Translation Results Requested Through Conyac Made Public
[Translation from English to Japanese ] Is Gaming to be Weixin’s Salvation? Weixin has more than 200 million users, ...
Original Texts
Is Gaming to be Weixin’s Salvation?
Weixin has more than 200 million users, but no profit to show for it.
Many people propose a similar solution to this dilemma: gaming. And they always refer to Kakao Talk and Line, the Korean and the Japanese Weixin respectively. Before they turned to gaming, both services faced the same dilemma as Weixin: millions of users, but mounting loses. Last year, Kakao Talk’s loss climbed from 4 billion won a year before to 15.2 billion won. To counter this trend, Kakao Talk turned to gaming. The company signed up game designers to launch games specifically produced for the Kakao ecosystem, and started to recommend these games to its 30 million plus users. Kakao Talk also launch its own line of virtue currencies called “Chocos” to be used for all transactions, which Kakao Talk would then take a cut.
Kakao Talk’s foray was an instant hit. Within a month, 7 out of 10 most popular Google Play games was from the Kakao ecosystem, with the game Anipang occupying the top spot. By November, Kakao games have been downloaded more than 82 million times, of which 16 million went to Anipang, helping the game to a health revenue of nearly 200 million won a day. Kakao Talk has prospered from the experiment. Its revenue has risen from 5 billion won in August to 14 billion won in September. In October, the number also tripled again, finish at 40 billion won at the end of the month.
Line has also experimented with gaming. In July, Line launched the game Line Birzlle, gaining a stunning 2 million players with a mere 24 hours. In less than 100 days, the game accumulated 10 million users. Line has also launched a virtual currency named “Line coins”. Tencent, the giant backing Weixin, has already invested 400 million Yuan into Kakao Talk for a 13.84% stake, so obviously Tencent is smitten with Kakao Talk’s line of business, and implementing gaming into Weixin is only natural. But one must ask, how successful would Weixin be at this? Let’s say Weixin succeed beyond imagination. But even Apple’s app store, the holy grail of all gaming platform wannabes, only accounts for 1% of Apple’s overall revenue. Granted, part of the reason for that is the fact Apple’s yearly revenue exceeds $100 billion, but the app store can’t even hold its own against the Itunes Store. No matter how you spin it, the bottom line is simple: app store is barely profitable enterprise aimed to sell more phones and pads, where Apple makes its money. Similarly, Facebook, which profits immensely from gaming, only derives 17% of its revenue from it. That 17% amounts to nearly $600 million, and brings one third of Facebook’s profit, but that doesn’t change the fact that Facebook’s main line of business is advertising, both on the web and on the mobile front. In fact, gaming’s importance is already fading for Facebook and the business no longers grows and the future is increasing turning to mobile.
And these are the best of all possibilities. Having users doesn’t necessarily translate into being able to build gaming platforms, as Sina Weibo can attest. Similarly, having users doesn’t mean you can retain them, the fall of Kaixin is a perfect example of that. That’s why even Kakao Talk is deciding to spread its bets. Kakao Talk professes to have the very limited ambition of being a alternative to Google Play and the app store for small developers. In addition to gaming, Kakao Talk is also trying other lines of business to see what sticks.
For Weixin, game is definitely something worth trying, but it shouldn’t be Weixin’s only bet. However, that’s not to say Tencent won’t find some way to convert users into profits. After all, this is the company that hit the oil with an IM service, succeeding where AOL and Microsoft came up dry.
Weixin has more than 200 million users, but no profit to show for it.
Many people propose a similar solution to this dilemma: gaming. And they always refer to Kakao Talk and Line, the Korean and the Japanese Weixin respectively. Before they turned to gaming, both services faced the same dilemma as Weixin: millions of users, but mounting loses. Last year, Kakao Talk’s loss climbed from 4 billion won a year before to 15.2 billion won. To counter this trend, Kakao Talk turned to gaming. The company signed up game designers to launch games specifically produced for the Kakao ecosystem, and started to recommend these games to its 30 million plus users. Kakao Talk also launch its own line of virtue currencies called “Chocos” to be used for all transactions, which Kakao Talk would then take a cut.
