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Text | Sailing to the Sea, Author: Zimo

Following Yalla’s opening up in the Middle EastSocial + Voice + GamesAfter entering the market, some latecomers were eager to try, but it was obviously not easy to succeed by simply copying the business model.

Saudi Arabia, known as the "Middle East tycoon", isreligious cultureThere are not many offline entertainment options, butReverse excitationMany people mistakenly believe that as long as they grasp the localRich and fun-lovingWith the characteristics of this, money will come in continuously.

However, ideals are full, but reality is very skinny.The head effect is obviousTo develop similar applications in different regions, it is not enough to just imitate.Patience, strategy, differentiation, innovationThey are all essential elements. Both are targeting the Middle East market, and both are from voice to games. How far are the latecomers from being the leaders?

Starting with audio, entering the Middle East

Voice applications that do not show faces are in line with the religious culture of the Middle East. With the launch of PK, ranking, games and other functions, they have set off a wave of popularity in the social field. Sawa, an audio social application developed by the Chinese company Alef Innovation Network, also took this opportunity to enter the Middle East market and achieved tens of millions of dollars in revenue in three years.

(Sawa's global revenue since its launch)

Generally speaking, social applications will make a clear distinction between social interaction between acquaintances and social interaction between strangers.There has always been a pain point in stranger social networking, that is, when users change from strangers to acquaintances,Retention rateIt will decrease because they will subsequently maintain contact more through commonly used social applications among acquaintances.

Based on this, Sawa chose to make aFusion, which has both public chat rooms and private voice rooms, one for strangers and the other for acquaintances. Even if users subsequently become acquaintances, they can still stay in the app and use the private voice function to communicate.

Chatting alone in a chat room is far from achieving the purpose of social interaction, especially for strangers who have just established contact. They need to rely on PK, games, etc.Strong interactivityWith the function of grouping and confrontation, the atmosphere immediately became stronger.

For those who want to socialize but are afraid of it, there is no need to worry too much.Personality test plus algorithm matchingYou can accurately find like-minded partners and avoid awkward conversations due to lack of common topics.

The Middle East can be regarded as the world'sFamily ConceptIt is one of the strongest regions, and it attaches great importance to "family honor". Sawa also paid special attention to this point. Users can set up a voice room exclusively for their family, and in order to ensurePrivacy and Security, you can also set a password during the creation process.

After entering the room, a series of activities and challenges gradually make the room lively, strengthen the cohesion between the family, and express love for the family by giving virtual gifts. There are also some "family leaders" who want to show their noble identity and status. The gameplay of accumulating diamonds (in-app currency) also cleverly satisfies the minds of these people.

Moving from voice to games with YallaSame play styleAt the end of 2022, after more than a year of launch and accumulating over one million downloads, Sawa also chose to focus on games and launched the social game application Sawa Ludo.

The same path doesn't work anymore

By moving the chess and card room online, Ludo has become one of the most popular games in the Middle East. Compared with voice social applications, game social applications areUser stickinessIt's not that strong. Once you get used to a voice social application, you won't easily change it unless you encounter major problems. But games are different. When new and novel gameplay is launched, users may try new things at any time.

When Sawa Ludo was launched, Yalla Ludo had already had 164 million downloads worldwide and revenue of US$253 million, with Saudi Arabia contributing more than 55% of in-app purchase revenue (data from Diandian Data). Under such circumstances, it is almost impossible to seize users in the Middle East.

Sawa Ludo also made his ownFeatures and creativity, adding UNO, billiards, dominoes and other games to it,IPAs an introduction, use team play to expand the audience. For example, popular IP board games like UNO will come withbrand effectAfter the developer has obtained IP authorization and created a mobile game version, it can encourage some old players to "shift their positions" from offline to online. The influence of this multiplayer game is unlimited, and one person can lead a group of people.

In voice applications, games areAssisted social interactionThe catalyst allows users to quickly get familiar with each other and establish connections. Similarly, in game applications, voice functions also play an indispensable role, especially in group-based strategy games, which require real-time discussion and mutual cooperation between teammates to win. In contrast, Sawa Ludo is more particular aboutPrecision socialBy limiting the number of people in the game room and providing 2V2 functions, users can immerse themselves in the game while getting to know each other more deeply.

