Game makers are recently leaving Daum Kakao’s game platform, which once led the growth of the local mobile game industry. Market watchers said this is because they opt to launch their new games directly on App market such as Google Play rather than on Kakao Game to save the 21 percent commission fee paid to Kakao.
Finland’s mobile game Clash of Clans was the first which proved success without going through Kakao Game platform. Pouring tens of billions of won in marketing and promotion, Supercell’s Clash of Clans went straight to number one in the local game industry right after it rolled out its new game directly on Google Play.
This paved the way for other game makers to follow suit. South Korea’s largest portal operator Naver launched its mobile game Raven in partnership with a local game firm Netmarble Games in March and made success without using Kakao’s platform. Netmarble Games’ next game is also set to be launched in partnership with Naver and not through Kakao. Seeing the success, other companies including Webzen and Com2us also followed suit recently.
In the first quarter of this year, the number of new games which was launched via Kakao Game’s platform stood at 50, compared with 87 in the same period of last year. Among the top ten game list of Google Play, only two games were launched via Kakao’s platform, a dramatic change from the past when most of the games were on Kakao Game.
Being aware of the seriousness, Daum Kakao launched a new game distribution channel Kakao Game Shop, in February, where users can download the platform via Kakao and not through Google Play. It also changed commission system. Conventionally, Google and Kakao get the commission of 30 percent and 21 percent of game makers’ total sales. However, through the new platform, Kakao gets 25 percent and users get 10 percent (in a way of coin saving)
Though game makers pay less commission from the past, it seems difficult for Kakao to buck the trend. As the local mobile game market is already too mature, game companies should go outside to compete with global rivals, according to market watchers.
“As Kakao Game Shop targets only local game users, the growth potential is limited. Local game firms would not give up the world’s No.1 app market Google Play,” an analyst said.
By Yeon Choul-woong