Kakao Talk’s foray was an instant hit. Within a month, 7 out of 10 most popular Google Play games was from the Kakao ecosystem, with the game Anipang occupying the top spot. By November, Kakao games have been downloaded more than 82 million times, of which 16 million went to Anipang, helping the game to a health revenue of nearly 200 million won a day. Kakao Talk has prospered from the experiment. Its revenue has risen from 5 billion won in August to 14 billion won in September. In October, the number also tripled again, finish at 40 billion won at the end of the month.
Line has also experimented with gaming. In July, Line launched the game Line Birzlle, gaining a stunning 2 million players with a mere 24 hours. In less than 100 days, the game accumulated 10 million users. Line has also launched a virtual currency named “Line coins”. Tencent, the giant backing Weixin, has already invested 400 million Yuan into Kakao Talk for a 13.84% stake, so obviously Tencent is smitten with Kakao Talk’s line of business, and implementing gaming into Weixin is only natural. But one must ask, how successful would Weixin be at this? Let’s say Weixin succeed beyond imagination. But even Apple’s app store, the holy grail of all gaming platform wannabes, only accounts for 1% of Apple’s overall revenue. Granted, part of the reason for that is the fact Apple’s yearly revenue exceeds $100 billion, but the app store can’t even hold its own against the Itunes Store. No matter how you spin it, the bottom line is simple: app store is barely profitable enterprise aimed to sell more phones and pads, where Apple makes its money. Similarly, Facebook, which profits immensely from gaming, only derives 17% of its revenue from it. That 17% amounts to nearly $600 million, and brings one third of Facebook’s profit, but that doesn’t change the fact that Facebook’s main line of business is advertising, both on the web and on the mobile front. In fact, gaming’s importance is already fading for Facebook and the business no longers grows and the future is increasing turning to mobile.
And these are the best of all possibilities. Having users doesn’t necessarily translate into being able to build gaming platforms, as Sina Weibo can attest. Similarly, having users doesn’t mean you can retain them, the fall of Kaixin is a perfect example of that. That’s why even Kakao Talk is deciding to spread its bets. Kakao Talk professes to have the very limited ambition of being a alternative to Google Play and the app store for small developers. In addition to gaming, Kakao Talk is also trying other lines of business to see what sticks.
For Weixin, game is definitely something worth trying, but it shouldn’t be Weixin’s only bet. However, that’s not to say Tencent won’t find some way to convert users into profits. After all, this is the company that hit the oil with an IM service, succeeding where AOL and Microsoft came up dry.
Translated by
zhizi
ゲームはWeixinの救済策なのか?
Weixinには2億人を超えるユーザーがいるにもかかわらず、収益がない。
