By Pedro Dias Marques, Product Marketing Analyst
Nowadays, the customer experience linked to e-commerce requires the availability of local payment solutions. As such, providers such as BoaCompra offer diverse types of payment services. In order to guarantee the success of your business expansion, each market should have its preferred way of paying.
In markets with low levels of banking penetration such as Latin America, merchants are compelled to offer alternative payment methods such as Boleto in Brazil, Oxxo in Mexico, PagoEfectivo in Peru, Multicaja in Chile and Redpagos in Uruguay.
Video game companies should take this into consideration when expanding their business to the Southern Cone, especially if they want to monetize their products (such as free-to-play games).
The Success of the Video Game Industry
The video game industry has reinvented itself to maximize consumer engagement and revenue growth on a global scale. In 2017, the full game revenue scored $8 billion, while additional game content monetization produced $5 billion.
Gaming companies currently rely on some monetization models to make such profits:
- One-time payments: Purchasing the product once.
- Subscription fees: Paying a recurring fee to access the game online.
- DLC pricing: Purchasing additional content that enhance the game experience.
- Episodic pricing: Paying to access individual episodes or a complete season of a game.
- Microtransactions: Buying keys to unlock additional features.
- Free-to-play: Paying to avoid in-game advertising or paying for an enhanced game experience.
- Bundle pricing: Selling your game along with products from other developers.
Each of these models can be implemented independently, however gaming companies can choose more than one model to boost their revenues, especially in free-to-play games, where gamers are encouraged to pay for new features (such as digital currency and personalized avatars).
Games Industry in Latin America
According to Newzoo’s Global Games Market Report, Latin America will grow to $5 billion in game revenues in 2018, taking 4% of the market. The digital games market is a rapidly growing in the Southern Cone and becoming a major business opportunity.
Latin America’s Big Numbers:
- 650.580.000 population
- 411.319.000 online population
- 234.050.000 gamers
Top countries based on game revenues:
1. Mexico: $1.6 billion
2. Brazil: $1.5 billion
3. Argentina: $456 million
4. Colombia: $385 million
5. Chile: $205 million
Final Thoughts
Considering the diversity of payment methods, gaming companies can boost their digital business in Latin America by partnering with a payment aggregator that covers the preferred options in their target markets. This way their customers will be able to pay using their local payment methods, which in turn provides strategic opportunities for merchants to expand their business.
Taking BoaCompra as an example, your company would be able to accept local payment methods in the major LATAM markets, Turkey, Portugal and Spain. We process the transactions locally and pay you anywhere in the world.
Sources:
Gal, Rotem. “How New Payment Services are Changing Ecommerce”. Copyright 2017. September 6, 2018.
<https://multichannelmerchant.com/blog/new-payment-services-changing-ecommerce/>
Milano, Dominic. “Get Ready: The Four Ps of Marketing for Indie Game Developers”. Copyright 2017. September 6, 2018.
<https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/get-ready-the-four-ps-of-marketing-for-indie-game-developers>
“Leading gaming markets in Latin America as of October 2017, by gaming revenue (in million U.S. dollars)”. Copyright 2018. September 6, 2018.
<https://www.statista.com/statistics/500035/gaming-revenue-countries-latin-america/>
“Newzoo’s Global Games Market Report”. Copyright 2018. September 6, 2018.
<https://newzoo.com/solutions/standard/market-forecasts/global-games-market-report/>
“PC and console games revenue worldwide from 2012 to 2022, by type (in billion U.S. dollars)”. Copyright 2018. September 6, 2018.
<https://www.statista.com/statistics/821451/distribution-digital-games-market-revenue-monetization-model/>
“Top 100 Countries/Markets by Game Revenues”. Copyright 2018. September 6, 2018.
<https://newzoo.com/insights/rankings/top-100-countries-by-game-revenues/>
“Video game monetization – Statistics & Facts”. Copyright 2018. September 6, 2018.
<https://www.statista.com/topics/3436/gaming-monetization/>
