The Mobile Games

Marketing for Southeast

Asia in 2022

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01 Overview of Southeast Asia

02 Mobile Games in Southeast Asia

03 Local Marketing Strategies

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1

Overview of
Southeast Asia

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Geographical Division

The region of Southeast Asia consists of

South China, East India, New Guinea, and
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the states located in the north of Australian
continent.

Major mobile games markets are the top six

states, accompanied with the most
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occupation rates of GDP locally. Those
states refer to the state of Indonesia,
Thailand, Vietnam, Philippine, Malaysia and
Singapore. The sum of these states’ GDP
occupies around 96% of the total amount
regionally。
Source：Wikipedia
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Overview of GDP

Source：Statista

Regional GDP ranked TOP Five and keep growing steadily

Among the regional economy entities, Southeast Asia ranked No. 5 globally. The GDP would keep growing smoothly since the
estimated year of 2016 till 2026. The amount of GDP for Indonesia is estimated for the first ranking in Southeast Asia.
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Overview of Demographics

The major structure focuses on the young

generation of citizens

There're around 670 million citizens in Southeast Asia. The number of

the population occupies at 8.58% in the worldwide population
roughly（Source：worldometers)

The people in Malaysia and Philippine are relatively young.

Thailand’s and Singaporean citizens are comparatively old. The ratio
of people’s life span from 15 to 64-year-old is appropriately 67% in
total. The entire population structure is still relatively young. The
demographic dividend is very huge.

Source: Southeast Asia 2019 Digital

Economy Report

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Internet & Mobile Devices’ Penetration Rate

Internet penetration rate is huge and the extent

of the using rates among mobile clients are 1
frequent.

In the Southeast Asian market, the Internet penetration rate is very large.
Among the member states, Singapore’s rate reaches to 83% of their
population. Meanwhile, Thailand and Malaysia have 82% and 77%
respectively.
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Based on the investigation, 90% of the Southeast Asian Internet users are
mobile client’s users or customers. Thus, the extent of the popularity via the
mobile clients is super high.

However, though the Internet distributed widely, the speed of the Internet is
very slow, and the collocation or allocation is extremely weak. In that case,
the application developers are supposed to care about the quality of the
video ads or the size of the application (.apk).

Source: Nielsen-”What's next in Southeast Asia”

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2

Mobile Games in
Southeast Asia

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Marketing Size of the Mobile Game

Source：
SensorTower

The revenue growth rates of the mobile game in Southeast Asia is the highest in the world

In respect of the anticipation, the income of the mobile games raises above 90% roughly since 2020 till 2023. The absolute number
of the ratio is far above the average raising rate in the global market.
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Marketing Size of the Mobile Game

State Market size(USD Growth rate compound CPI ARPU (USD)

millions) from 2019 to annual growth (Android/iOS)
2020 (%) rate (CAGR) (USD)
from 2017 to
2020 (%)
Indonesia 1.68 31.1 20.9 0.57/1.17 23.58
Philippines 572 22.4 17.8 0.87/1.14 28.54
Vietnam 472 35.3 27 0.61/1.07 21.37
Thailand 667 25 19.8 0.84/1.08 36.84
Singapore 327 21 11.4 2.07/3.00 73.04
Malaysia 876 22.2 14.2 0.72/1.43 27.69
Cambodia 27 33.2 31 0.87/1.05 8.71
Laos 18 39 37 0.62/0.81 15.39
Myanmar 79 52.4 41.3 0.9/0.9 5.98

Source：Statista
Overview by country in the region

CAGR shows that the region keep growing fast especially Cambodia ,Laos and Myanmar.Indonesia had the biggest market size and
lowest CPI. Singapore had the highest ARPU out of the selected countries with an average revenue of 73.04 U.S. dollars per user.
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Preferences of Mobile Games

Southeast Asia Game Download Southeast Asia Game Revenue

1
App Store + Google Play App Store + Google Play

Action Role Playing

Casual Action
Simulation Strategy
Arcade Adventure
Puzzle Casual
Education Simulation

2
Adventure Casino
Role Playing Card
Racing Puzzle
Strategy Sports

Millions
2020.Q2 2019.Q2 2020.Q2 2019.Q2

Source: Sensor Tower

Preferences of Mobile Games

According to the data, Role Playing，Action and Stratey ranked the top level in the market. The download distribution indicates
that the download amount of the Action & Casual game is the largest. Thus, Action & Casual games are the most prevailing game
type among the local community in South-East Asia. https://appgrowing.net
Trait of the Game Players

Players' Devices 1
In Southeast Asia, players usually use the mobile

equipment while playing formally. The data

indicates that approximately 80% of the people

2
using the mobile facility for the game, 69% users

playing through the PC (personal computer) client

and 57% of the operators using the individual

machine as the X-Box or the single devices.

