Insights From Global Mobile Game Developers Conference 2014, Chengdu, China.

The Global Mobile Game Developers Conference (GMGDC) is China’s largest B2B convention for

mobile game developers. Held on September 24-25, GMGDC was all about “Enabling Success” – connecting developers to local and international distribution channels and creating partnerships for growth and investment.

Hosted in Chengdu –China’s developer and high-tech manufacturing hub – this year’s event brought together over 5,000 developers and industry professionals, 300 domestic and international media, and over a 100 speakers from over 20 countries. Not only are the industry’s top minds are back to speak, but you also get to hear from the freshest up-and-comers in their first ever Indie Pitch – where independent mobile game developers pitch their best game ideas.

If you are a Malaysian and you have never been to China. The trip itself is already an ‘enlightening’ one especially if you only care about where you are going to and where will  you be staying at.  Why? Simply because China practices different internet policy. More than 2,701 websites are or were blocked in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) under the country's policy of Internet censorship. For the full list of the blocked websites, you can always yahoo! (Yes Yahoo!  not Google since Google is in the list)  or refer to wikipedia. So, prepare yourself with the absence of Google, Youtube, Facebook, blogspot and 2,697 more websites.

We, Malaysians are so used to downloading mobile games and applications through GooglePlay for

Tencent

androids users, or Itunes for Iphone users. Since GooglePlay is not available in China, you must be wondering how do mainlanders download their applications. Well, there are more than 20 mobile applciations stores available as alternatives for those in China to download their applications. Among of them are Pandaapp,  Baidu App Store, Opera Mobile App Store, Tencent App Game (From the developer of WeChat) , AppChina and Wandoujia. So, if you only know how to Google something or download apps via GooglePlay, please download one of these alternatives before you depart to China.

If you are one of those who intend to penetrate China’s mobile game market, it is advisable for you to participate in Global Mobile Game Developers Conference. Among of the tips that you can get from the experts sharing sessions are:

1)The platform for downloading apps in China is not as concentrated as in Malaysia or other countries. So it’s quite difficult for others to penetrate the mobile games market in China; instead of targeting only GooglePlay, you have to target a lot more mobile apps store

2)Language barrier. Majority of the Chinese does not even speak/read/write English. So, please invest on translation. (China uses Simplified Chinese Character while Taiwan and Hong Kong uses Traditional Chinese Character)

3)

Different social media: Chinese uses different set of social media to spread word of mouth regarding their favourite games. Wechat is the Chinese’s Facebook since it has the ‘moments’ functions which resembles Facebook’s status updateds. Since blogspot is not available (read: blocked), the Chinese uses their own microblog which is called WeiBo to blog about their favourite games.  (In Hong Kong and Taiwan, Facebook, Google and etc are not blocked)

In short, you have to really study the market in China before trying to market your mobile games here. Or for easier alternative, find someone to cooperate with or to partner with. Someone who really knows the market here. Maybe you can find one in the 3rd Global Mobile Game Developers Conference next year. Who knows?