Author: Jaleel, BlockBeats

"The phrase 'The night before the takeoff of the Ton ecosystem' has been blowing for three years." This was a joke that was often made about the Ton chain some time ago. To many, the public chain Ton, as part of Telegram, was once at the forefront of the cryptocurrency financing rankings, but for many years it has remained like an airplane circling the runway at the airport, never taking off.

But today, it seems like the joke is being taken seriously, as the small games on Telegram have entered a prosperous stage.

"Now there are at least more than a hundred small games running on Telegram, and by the end of this month, there will be more than 2,000 games in preparation for launch. Telegram probably didn't expect this sudden influx of so many small games," said Zong Yue (pseudonym) excitedly.

In a previous article "The neglected domestic small and medium-sized game developers are being saved by the TON chain," we discussed the development of the Telegram small game market from the perspective of game developers. However, developing game code and technical services is completely different from successfully operating and profiting on TON.

How do the project parties making Telegram small games achieve profitability? Will people really spend money on Telegram small games? With these questions in mind, I spoke with more game project parties.

Traffic business, dominated by Chinese

When discussing how Telegram small games make money through hybrid monetization models, selling traffic ads is one important way.

In addition to doing projects in the currency circle, Zong Yue, who is in his thirties, is also a middle-aged man who loves playing games and believes he has a deep understanding of the gaming industry. He pointed out that for most of the small games on Telegram, the majority of the revenue comes from advertising income from other project parties, rather than from player recharges.

"In the domestic game market, this is the case for the most part. For Chinese people with an internet mindset, this is their dominant area," he said. In fact, rather than saying that the current Telegram small games are prosperous, it is more accurate to say that the current Telegram traffic business is prosperous.

If you are a newly established project party in need of a traffic platform to help gain more exposure and real traffic, what options do you have? One way might be to find currency circle media, such as BlockBeats.

Another widely used method in the past was to find some mainstream web3 task platforms. However, according to Zong Yue, after testing their traffic channels, these platforms now have very few real users, "Basically, studios are using them, and there are very few individual users using these task platforms."

Newly established project parties need a traffic platform to gain exposure and real traffic, and Telegram small games happen to provide such a platform.

Most Telegram small games and these web3 task platforms are in the same business, both primarily earning money through advertising from project parties, engaging in the traffic business, and thus posing significant competition to traditional web3 task platforms.

Zong Yue pointed out: "Even though the revenue and traffic were good before, the prosperity of Telegram small games may indeed lead to the elimination of traditional web3 task platforms, unless they also step in and capture this market by using bots."

Not only project parties, but savvy VC capital has also set their sights on the TON traffic gold mine and personally entered the scene. Vertex Capital is one of them. Giving money to a project does not mean everything is smooth sailing. Most capital also has post-investment business, including helping projects with incubation and resource support.

Therefore, in order to engage users from different project parties, especially those under NFT projects and metaverse projects, such as HAPE and Meet48, Vertex Capital is developing a mini-game called Token Hunter on Telegram.

Token hunter game internal test image

Like most VCs, Vertex Capital is very optimistic about the Telegram small game market. "Although sheepskin games are currently dominant, from a technical perspective, Telegram small games are very similar to WeChat small games and can fully support some exquisite games."

It is said that VCs cannot get involved in the TON ecosystem, but Vertex Capital has found another way in. Their demand is clear: the game functionality does not need to be too deep, focusing on simplicity and fun, making it easy for web2 users to enter, and the development process is easy to iterate. It seems that there is no better channel than Telegram small games for this.

"Moreover, Telegram has lower audit and compliance costs, and the game market is likely to surpass the WeChat small game market. This means that it will be a market with hundreds of millions of monthly active users and billions of dollars in annual market revenue," said a person in charge at Vertex Capital to BlockBeats. They believe that with the user base behind Telegram, many new project parties will have a huge potential user base.

Will people really spend money on TG small games?

Initially, I was skeptical about whether players would spend money on Telegram small games, but my conversation with Sleepy changed my perspective.

"People think that Telegram small games are only for airdrops and freebies, but this is an information cocoon and a misconception," said Sleepy, the founder of the NFT Weirdo Ghost Gang, which was established at the end of 2021 and is currently operating. It is one of the well-known web3 NFT brands in the Chinese-speaking region, and they recently announced their own Telegram small game "OUTA," which is expected to be launched in August.

Different from relying solely on selling traffic in Telegram small games, Sleepy wants to provide a game that can better carry the IP for the holders of the Little Ghost NFTs. He is also confident in the possibility of players spending money on the game. "Including other project parties we have contacted before, they all say that the number of players who spend money on games far exceeds their expectations."

Some game announcement images of OUTA

For example, Scarlett, an investor in Pluto, the publisher of Catizen, revealed that through the module for purchasing game props with payment, Catizen has achieved revenue of over 16 million USD, with over 500,000 paying customers (Atomic Wallet). This indicates that players are willing to pay for virtual items and value-added services in games.

"In addition to Catizen, some top projects generate over 1.8 million USD in revenue per month through advertising, which is a significant income that can help them stabilize the market and extend the lifespan of the game," said Jeremy, who has two Telegram small games under development, QGame and PalMiner.

