2011: An industry awaits PART 4 - monetisation of social media
In the final part of our four-part special looking at the year ahead we conclude by examining the "Holy Grail" of gaming: the monetisation of social media.
If mobile was the talk of the last decade, then monetisation of social media is the industry’s new Holy Grail for the next.
Several social egaming specialists have emerged across the majority of verticals, predominantly in bingo, where the vision of establishing an online community that interacts and shares wins, links, tips and advice and that crucially advocates the site they are on, has been achieved with some success.
However, similarly to mobile five years ago, significant revenues linked directly to social gaming have yet to be seen on a grand scale. A number of industry experts, however, particularly new entrants that are pushing this technology and seeing it grow, as well as noticing it being gradually adopted by more established operators, are confident it will make considerable advances in 2011.
Stuart Carr, managing director of start-up Passoker, says he has noticed significant traction with products that combine sports and social features.
“There’s a big opportunity for suppliers and operators to create and offer innovative games that bring the two together. The same can be said for combining offline and online experiences, particularly with the rise of mobile gaming.
“I think the challenge for the entire industry is to capitalise on the social media explosion. On this evidence it seems a number of smaller firms are attempting to do just that, but this also shows that suppliers and operators within the industry face a struggle to keep their offerings differentiated from their competitors as the market becomes increasingly busy. Those offering prizes, real money, offline, social and mobile elements will make the most money in 2011,” he adds.
PickLive’s Tim Morgan agrees and says that if he were to place a bet on one positive development in 2011 it would be “the rise of social gaming”.
Yazino’s Chahine adds: “Social gaming will grow significantly. Big players such as Disney, Electronic Arts, and Google are entering the market. There is a great opportunity to disrupt the way traditional egaming companies have been operating for years.
The entrenched players have failed to embrace the next generation of the internet. We have, for example, built a proprietary technology platform that fully embraces social connectivity, while we remain in full control of the entire value chain. We have no dependency on third-party providers. The future of egaming must be to put the operator in full control of every aspect of the business, from traffic generation to innovation.”