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Bien Perez

After making its name as the leading independent publisher of games on Facebook, Hong Kong-based 6waves is stepping up efforts to grow its business on key mobile platforms and the corporate market.
"We've been rather conservative and careful to manage the company's growth," said Arthur Chow, the chief executive and co-founder of 6waves. "With the support of our investors, we're aiming to expand a bit faster." Founded in 2008, 6waves has raised a total of US$32.5 million in funding from venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners and South Korean games developer Nexon. It has about 120 staff.
With 200 games published since 2009, 6waves has also built up an estimated 20 million monthly active users in more than 100 markets worldwide.
"Mobile is the way to go for us," said Chow.
The platforms on which the games published by 6waves are focused all support growing smartphone and media tablet use worldwide.
These include Facebook, Yahoo Japan, gaming social network Mobage, Tencent, Apple's App Store, and Google Play for Android device users.
Data from Newzoo, a games market researcher based in Amsterdam, shows that global games market revenue is forecast to reach US$86.1 billion in 2016, up from an estimated US$70.4 billion this year. About 27.8 per cent of that market in 2016 would be from games used on smartphones and tablets, advancing from 17.4 per cent this year.
Chow pointed out that 6waves' acquisition of Smarton5, a social and mobile game developer in Beijing, has helped drive its initiative on mobile platforms.
"The team in Beijing has already grown to a staff of 90 from 20 about two years ago," Chow said. "It has helped us lower the cost of bringing games internationally and localising games for the China market."

He added that the latest Chinese edition of 6waves' self-developed hit mobile game, Emoji Pop, was recently the No1 free application in Apple's Hong Kong App Store. Its original English version previously ranked among the top 5 free apps in Apple's App Store in the United States.
Self-developed games, however, remain a small part of 6waves' operations. The firm has partnered with over 30 prominent mobile and social game developers around the world.
As a games publisher, 6waves provides an undisclosed revenue split with each partner-developer. "With our network of more than 20 million monthly active users, we can help drive users to developers' games and improve the commercial prospects," Chow said.
"On top of that, we spend additional marketing dollars to drive new users to their games. We have a team of product management specialists who provide suggestions to developers in terms of features, and we also help developers do localisation," he said.
Moving forward, the firm has widened the scope of its service to include so-called gamification. Its partners include US gamification specialists Bunchball, Badgeville, and BigDoor.
"As an internet start-up, we react quickly to capture market opportunities by bringing our skill sets to fill a gap in the market," Chow said.
Gamification is about applying gaming ideas and techniques to non-gaming contexts, such as staff training and sales, to promote the behaviour a company wants. When gamification is integrated with social networks, a gamified experience can be shared easily with any smartphone-carrying co-worker anywhere and anytime.
Chow said gamification had picked up steam in recent years. Large multinational companies such as Nike, Microsoft, Samsung Electronics, Starbucks, and American Express have each become a major user and advocate of gamification for their respective internal processes.
"Typical in-house training, in which people are given some materials and take a test after, can be boring and fail to engage staff. Using gamification, a company's in-house training can be more fun by including daily quests and advancing to certain levels just like what video games offer," Chow said.
A forecast by M2 Research projected the worldwide gamification market to be worth US$2.8 billion by 2016.
"The gamification concept will pick up much quicker in a highly connected city like Hong Kong, where the penetration of smartphones is greater than in the US. We estimate that the Hong Kong gamification market could be as large as HK$160 million by 2016," Chow said.
"We also see the potential for gamification to take off in other Asian markets such as Japan, South Korea, mainland China and countries in Southeast Asia," he added.


Games people play

Arthur Chow admits the growth of 6waves, the firm he co-founded in 2008, has been managed conservatively and carefully. Photo: May Tse

Arthur Chow

Business

Companies

Online game developer 6waves is expanding into new markets and focusing on mobile platforms as global industry revenue continues to surge


After making its name as the leading independent publisher of games on Facebook, Hong Kong-based 6waves is stepping up efforts to grow its business on key mobile platforms and the corporate market.


Games people play

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Online game developer 6waves is expanding into new markets and focusing on mobile platforms as global industry revenue continues to surge

Online game developer 6waves is expanding into new markets and focusing on mobile platforms as global industry revenue continues to surge