However, judging by the data, the results are not ideal. In the past year and a half, Sawa Ludo has just exceeded 1 million downloads and only made $300,000 in revenue, with more than 95% of its in-app purchase revenue coming from Saudi Arabia.

From voice to games, if Yalla can succeed on this path, can others not?

Local challenges, how to overcome them

Even if they have differentiated themselves and have their own characteristics and innovations, there is still a huge gap.User experience feedback, which can find the answer most directly.

Based on the user reviews of Sawa and Sawa Ludo, we found that the problem is mainly aboutNetwork environment, random matching, privacy and security, and ban supervisionThese aspects are also common problems encountered by overseas applications.

Middle EastComplex network environment, especially the recent geopolitical conflicts have also caused network instability in some regions, and voice and game social applications have extremely high requirements for network communication. In Sawa's user comments, we can see that there are many recent comments aboutNetwork freezes and sound delaysIf you don’t connect to a VPN, the other party won’t be able to hear you. Imagine that your voice chat with your friends is frequently stuck, your teammates suddenly “disappear” during the game connection, and the call is interrupted.User churn, replace the same type of application and look for alternative products.

As the penetration rate of audio and video applications going overseas increases, developers mostly use RTC technology to combat weak network environments, which to some extent alleviates the problem of network delay and lag. In recent user feedback from Yalla, some questions about the network have also appeared, which also shows thatThis is not an isolated case, but a common problem. This shows that when faced with local emergencies, technical emergency response needs to be optimized.

The reason why Ludo game is so popular in the Middle East is largely due to its built-inStrong social attributesWhen forming a team in a room, users not only need to communicate with their teammates, but also have to guess each other's strategies and ideas. However, in Sawa Ludo, many players feel that the person they are facing is not a real person. Although the developer's reply indicates that it is indeed a random real-person match, it makes users feel like they are competing with robots in "intelligence".

(Sawa Ludo users questioned the matching of players)

Randomly matched teammates may have very different abilities. For example, a veteran player and a "novice" player may team up together.ExperienceNot very good.User RatingThe importance of game interaction is also reflected here. From the user's perspective, if you want to socialize through games, you must first be able to play in the game before you can have subsequent social interactions. Once you have established a deep connection through tacit cooperation, you will become a highly sticky user in the application. On the contrary, if you do not do user classification and match randomly, you may not be able to get a good experience in the game from the beginning, let alone subsequent connections.

Awareness of protecting privacy dataIt is also becoming increasingly stronger in the Middle East. If too much personal information is required when using an application, it is likely to cause users to feel distrustful, but functions such as voice rooms and game teams have to rely on personal information for matching.

In order to allow users to use it without any burden, many developers have already launchedAnonymous Function, such as virtual avatars, voice changers and other functions, add a layer of mystery to the social interaction between strangers, and also create more opportunities for social interaction.Interesting。

Once an application has social attributes, the complexity of users will become somewhatCan not control, especially in the form of audio rather than video. Because not everyone uses it for friendly social purposes, there are many people who are timid and hide behind the screen to fight back. The problem of being verbally attacked and having the account banned for no reason has also appeared in Sawa, and many applications of the same type have faced similar feedback.Strong supervisionIt's just a matter of sooner or later.

However, it is not a bad thing that these problems are exposed in the early stage of launch, which indirectly proves that there is still a lot of room for improvement in social applications.Privacy, Compliance, SecurityThese are major challenges faced in the process of going overseas. Solving these problems does not rely on the strength of one or two companies, but requires joint efforts to build a high-quality ecological environment.

Learning from the leaders, becoming the leaders, and surpassing the leaders are the ideals of many developers, but the ideal path to success is always cruel. In the field of social + games + voice, Yalla's success in the Middle East is not accidental. On the one hand, it relies on the strong resources, technology and financial support of listed companies, and on the other hand, it relies on local deployment. It is reported that its founding team has lived in the Middle East and North Africa for a long time and has a full understanding of the local customs, living habits and entertainment needs.

It can be seen that the gap between imitation and surpassing is not a simple transfer and copying, but a real in-depth localization, close to users, market analysis, and innovation, differentiation, and characteristics based on existing products. In the fierce competition of the nearly saturated regional market, whoever can break the limitations and explore more business models will get a share of the pie. Who will be the next leading application?