Logics Behind The Growing Popularity Of Live Trivia Game Apps
Social Media in China has been taken by storm with several live trivia mobile games since the beginning of 2018, and one of which that’s been gaining the public’s attention lately is “ChongdingDahui (Ascend To The Top).”
Many may wonder that trivia games are not of something new and have been available on the market for quite some time, but how did this type of game suddenly become the hype? How could a game app draw in a record number of participants within a short time frame and what are the potential profits and prospective business development for the game? As a company specializing in social media and micro-KOL (Key Opinion Leader) marketing across Asia, Viral Access would like to provide some insights towards such phenomenon.
Ascend To The Top was first launched in China in December, 2017 and it has attracted over half a million participants within two weeks. The game is simple: One live-streaming host who asks twelve questions of various topics to players at two set times on a daily basis. Players are given ten seconds to answer each question, and whoever answers all correctly gets to split the jackpot ranging from 100,000 to over a million Chinese Yuan with other winners. Some speculate the game draws its inspiration from HQ Trivia, a live trivia game app developed by Vine creators, Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll, which was released in August, 2017. Aside from its ability to tap into age-old phenomena of competition for a prize, it allows everyone to participate in game shows, such as Jeopardy and Wheels Of Fortune which were formerly limited to or reserved for the lucky, thus the high participation.
(Source: https://technode.com/)
Due to the success of HQ Trivia, several app developers in China have foreseen the potential profits generated from such game play hence invented their own versions. Take Ascend To The Top for instance, other than offering tantalizing incentives, by inviting friends to join the game, players are rewarded with a resurrect card to return to the competition once they are eliminated, which further increases the game’s playability and spreads its awareness. In addition, numerous short-form video makers and live streamers in China have incorporated this trend into their content creations in hopes of rejuvenating viewer participation since several cases of online content producers have been reported of abusing their channels with porn, drug, and gambling related matters, affecting the overall reputation of the industry. Besides, video-sharing websites and live-streaming platforms such as XiGua (Watermelon) and HuaJiao (Pepper) also developed similar activities on their apps to attract new users while improving engagement from existing users.
The popularity of Ascend To The Top rose drastically after SiCong Wang, CEO of Panda TV, announced on his Weibo blog that he’s contributing CNY 100,000 (roughly $16,000) daily to the game. Before that, a well known online transcriber dedicated to translating American talk shows into Mandarin Chinese also introduced the game to his audience via social media channels. Another trivia game, Zhishi Chaoren (Cheese Superman), even tried to differentiate itself from others by hiring famous Chinese celebrities as hosts for its game. Standing from the marketing perspective, Viral Access couldn’t help but noticed that KOL marketing strategy was adopted to raise games’ publicity. Since KOLs are regarded as the authority in their area of expertise, their thoughts and opinions carry heavy influence over their followers. Because of so, marketers of above games all put Word of Mouth into practice by working with social media influencers to promote their games.
As for advertising, the opportunities are immense. Taken that the biggest value proposition for a live trivia game lies in its ability to retain a substantial amount of participants’ attention for 15-20 minutes at a time, it’s undoubtedly the best time for any marketers to increase its ad visibility. Think of the endless possibilities and the variables advertisers could play within a trivia game: the game launch page, title sponsoring, what the hosts say, questions being asked, the backdrop graphics and background music, the countdown time, and the winner page at the end…etc. In terms of potential revenue and business growth, that’s where the future may not be so promising. The reason behind great game participation is due to high incentives. Comparing to the average amount of prize offered by HQ Trivia, Ascend To The Top along with other Chinese live trivia games could easily quadruple the rewards. In this case participants are more likely to be allured to the game simply by avarice; therefore, when other trivia games offer higher prizes, players are less likely to keep their loyalty. Another concern falls into the insertion of ads as it may distract players from concentrating on winning the competition, resulting in negative impressions of the displayed ads.
With live trivia game apps’ popularity continues to grow, much of their publicity should be attributed to the implementations of KOL marketing strategy. While many marketers prefer working with big-name KOLs, such as celebrities who have established strong followings, Viral Access believes in the power of micro-KOLs, who possess relatively smaller fan bases but are seen as having more relevance than the former since they are able to not only build a more intimate and authentic relationship with their audience but also create conversations and make marketing campaigns more engaging. By collaborating with micro-KOLs to produce genuine and creative contents, Viral Access is confident in delivering significant results to its clients, including increased online traffics and conversions as well as improved brand or product awareness.
The business development of live trivia game apps is still at its early stage, while an array of issues has already surfaced such as server overload and suspected cheating, the more important challenges lie in how to maintain customer loyalty and ways to generate revenue in the future.
