Financial and messaging app platforms are expanding their mini-game services to increase user engagement. As mini-games prove effective in boosting app usage and conversion rates, the HTML5-based web game market is expected to expand into retail and shopping sectors.
According to industry sources on July 12, Kakao launched a game tab on KakaoTalk in mid-June, introducing 25 HTML5-based web games, including six casual games utilizing Kakao Friends intellectual property.
Kakao is enhancing user engagement by allowing users to create game profiles, compare rankings with others, and share games with friends. The company plans to increase the number of games offered to 50 by the end of the year.
The HTML5 mini-game market has been expanding since Toss entered the space in October last year. Financial apps are particularly focusing on increasing user engagement by offering rewards such as points and coupons, linking this engagement to advertising, financial products, and shopping services.
Kakao had previously operated a game service within KakaoTalk called 'Game Room' from 2016 until its closure in August 2020. However, with Toss rapidly growing the in-app mini-game market, Kakao has re-entered the competition with KakaoPay and KakaoTalk.
Toss currently features mini-games in 20% of its mini-apps, totaling around 800 games. The platform offers a variety of genres, including puzzles, web board games, RPGs, and tycoon games. Notable titles include 'Anipang 2' from Wemade Play, 'Abyssrium' from Wemade Max, 'HanGame Single Maji' from NHN, and 'Infinite Stairs' from Neptune, among others.
In the increasingly competitive financial app market, companies are incentivizing game participation by offering points. For instance, Toss rewards players with points equivalent to 2 won for every minute spent playing 'Infinite Stairs.'
Industry reports indicate that the average daily engagement time for mini-games varies significantly, ranging from about 5 to 30 minutes depending on the genre and play style. This variation leads to different monetization strategies, such as reward-based advertising and in-app purchases. Consequently, platforms are linking increased engagement time to financial and commerce services, while game developers are converting increased usage into revenue through advertising and in-app purchases.
As more app platforms adopt mini-games, the supply channels for game developers are expanding into finance, messaging, and shopping sectors. This intensifying competition among platforms for content acquisition is providing game developers with more distribution options.
Additionally, HTML5-based web games can be adapted from existing mobile games to fit web environments, making it less burdensome than developing new titles from scratch.
On July 6, TwoByte launched the mobile puzzle game 'PawPop Match' on KakaoTalk and KakaoPay through Com2uS Holdings. This game was transitioned from its original mobile version to HTML5 to expand its distribution channels. TwoByte had soft-launched 'PawPop Match' in the U.S. and Indonesia in February and has now optimized the game for web environments, with most mobile version development completed ahead of its global launch in the second half of the year.
TwoByte CEO Ham Young-cheol stated, "For this web game service, we reduced the game's size from 460 megabytes (MB) to around 60-65 MB, focusing on optimizing graphics and game resources while maintaining the core fun of the puzzle game."
Mini-games are expected to expand into retail and shopping platforms that prioritize user engagement and conversion rates. A representative from a game company supplying games to financial apps noted, "We are preparing to launch additional games on three to four platforms, including shopping apps, by the end of the year."
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.