"The blockchain gaming industry has always had issues with selling pressure, and the NFT market has almost collapsed. Many games have disappeared due to selling pressure, but the recharging channels in games can partially alleviate this selling pressure," said Jeremy, who also has a background in NFT projects before making Telegram small games.

Jeremy also pointed out that in order to attract more web2 users to the game, the original intention of making the game was to make it more attractive and playable. Users recharge through the game experience, rather than just for airdrops, which can alleviate some of the selling pressure.

Speaking more deeply about the topic of players spending money on games, Sleepy believes that today's Telegram small games can better help manage players in different tiers, which is difficult to achieve according to the traditional model of blockchain games. For example, dividing users into purely free players, light spenders, and heavy spenders. "There is no distinction between these players; they all contribute to the game. But many projects try to convert light spenders into heavy spenders, which I think is difficult to achieve because these two types of users are fundamentally different."

The traditional blockchain game model limits the participation of light spenders because many projects require the purchase of "shovels" to play, and these "shovels" are usually expensive. In contrast, the prices of props in Web2 mobile games are relatively low. For example, a skin in Honor of Kings costs about 5 USD, while many blockchain game props may cost tens or even hundreds of USD, undoubtedly hindering the participation of light spenders.

In contrast, small games can better attract these light spenders to participate, as demonstrated by "Twisted Tangle," which achieves the aggregation of small payments into a substantial amount through payments of 0.99 USD, 1.99 USD, and so on.

As a player who has recharged over a thousand USD in Telegram small games, Zong Yue also has high hopes for and agrees with the recharging prospects of Telegram small games. "Although the playability is a bit lacking now, in essence, everyone is recharging for airdrops, but we will soon see some more addictive small games."

Hybrid monetization will be the future mainstream

Today's Telegram small games, compared to WeChat small games, have deeply ingrained this point, so most of the current Telegram small games can also learn from the monetization models of traditional small games.

The visible trend is that traditional small games are trying hybrid monetization to increase revenue sources, meaning that the original single revenue channel has been expanded to multiple channels.

Previously, casual games that only monetized through ads may suddenly explode into pay-to-win casual games. Zynga's "Twisted Tangle" is a typical case, where a puzzle game achieved a significant increase in in-app purchase revenue by offering small packages for 0.99 USD, 1.99 USD, and removing ads, resulting in a monthly revenue of nearly 30 million USD.

It's not just light casual games; heavy games are also trying the hybrid monetization route. Many heavy games are also trying the necessity of ad monetization, and it's a trend to add a bit of advertising to non-paying players. It's all business, nothing to be embarrassed about.

In the gaming industry, especially in the Web3 industry, it is becoming increasingly difficult to buy traffic for blockchain games, and hybrid monetization has become an important means of converting non-paying players into paying users. Telegram small games naturally have this ability and can significantly increase profits through the combination of advertising and in-app purchases.

This can also be seen in Telegram small games. According to statistics, Notcoin's monthly revenue exceeds 300,000 USD, and Catizen (currently one of the hottest TG small games) has total revenue exceeding 16 million USD, including both advertising revenue and player recharges. So, another question arises: with such substantial revenue, will these projects still issue tokens?

Issuing tokens is an art

"Most projects will issue tokens," Zong Yue said firmly.

In Zong Yue's view, although many Telegram small games are already performing very well in terms of revenue and have a broad reach, the traffic business is structural and has a time window, so projects that do not issue tokens are short-sighted.

Issuing tokens is also an art. "Many Telegram small games have not yet listed their tokens. One possibility is that they are negotiating conditions with major exchanges, and there are tricks to it; another possibility is that they don't even have channels and resources, and are not familiar with token listing management, purely dragging users along with PUA."

In the latest podcast and article, Sleepy also discussed in detail their views and strategies on issuing tokens. Their attitude towards issuing tokens has undergone a significant change. Initially, Sleepy and their team were hesitant to issue tokens, mainly due to compliance issues and the long-term impact on project development. They believed that issuing tokens is a double-edged sword; while it can accelerate project development, if used improperly, it could also lead to the rapid collapse of the project.

They believed that only infrastructure projects are suitable for early token issuance because these projects have a long validation cycle, and it is difficult to sustain long-term development without tokens. However, for consumer, IP, and application projects, Sleepy believed that issuing tokens early in the project could become a burden because these projects need time to validate market acceptance.

After a period of development, Sleepy's business model gradually became successful, and they began to consider how to use tokens to incentivize community members. They realized that many Telegram users are willing to pay for content, and the number of players willing to spend money on games far exceeded their expectations. This changed their views on issuing tokens, believing that issuing tokens at the right time can promote further project development.

More and more project parties and VC capital are joining this ecosystem, demonstrating the enormous potential of this market. Despite facing many challenges such as game playability and not "crashing" after issuing tokens, the profitable revenue and huge traffic are gradually proving the market value of Telegram small games.

Perhaps in the near future, we will see a truly large-scale breakout Telegram small game on TON, or maybe it is already in sight, but people have not yet realized it.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。