5 takeaways from the Quiet Profitability Panel at Casual Connect

This week I spent some time in Germany, attending Casual Connect Europe in Hamburg, where I spoke on a panel titled Quiet Profitability about our company Backstage Games as well as moderated a discussion between these fine gentlemen:

Toby Beresgford – Founder of Nudge Social Media
Jens Begemann – Founder and CEO of wooga
Alexei Kostarev – Founder and Head of Production of I-Jet Media

I had been looking forward to this discussion for quite a long time, helping David Nixon of I-Play organize it.   Let’s just say the panel did not at all go as I had planned, but I was stoked that people found it interesting and informative.  Here are some key points that were highlights for me and I think they deserve a mention:

1.  ONE great game is better than TEN good games.  Jens Begeman, the creator of Brain Buddies on Facebook has certainly illustrated the concept of concentrating on your core product on a single platform.

2.  If it's tough to win globally, win locally.  Alexei Kostrarev has been able to dominate the social space in Russia, where I-Jet Media today owns about half of all revenues from social gaming – certainly a formidable result.   If you can’t be Zynga, be the Zynga or your local geography.

3.  Brands are coming to social networks in a big way.  Nudge Social Media connects brads with social audiences and has seen excellent growth this year.  I would expect focusing on branded experiences to be a growing niche in the social space.

4.  Quick Play Pays.  This was noted by me through our experience at Backstage.  Complex game dynamics confuse the hyper-casual social network players into indifference.  Quick reward loop has a better potential for monetization.

5.  Content moves the needle.  As the industry continues to converge on Virtual Goods as the business model, fresh content is the key lever to move the revenue needle.