Making Serious Money From Casual Games: King.com CEO Riccardo Zacconi (Part 7)

SM: What else should I have asked you?

RZ: I would like to give you some reasons why I think we have a good model. I think that our model differs from other models in the casual gaming space, such as the download model or subscription models. The reason is that we have been one of the first companies to have a connected game where we are connecting players to play against each other. I do think the reason people play on our site is to make money. They play for very little money. The average is fifty cents, and the average length of a game is 3 to 5 minutes. The reason to play is not to make money; otherwise, they would be playing the lottery. The reason to play is to have the excitement of playing against other real people for an incentive of some sort.

You will never leave in the middle of the game. You will always try to play as well as you can so that you can win. A competitor does not drop out in the middle of a game. This is important, because it is not only about winning a prize, but also to show how good you are. When you play, you also win other items which you can use to display how good you are.

These are games of skill, so it would be very frustrating if you played against a person who is extremely better or worse than you. We apply a similar structure like in a game of tennis in which we match people according to their skill level. Therefore it is fun to play. If you want to have a good matching then it is important to have high liquidity, especially if you have 150 games. The liquidity suddenly becomes a barrier to entry for a lot of players. We have 150 games, and our competitors have around 40 games.

SM: Who do you consider to be your biggest competitor?

RZ: We have two . One is WorldWinner, and they are our biggest competitor. The other is called GameDuell.

SM: You don’t consider companies such as PlayFirst in your competitive space?

RZ: No, not really. I would not consider them in a strict sense.

SM: How big are your competitors?

RZ: We had about 17 million unique visitors on our sites. They appear to be considerably smaller based on Alexa.

SM: This is a good business you have built. Congratulations.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Making Serious Money From Casual Games: King.com CEO Riccardo Zacconi
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