（Source：Newzoo)

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Trait of the Game Players

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Significance of the Female Customers
in Southeast Asia:

2
The chart demonstrates that around 77% of the

civic females are the mobile clients’ game player

in the entire region.

(Source：Newzoo)

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Trait of the Game Players

Most of the players concentrate on the

younger generation of the citizens and
1
the group of the female players growing
a lot.

The data shows that most of the latest users are 2

adolescents, aged from 14 to 19-year-old.

Alternatively, the group of female players are prominent

customers locally. For instance, in Thailand, the age of

twenty-first till thirty-five female users occupy at 21%; the

synchronous rate in Philippine is 48%. The state of

Malaysia has the greatest number of female game players,

（Source：NewZoo and GMGC Mobile Gmaes Whitebook for 2017）
aged from ten to twenty-year-old. https://appgrowing.net
3

Local Marketing
Strategies

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Localization of the Language

In Southeast Asia, there're numerous dialects and

there're also certain deviations between the 1

formal language and local dialects among distinct

communities. Under the impact of colonization,

the word of English becomes the official language

in many Asian countries. So, the enterprises or

corporations can apply the source of materials in

2
English mode in partial states while promoting

abroad. Though the word of English belongs to

the normal language, not all the residents in

Southeast Asia could speak in English as well as

the people do in the Western society. Hence,

developers could compose the ad materials in

respect to the regional dialects.

Source：Wikipedia
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Avoiding the Religious Taboo
240 Millions Muslims
In the circumstances with complicated religions, most of the
residents are theist. People are super likely to violate the
heterogeneous rules or principles in Southeast Asia.

The number of Muslims is the greatest among member states.

Thailand is the greatest Buddhist country in the world. Philippine
has the most amount of Catholic in the East hemisphere. Moreover,

2
Muslims make up 40% of the
there are numerous Hindus, Judaist and animist among the local population
communities.
205 Millions Buddhists
Firms must care about the modification of marketing strategy and
treat the details of the material seriously. Developers need to
respect the religious culture and try to avoid using the malicious,
spiteful or cruel stuffs in the ads.

For instance, Muslims are not allowed to drink or have pork for
food. By the way, the subject of terrorism is a controversial and Buddhists make up 38% of
sensitive topic for Muslim. the local population

Source：Wikipedia
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Originality & Style for the Ads

1
Art Style

Comparatively, the inherent ability of creating the cultural

IPs is weak. Under the deep impact of the Korean, Japanese
or Mandarin cultural IPs, designers could reference those art
style spontaneously. Otherwise, following the tradition of

2
Buddhism in Thailand, the aesthetic prefers to utilize the
glittering items. Following the tendency of rapid growing
number of female players, game designers would pay
attention to satisfy the females’ aesthetic demand in
mandatory.

Creative Type

It's suggested that the mobile games utilizing the mode of

video materials or animation sources. On the one hand, the
propagation of information is much more explicit or clear.
On the other hand, the amination or video clips are vivid and
impressive. The frames are alluring and tempting.
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Significant Holidays

Lunar New Year: Significant day for Vietnam, Singapore,

Thailand, Indonesia, Philippine, Burma, Brunei, Malaya and
China. Besides the great area of China, Vietnam and Singapore
value the Spring Festival greatly.

Songkran Festival (Buddhist New Year): In Thailand,

Songkran takes place on April 14th till 16th annually. Like the
Spring Festival in China, Songkran is the most prevailing day in
Thailand.

Ramadan: Following the Islamic calendar, Ramadan takes place

in September. The nick name of the 9th month is also called the ▲PUBG MOBILE campaign of Lunar New Year
Forbidden Period of Time. During the month, Muslims work from
9 a.m. till 2 p.m.

Balram: The day depends on the occurrence of new Luna after

the last day in Ramadan. The festival takes place fewer than
three days in total.

Source: App Growing Global

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Marketing Case Of Festival

1
Arena of valor

With the support of Tourism Authority in

2
Thailand, the Arena of Valor set the
Designers’ Competition in two year serially.
Refenced with the local festival of Phi Ta Khon,
the published functions of purchasing the
inner roles’ derma or ornament are
responsive among Thai players.

