Making Serious Money From Casual Games: King.com CEO Riccardo Zacconi (Part 5)

SM: Let me ask you some ramp questions. In 2003, you launched the site. In 2005, it started becoming profitable. What was your revenue ramp between 2003 and 2005?

RZ: In 2003, we had very little. Revenue, in euros, was 14,000. In 2004, we had 2.3 million and in 2005 we had 10.8 million.

SM: So revenue really picked up in 2005. What did you do at that point? Did you increase the number of games for your growth strategy?

RZ: It was increasing the number of games, increasing the amount of advertising, and increasing the number of partners. We immediately started with a multi-lingual product, and we launched it in Swedish, English, and German. In 2005 we had it available in seven or eight languages.

SM: How was the revenue tracking in 2006 to 2008?

RZ: It went up to 20 million  in 2006, 29 million in 2007, and 38 million in 2008. This is all in euros. 

SM: Did your customer base remain women above the age of 25?

RZ: Yes, 70% of it did.

SM: What was the top age of your demographic?

RZ: I would say our core was 25 to 38.

SM: Did your revenue model remain the same in the later years, where users played free to a point and then paid beyond that?

RZ: The revenue model is the following: When a user comes in as a free user, she registers and can play all the games free. When a game is played, there is advertising in the game loader. If she does not want to see the advertising and wants to compete against others for monetary prizes, then she has to make a deposit first.

The deposit is not a subscription fee. She can then decide to play free afterwards, meaning no more deposits, or she can decide to compete against others for prizes. Each time she competes against others she has to draw a small amount against her balance in order to play. If she deposited $5 and she wants to play in a tournament for which the entry fee is $0.50, then she can draw $0.50 against her deposit. If she competes in the tournament against other players who have also put in $0.50 deposits for a total pot of $2, and she wins, then we take a commission of $0.50 and she gets $1.50.

SM: It is kind of a casino model in a way.

RZ: The difference is that the result of the tournament is determined only by the skill of the player. We ensure this by making sure the setup of the game is the same for all players in the tournament. For example, if the game is Mahjong and the task is to clear the field of tiles, the layout of the tiles is exactly the same for all players in the tournament, and they have exactly the same time alloted to clear the tiles. Only skill can influence the outcome of the tournament.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Making Serious Money From Casual Games: King.com CEO Riccardo Zacconi
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