The Power of Tween

February 6th, 2007 Jun Sok Huhh Posted in news |

At least for last two years, one of major agendas in Korean online gaming is micro payment. The business model itself seems so attractive in that it requires players much lower entry barrier. Some Korean experts rashly declared that the fixed-fee based model would be perish soon. But, the story might be nuanced one.

I've researched some properties of Korean gaming population. Actually, there is no perfectly fit sampling data on them, but NIDA(National Internet Developing Agency) has collected information on Internet users, one of whose most frequent and favorite activities is online gaming. NIDA's sampling data is large enough to be safely relied on.¹

* Elementary school covers from 7 to 12 years, middle from 13 to 15, and high from 16 to 18.

The graph shows the proportion of respondents in each category who used Internet for at least 1 hour within the week just before the survey asked. The population from 6 to 19 years(that is almost identical to all of three categories in the graph) consists of around 27% of total Internet users in 2006. Another survey said that this younger population lays the absolute importance on gaming in Internet uses. Around 90% of questionnaire at the survey answered that game was the biggest motive for Internet. So, It is reasonable to assume that the online game participating rate for tween and teen population is extremely high comparing to that for other ages.

Especially, judging from the graph, recent four years has witnessed two big jumps in tween(elementary) population. So to speak, the tween is fastest growth population among Korean Internet users. I think this fact is a key to the recent attention and popularity around micro payment model at Korean gaming scene.

1. Generally, the tween has no independent disposable income. Strategically, at the point of starting a game, free-to-enter option is much more attractive for them than other grown-up users. 2. Once they've entered into a virtual world, micro payment game design tends to make(manipulate?) them want to buy some additional game items. Who are real payers for these? Yes, real burden is squarely on their parents. In a sense, the success of micro payment model in Korea is a kind of classical cases for kid-parents payment connection.

One might say, "why don't they protect their kids against excessive gaming?" Parents in Korea have tried hard to do so. But, you should remember that Korea is one of countries that have very high rate of broadband penetration. You cannot just watch them 24/7. Also, PC Bang(Internet cafe) is as common as drug store in US. It gets natural for them to visit the PC Bang for after-school time. Moreover, some games such as Maple Story, Kart Rider are recognized as not just killing-time but also important social activities among elementary school kids.

What else you can do but pay weapons and armors in digital for them? Captivate the tween by free-to-enter strategy and you can open pockets of their parents in wider and easier way.

1. As of 2006, the number of sampling households is 7,042 for over 6 years old respondents. [back]