Source: App Growing Global

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Real Person Marketing Cases

Mobile Legends：Bang Bang

Based on the perception and research, the 1

ratio of applying the real person's creative is
relatively high in South-East Asia and most of
the creative focus on the story or drama series.
The elements or working theorems are similar
with the mode in China. 2
As the demonstration of the clip, the real
person story of the Mobile Legends
concentrates on the progress of the couple
and affiliated development mainly. The insert
of Mobile Legends becomes the clue of the
Video play：https://creative-ag-
subsequent relationships or affective variation. global.ymcdn.cn/mp4/a4/b2/fa/a4b2fab43c8d6c297e03df75a5ffa393.mp4
Subscribers find it quite simple to view the
entire advertisement intuitively.
Source: App Growing Global
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Image Agent Marketing Cases

Garena Free Fire 1

During the Spring Festival in 2022, the game
of Garena Free Fire launched the product of
virtual clothing in the Vietnam market. The
game developers assign their famous 2
domestic soccer players as the advertising
endorser for the goods.

Source: App Growing Global

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IP correlated Marketing Cases

Garena RoV: Dragon Kingdom 1

The game Garena RoV: Dragon Kingdom
cooperated with the Japanese comics &
animation One Punch Man. The firm creates
popular cosplay roles and dedicated events for 2
the communication activity.

Source: App Growing Global

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Mutual Roles & Local Marketing

เรียกข้ าว่ าฮ่ องเต◌้ 1

Elements of the video game เรียกข ้าว่าฮอ
่ งเต ้
utilize the delicate role style to satisfy the
Thai aesthetic demand. Following the
targeted females’ preferences, the game 2
combined the opera of the ancient dynasty
in the story. The information expressed
explicitly, and the frames are vivid.
Thereafter, the extent level of the prevailing
rate is excessively high among the
community.
Video play：https://creative-ag-
global.ymcdn.cn/mp4/91/29/73/912973f119cc01d63c37f5e5c
4dfc217.mp4
Source: App Growing Global
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Scale of the Esports
As the esports been the essential
mode for the higher-ranking
products in South-East Asia
1
Besides the rapid growing scale of mobile games, the

region of South-East Asia refers to the vital growing

market for the Electronic Sports industry. The

diagram implies that since 2019 till 2024, the group

2
of CAGR will increase by 20.8% in estimation. In

2024, the industry value will reach above 72.5 million

US dollar.

The table demonstrates that the state of Indonesia

will rank the highest amount of revenue, which could

be 17 million US currency. The state of Vietnam and

Source: Newzoo
Philippine will be the next ranking level respectively. https://appgrowing.net
Media Buying Suggestion
Besides the YouTube channel, the research infers that the Line has the greatest amount of user groups in Thailand. Whats-app is
popular in Indonesia and the native platform of Zalo has the greatest number of users in Vietnam. （Souce：Hootsuite）

Thailand
1 Vietnam
Indonesia

94%
Youtube Youtube 88% Facebook 90%
Whatsap
84%

2
Facebook 94% p Youtube 89%

Line 85% Facebook 82% FB Messager 74%

Instagra
FB Messager 76% 79% Zalo 74%
m

Instagram 65% Twitter 56% Instagram 46%

55% FB 39%
Twitter 50% Tiktok
Messager
Tiktok 36% Line 50% Twitter 31%

Pinterest 32% Linkedin 35% Skype 26%

Wechat 27% Pinterest 34% Pinterest 25%

Linkedin 27% Viber 25%

Wechat 29% https://appgrowing.net
Media Buying Suggestion

1
Malaysia Philippine
The TOP Three social media are
92% Facebook 96%
YouTube, Facebook and Whatsapp
Youtube
in Malaysia. Youtube 95%
Whatsapp 91%
The TOP Three in Philippine are FB Messager 89%
89%

2
Facebook
Facebook, YouTube and FB Manager. Instagram 64%
Instagram 72%
For targeting the market in South- Twitter 56%
FB Messager 63%
East Asia, the key ads channels will
Skype 37%
Twitter 47%
be the social media as Instagram,
Wechat 44% Pinterest 36%
Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp or
YouTube and TikTok，the fast Linkedin 30% Linkedin 36%

growing vedio app.

Pinterest 29% Snapchat 34%

Snapchat 24% Viber 34%

Source：Hootsuite
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About AppGrowing

AppGrowing, as a professional global mobile advertising intelligence analysis platform, provides enterprises with

1
ad intelligence tracking around the globe, and helps advertisers gain insight into new advertising trends and
optimize the advertising strategy through functions such as Ad Creative Search, Top Apps, and Media Analysis.

Difficulties Solutions Our Data Advantages

2
What have your competitors Keep track of competitor’s
Ad
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What creatives would you Real-time Tracking of the

use and impress the locals？ Ad Intelligence
Our Client
Insight Into The Global
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Mobile Advertising Market 1.Advertiser 3.Ad Medium
strategy?
Trends 2.Ad agency 4.Investment agency

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THANK YOU
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