasing more movie posters for the upcoming July premiere of the next film.

Then came the music Pages.

Katy Perry added more than 1 million Likes after promoting her tour and latest video. Shakira's Page grew by 863,800 Likes to 34.2 million by promoting her latest video and single. Eminem also used videos to grow his Page from 842,400 Likes to 40.7 million. Rihanna hasn't been using videos, but photos with fans at her concerts, to grow her Page 863,600 Likes to 37.9 million.

Lady Gaga saw 697,500 Likes more to reach 38.3 million on Facebook after promoting her media appearances. AKON saw 681,800 Likes more to his 25.7 million by promoting his upcoming video. Black Eyed Peas were scheduled to perform for free in New York City, but it was rained out; nonetheless the band added 598,100 likes to surpass 20.8 million Likes on the Page. Linkin Park grew by 589,000 Likes to 30.5 million by promoting their music and media appearances. Avril Lavigne's Page grew by 582,800 Likes to reach 22.1 million with personal video and photo updates. Usher saw 567,600 Likes to pass 21 million with video updates and media/tour updates. Finally, Beyoncé's 562,300 new Likes put her over 24 million as she promotes her upcoming album.

Facebook’s Relaunched Comment View for Photo Albums Helps Page Moderators

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 08:30 AM PDT

Last Friday, Facebook relaunched the Comment View for photo albums, which displays photos at roughly half of full-screen and sorts them by those most recently commented on. Users can switch from Grid View to Comment view with a switch in the top right of albums.

The feature will be especially helpful to Page moderators who otherwise had to sort through notifications about feedback or look at photos one by one to moderate comments on their photo albums.

The team responsible for reviving Comment View, news feed engineer Dan Schafer, Photos engineer Nathanial Roman, and commerce team designer Brynn Shepherd told us the feature was developed as a Facebook Hackathon project. Facebook used to provide the Comment View for albums, but removed it last year as part of a simplification of the Photos product.

The team, who were originally Facebook interns together, heard complaints from users and friends about the removal of the Comment View, and also wanted to use it themselves. So they built the new iteration from scratch at one of Facebook’s internal Hackathons where employees are encouraged to work on projects they think could benefit the company, even if they’re outside their specialty. Their interest and complementary skill sets made the Comment View an “ideal Hackathon project.”

Now admins can use the feature to quickly see what people are saying about the photos hosted on their Pages. Since photos with no comments don’t appear in the Comment View, and they’re sorted by most recent activity, photo feedback moderation through the feature is much more efficient than through notifications or the standard view.

Users who come across the Comment View can also make use of it to quickly hop between conversations with friends on a big album of vacation photos they’ve just uploaded. However, there won’t be any flash prompts encouraging users to try it out, just a small title when the toggle switch is hovered over. The team told us “We didn’t want to go to crazy with introducing it since it used to exist. It’s the type of feature that if they really like, they’ll find it again.”

Strategies for replying to fans and using Facebook’s native Page moderation tools can be found in the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network’s comprehensive guide to marketing on Facebook.

New Facebook Platform Industry Hires: Buddy Media, Context Optional, Involver, Wildfire and Work4 Labs

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 08:03 AM PDT

Companies hired more interns in the past seven days as well as a few sales staffers. Most notably, Buddy Media said that it had hired veteran financial executive Dennis Morgan last week as its new chief financial officer. He has previously served as the CFO of three venture-backed companies, including EPAC Technologies, Panther Express and Vibrant Media, and served for a time as the Vice President of Corporate Finance at Yahoo.

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we'll get it into next week's post. Also, please note that information about most new hires, below, comes directly from company updates from LinkedIn.

Looking for new opportunities? Check out the Inside Network Job Board, which shows the latest openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here's this week's list of hires:

Buddy Media

  • Kendell Burton, Design Intern
  • Dennis Morgan, CFO

Context Optional (part of Efficient Frontier)

  • Dawn Thawnghmung, Recruiter – formerly a Continuous Improvement Analyst at Meyer Tool.

Involver

  • Jamie Lipson, Marketing Intern

Wildfire

  • Noah Abelson, Sales Associate - formerly the founder and co-director at Flavor of Change LLC.
  • Adam Khalifa, Business Development – previously a consultant at Freelance New Business Development Libya.

Work4 Labs

  • Sadhika Batra, Marketing & Sales Strategy Intern

onsdag den 15. juni 2011 at 08.22