Online gaming generates an astounding amount of revenue, with an increase in revenue being seen annually. According to a report by CNCB last July, the industry was on course to hit 138 billion USD by years end, driven by new products and technology. According to Samantha Greenberg, chief investment officer for Margate Capital Management on the growing opportunities for investors:
"That means that the initial purchase of a game is just the beginning of a game's monetization." She is referring of course to the recurring revenue streams these games generate when they are able to satisfy their customer base of gamers.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/18/video-game-industry-is-booming-with-continued-revenue.html
Facebook Is Proof There Is A Lot Of Money Being Left On The Table For Gaming Companies.
In an article on Forbes going back to 2012, they cite an SEC form 10-Q document that Facebook filed. According to the filing, from January to June 2012 Facebook games had generated close to 378 million USD. The money left on the table by the game companies you ask? Facebook charges them 30% of the money collected for handling the use of their payment infrastructure. Quite a high fee, and their own greed could very well be an opportunity for YOU.
As we can see from the above percentages, Facebook charged the gaming companies on their platform a whopping 113 million USD in those 6 months. I am sure that the amounts being thrown about here seven years later is quite larger now.
113 Million dollars left on that table, taken by those who saw a need and serviced it.
Now imagine if those games devised strategies to use Facebook to redirect gamers to their own sites. If they were able to entice just half of those users back in 2012 to their own sites and used Steem as an in game currency they could have kept 56+ million dollars more of that money being generated.
Imagine for example if a large gaming company like Candy Crush was to see the potential to increase their profits using Steem. I am unsure how much of their business is from Facebook as opposed to their apps, but according to this website they are raking in 1,167,835 roughly per DAY. The app stores, according to this website, also charges them 30% of the take.
https://thinkgaming.com/app-sales-data/2/candy-crush-saga/
Using the 30% charge, they are leaving 350,000.00 USD a DAY on the table. While they would continue to obviously utilize those sales routes for their product, if they were to build a funnel onto a DApp on the Steem block chain, they would be able to grab a share of that lost money.
No Chargebacks
As every online businessperson is aware, shrinkage occurs on a daily basis due to chargebacks from customers. It is probably one of the largest reasons for online theft from merchants today. If gaming companies were to use Steem as their in house currency, they would nullify this shrinkage to their bottom line, as once the transfer is complete it is complete. They could have a more direct hand in deciding if and when a customer might be due a refund without worrying of an automatic chargeback with no say in the matter.
Other benefits
Transfer of funds is instant.
No Merchant Category Codes to worry over.
No nickel and diming on fees from CC over variables such as is card present (risk fees), no batch and settlement fees, etc. They do love their fees on top of the monthly fee, monthly minimum fee and PCI compliance fees.
Using earnings today to create passive income long term
As I mentioned in my Steem For Beginners post on the longer term benefits for powering up Steem, as one powers up Steem Power into vests they earn interest. This is a form of compound interest, but with the added possibility of Steem itself rising in value.
A company that interacts at a high level with their customer base could add an extra layer of profits not only for themselves, but their customers as well. Imagine gaming company running a blog where they can hold contests, announcements, etc. Using their Steem power that is growing larger daily, they can upvote engagement on their blogs. This can be beneficial in several ways. Not only does the company earn curation on the comments they upvote, but there is a likelihood that the earnings the customers make for the comments will be spent in game. Happy client, happy bottom line.
Possible areas to target gaming sites
Obviously, landing that Candy Crush contract is probably not realistic. However, there are many up and coming game sites, with more being added daily. Here are some ideas for potential clients who would seek to monetize their games.
Sourceforge is an open source platform that shares many different programs free to use and modify. I became aware of them about sixteen years ago when my son played a game that had many different competing versions online, all with their own particular tweaks. I would imagine this site alone could give anyone willing to hustle their programming skills more business than they could handle at first.
This one is a no brainer. Many hungry entrepreneurs write their games and publish here in the hopes of grabbing some of that Candy Crush/World of Warcraft cash. Servicing up and coming game apps from this crop of potential clients could also be a source for a steady stream of business.
The Apple Store. is also a no brainer for potential customers.
WildTangent could also be a great opportunity to pitch to hungry game developers. They partner with many game developers who are building their brands.
These are just a few of the many areas a hungry Steem programmer could target to pitch their quickly tweaked Steem Business in a Box opportunity. Steem is a perfect choice for online gaming sites to realize the full potential profits their companies generate, cutting out the middlemen who take a large cut for standing between customer and business. Good luck to any of you programmers who see the huge potential waiting for you in this industry. I will be posting my next area that can be targeted in the coming days, so stay tuned and smash that follow button if you don’t want to miss it.