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The Outlook of Mobile App Advertising in Hong Kong China and Taiwan China Market of Q3 2020
In Q3 2020, what were the trends of mobile app advertising in Hong Kong China and Taiwan China that are considered promising by publishers in mainland China? App Growing Global published “Outlook of Mobile App Advertising in Hong Kong and Taiwan China Market of Q3 2020” based on global advertising data from July 1 to September 30, 2020, covering Hong Kong China and Taiwan China and 18 global mobile advertising platforms including Facebook, Admob, YouTube, Unity, Line Japan, and Twitter.
1. Overall Advertising Trends
In Q3, mobile games advertisement still occupies most of the market share in both app and ad number. But compared with Q2, the proportion declined by about 5–6%.
In terms of mobile games, RPG advertisements account for a large proportion of 26%, followed by casual and action & adventure games. The quarter-on-quarter growth of board games was 60.84%, and the quarter-on-quarter decline of card games was 37.36%. In terms of non-game apps, photo & video, and book apps increased by about 79.22% and 52.30% quarter-on-quarter, respectively, while utilities and social apps both fell by about 40% quarter-on-quarter. The detailed mobile games and non-game apps changes will be analyzed.
2. Top Apps and Ad Creatives Strategies
2–1 Top 20 Mobile Games
With the continuous development of casual games worldwide, the number of casual game publishers targeting Hong Kong China and Taiwan China market has gradually increased. In the Top 20 Mobile Games list, the number of casual games has increased from 2 in Q2 to 7 in Q3, which mainly thanks to tile-matching games (such as “LINE: ドラえもんパーク” and “LINE BUBBLE 2”) and puzzle games (such as “5 DIFFERENCES ONLINE”, “NUMBERZILLA” and “GREEN CUBE”).
RPG games have massive advertising in the two quarters. Accounted for the largest share (40%) of the Top 20 list in both two quarters. Chinese publishers’ games are the majority (accounting for 75% of the RPG games on the list). Due to the historical and cultural similarities between Hong Kong China and Taiwan China and mainland China, the RPG games launched by Hong Kong China and Taiwan China and mainland China publishers have a high degree of consistency in themes, mainly focusing on the ancient palace and fairy-tale topics, such as “HUAWU GONGTIN” and “XIA XING TIAN 6666666665XIA” by Origin Mood Limited and WONDERNETHK’s “MIE SHI LU”, which have obvious cultural characteristics.
Although a large crowd of casual games in the Top 20 did not have a major impact on RPG games’ status, it squeezed most of the other games of Chinese publishers (such as simulation, action, card games, etc.) in Q3 from the list. As a consequence, the number of Chinese publishers on the list in Q3 has reduced but still occupies half of the list.
2–2 Popular Mobile Games’ Ad Creatives Strategies
Traditional Chinese is used in Hong Kong China and Taiwan China, and most people cannot fully understand simplified Chinese. Therefore, translating advertising copies to traditional Chinese is more acceptable for users in these two regions. And games dubbed in Taiwan accent or Cantonese is more popular.
“LINE CHEF” Ad Copy:
The popular Crayon Shin-Chan cooperation event is here for a limited time! Come and twist and move your hips while cooking with Shin-Chan! Don’t forget that free stickers are waiting for you!
Crayon Shin-Chan’s cooperation starts running!
Hong Kong China and Taiwan China share network buzzwords to a certain extent; hence using some common network buzzwords in videos or ad copies may be more interesting and can bring the user and the game closer.
“LIAN LIAN QING TING” Ad Copy:
Can’t sleep, stay up late, and be bored? Come and try the game “LIAN LIAN QING TING”, 90% are female friends, the excitement never ends.
[Palace drama will never stop, life’s fun never cease]
The people of Hong Kong China and Taiwan China are similar to that of other East Asian regions, and the conformity effect is stronger. Therefore, the download numbers or popular degree of the game can be emphasized to attract users to download.
“XIA XIN TIAN XIA” Ad Copy:
✔Behemoth’s online game ranking №1 game is highly recommended by Taiwanese players ✔Google’s hot search №1! New martial arts, new encounters are waiting for you!
[Ranking №1] Open today to download in advance!
2–3 Top 20 Non-gaming Apps
In the Q3 Top 20 Non-gaming Apps list, utility app “ONE BOOSTER”, “ONE SECURITY”, and books app “RADISH” dominated the top 3. Live streaming app “Uplive” and “Bigo Live” by Chinese publisher entered the list again after Q2.
What has changed a lot is that Chinese publishers’ photo & video apps have emerged in Q3. “WETV” by Tencent with aggressive advertising since August and “BILIBILI” and 3 photo editing apps of Chinese publisher Alpha Mobile Limited quickly replaced shopping and social apps that did not keep up with the market growth rate in Q2. And photo & video app has become the category with the largest proportion (25%) in the Q3 list.
Compared with Q2, the Q3 Top 20 Non-gaming Apps list also has more health, books, and education apps, which is related to the increasing awareness of physical and mental health amid the pandemic.
2–4 Popular Non-gaming Apps’ Ad Creatives Strategies
“Bilibili” uses a combination of dynamic and static to embed the video into the picture. The top and bottom static pictures always show the logo and its unique competitive advantages. Playing the popular animated dramas in the middle can make users interested in the video’s content and strengthen users’ impression of app characteristics.
“BILIBILI” Ad Copy:
Abundant animated dramas and manga are in BILIBILI.
The advertising video of the live streaming app “UPLIVE” shows how the app can be used, and its ad copy uses first-person narration to imitate the dialogue and enhance the sense of social interaction. At the same time, the copy is translated into Cantonese to be closer with local users.
“UPLIVE” Ad Copy:
Hello! I’m the host of Uplive~ Want to know me? Download Uplive!
3. Ad Creatives Suggestions
1. Hong Kong China, Taiwan China, and mainland China’s languages and cultures are similar, and celebrities or real-person materials are versatile.
2. There are differences between the traditional Chinese of the Hong Kong version and the traditional Chinese of the Taiwanese version. Ad copies for Hong Kong should avoid direct translation of Mandarin into traditional Chinese, and it is more localized to use Cantonese.
3. Taiwanese are good at entertainment, and they prefer ad creatives with high saturation and big text.
4. The social media with the highest penetration rates in Hong Kong China, and Taiwan China are Facebook and YouTube, so these two channels are also preferred for advertising.
More intelligence in the advertising market can be found on the official website of App Growing Global.
*The above-related advertising materials are sourced from App Growing Global, which is only used for research and analysis. All Rights Reserved.