このジレンマには多くの人が同じような解決策を提案する。つまりゲームだ。そして、常に韓国のKakao Talkや日本のLineに注目する。両社ともにゲームサービスを提供する前には、何百万人というユーザーがいるのに損失は増えるばかりという、Weixinと同じジレンマを抱えていた。昨年、Kakao Talkの損益は前年度の40億ウォンから152億ウォンに増えた。
Weixinには2億人を超えるユーザーがいるにもかかわらず、収益がない。
このジレンマには多くの人が同じような解決策を提案する。つまりゲームだ。そして、常に韓国のKakao Talkや日本のLineに注目する。両社ともにゲームサービスを提供する前には、何百万人というユーザーがいるのに損失は増えるばかりという、Weixinと同じジレンマを抱えていた。昨年、Kakao Talkの損益は前年度の40億ウォンから152億ウォンに増えた。
こういう状況に立ち向かうため、Kakao Talkはゲームサービスを開始した。同社はゲームのデザイナーと契約を交わし、Kakao Talkのエコシステム専用に制作されたゲームをローンチして、3000万人を超えるユーザーにそれらのゲームを勧め始めた。同社はまた、何にでも利用できる「Chocos」という独自のバーチャル通貨もローンチした(Kakao Talkはこのバーチャル通貨の利用で手数料をとっているだろう)。
Kakao Talkのこの取組みは即座にヒットした。1か月以内に、最人気のGoogle Playゲーム10作品のうち7作品がKakao Talkのゲームで、ゲームタイトル「Anipang」が首位となっている。11月までには、Kakao Talkのゲームは8200万回以上もダウンロードされ、そのうち「Anipang」のダウンロードは1600万回で、1日にほぼ2億ウォンという多額の収益が上げられるようになった。
Kakao Talkのこの取組みは即座にヒットした。1か月以内に、最人気のGoogle Playゲーム10作品のうち7作品がKakao Talkのゲームで、ゲームタイトル「Anipang」が首位となっている。11月までには、Kakao Talkのゲームは8200万回以上もダウンロードされ、そのうち「Anipang」のダウンロードは1600万回で、1日にほぼ2億ウォンという多額の収益が上げられるようになった。
Kakao Talkは実験的な取組みから成功をした。同社の収益は8月の50億ウォンから9月に140億ウォンに増え、10月の数字は再び3倍となり、10月末の収益は400億ウォンとなった。
Lineもゲーム事業を試みた。7月、同社は「Line Birzlle」というゲームをローンチし、わずか24時間以内になんと200万人のゲームプレーヤーを獲得した。100日も経たないうちに、同ゲームには1000万人のユーザーが集まった。Lineも「Line coins」というバーチャル通貨をローンチした。
Lineもゲーム事業を試みた。7月、同社は「Line Birzlle」というゲームをローンチし、わずか24時間以内になんと200万人のゲームプレーヤーを獲得した。100日も経たないうちに、同ゲームには1000万人のユーザーが集まった。Lineも「Line coins」というバーチャル通貨をローンチした。
Weixinを運営している大手企業のTencentは既に、Kakao Talkの13.84%にあたる株式に4億元を投資している。TencentがKakao Talkの一連の事業に注目しているのは明らかで、Weixinにゲームを取り入れるのも当然のことだろう。だが、Weixinがゲームを手掛けて、どの程度成功するだろう?
Weixinが想像を超えて成功したとしよう。だが、Appleのアプリストアでさえも、すべてのゲームプラットフォームが渇望する聖杯はAppleの全収益の1%しかない。仮にその一因がAppleの1000億ドルを超える年収にあるとしても、同アプリストアはItunes Storeに太刀打ちすることもできない。たとえどういう展開をしても、最終的な結果はシンプルだ。つまり、アプリストアは携帯やタブレットをもっと売るためのあまり儲からない事業だが、Appleはアプリストアで収益を上げているということ。
同様に、ゲームから大きな収益を上げているFacebookのゲーム収益は全体の17%にすぎない。この17%は6億ドル相当で、Facebookの利益の3分の1を占めるが、Facebookの主要事業がウェブとモバイル上での広告であることには変わりはない。事実、Facebookにとってゲームの重要性は既には薄れてきていて、ゲーム事業の成長は止まっており、今後はモバイルへの取組みを強化している。
そして、これらはすべての可能性のなかで1番よいものだ。Sina Weiboが証明するように、ユーザーがいるからと言ってゲームプラットフォームをつくることができるというわけではないし、同様に、ユーザーがいるからといって、ユーザーを維持できるということでもないのだ。Kaixinの崩壊がその好例だ。
そして、これらはすべての可能性のなかで1番よいものだ。Sina Weiboが証明するように、ユーザーがいるからと言ってゲームプラットフォームをつくることができるというわけではないし、同様に、ユーザーがいるからといって、ユーザーを維持できるということでもないのだ。Kaixinの崩壊がその好例だ。
それが、Kakao Talkが方策を分けることを決めようとしている理由だ。Kakao Talkは中小デベロッパーのためのGoogle PlayやApp Storeになろうとする意志はあまりないと述べている。ゲームに加えて、Kakao Talkは何が当たるかを見るために他の事業も試みている。
Weixinにとって、ゲーム事業はやってみる価値が絶対にあるが、それだけを手掛けるべきではない。Tencentがユーザーから収益を得る方法を見つけられないと言っているわけでない。何しろ、TencentはIMサービスで大当たりした企業で、AOLとMicrosoftがうまく行かないところで成功をおさめたのだから。
Weixinにとって、ゲーム事業はやってみる価値が絶対にあるが、それだけを手掛けるべきではない。Tencentがユーザーから収益を得る方法を見つけられないと言っているわけでない。何しろ、TencentはIMサービスで大当たりした企業で、AOLとMicrosoftがうまく行かないところで成功をおさめたのだから。
Result of Translation in Conyac
- Number of Characters of Requests:
- 3750letters
- Translation Language
- English → Japanese
- Translation Fee
- $84.375
- Translation Time
- about 5 hours
Freelancer