Messaging apps are, at their heart, social networks – and they can make big money from gaming if they’re popular enough, at least in Asia. The leading messaging apps (WeChat in China, Line in Japan, and KakaoTalk in Korea) are growing rapidly both in total users and in gaming revenue. WeChat claims that it has 500 million users, while the competition, Line and KakaoTalk, come in second and third with 200 million and 100 million, respectively.
These social networks are also picking big time revenue. Line has $132 million in recorded revenue for the second quarter of 2013, while KakaoTalk has $311 in revenue – just from the gaming market.
Such games as Rhythm Master really give a push forward for networks such as these. Through the download service Wandoujia, the game, powered by Chinese pop music, has seen a whopping 919,000 downloads per month, with users sharing their results with friends online. WeRunner, another popular entry, has also seen huge downloads, around 522,000. TenCent’s news service reports that the game has brought in $16 million for the first month, with one day even peaking at a million dollars.
We’ll see how much growth these services get over the next couple of years. Can messaging apps make similar inroads in other parts of the world, and become major gaming platforms
Source: PandoDaily
