IT youth developers how to survive

"When hard-working IT males (mobile app developers and entrepreneurs) with up to 147 IQs work for that 3k (3,000 renminbi) salary, barbecue keepers with less than 50 IQs are sitting in the Porsche With the app developed by the young man in front, I could not help looking up at 45 degrees. "

This is the end of a post titled Downgrading, once the hottest in the Internet community. And this post by Meditic, the developer of the former mobile app, has already delivered over 10,000 transponders in just a few days. The heat of this relay, a rather vivid description of the survival of IT youth Biequ.

"Degradation Theory" is to persuade China's mobile development elites not to go to the tragedy IT industry as "cannon fodder" but to apply their horizons, technologies and experiences gained in the high-intensity IT industry to the more traditional projects In, such as the "massage industry, catering industry and barbecue industry."

This hot post received a paradox in the industry: China's IT application market looks great, but the ups and downs in the people is not making money. For example, @meditic, the author of "Downgrade Theory," said in a posting that Māori can only be renminbi 120,000 yuan a year after a three-person project has worked hard for a year or two. Each "reeling" entrepreneur can be divided into 40,000 oceans at the end. That is, 3333 yuan per person per month income, no bonuses, allowances, but also no welfare protection, have to work with their own computers.

With the huge user base in the Chinese market, this should not have been the case. China has long been the world's largest mobile communications market with the scale of one billion mobile phone users, surpassing the United States this year as the largest smartphone market. As of March 31 this year's second quarter results, Apple (Greater China) revenue triples; compared to the same period last year, iPhone sales were four times the same period last year.

Smartphones provide a platform for all kinds of applications, from the most beloved Apple iOS, Google Android to urgently need to prove their Microsoft Windows Phone system.

But another set of figures took us back to the reality of China's mobile application market.

"The average download revenue per app in China is only $ 0.03, which is 1/10 of the U.S. $ 0.28, only half of Vietnam." This is the latest App Annie survey. The U.S. survey, which specializes in the mobile app market, said that app downloads in China were second in the iOS market as of the end of May 2012, but revenue (which includes The revenue from the official Apple App Store, paid apps and in-app purchase [in-app purchase, IAP for short; excluding advertising revenue] are only eighth in the world.

IAP was once considered a good remedy for Chinese users with "no-pay habits" and seems to be increasingly becoming a viable charging method. In simple terms, IAP is a way for users to download an application for free, to experience time-limited or level-limiting, and then to pay for subsequent levels and premium items in applications, primarily games. IAP's revenue is outperforming paid-mode revenue in China and around the world. This approach is feasible because: smart phones and other terminals even jailbreak, IAP can not be cracked.

But in China, the real consumer group that pays for mobile games has not yet reached the market. Yu Junde, research director at App Annie, said those who spend energy and money on mobile games often can not afford high-end smartphones, and potential users of large numbers of IAPs are still "irrational." For example, before I like to play in the cafe a few hours bubble that batch of people.

The emergence of a large number of low-cost Android phones, can fundamentally solve the problem? Can increase Android developer's revenue? The current situation is, even if the income is pitifully low, iOS developer income is still much higher than Android developers. Whether there is any change in the future is still unknown.

Umeng is a company that specializes in the habits of smart phone users. When asked about the Android application revenue in the Chinese market, UF's vice president Chiang Hua slightly embarrassed to say "still few." According to its data: By 2011, 30% of the domestic Android developers can not get any revenue; 57.9% of the developers are still counting on the proceeds from the game or in-app ads.

The giants of wireless search and advertising are still cautious about the ad model. Yue Guofeng, who runs Baidu's wireless unit, said in a recent interview that he does not expect to get much benefit from mobile advertising in the short term. The reason is simple: "The screen of the phone is so small that it will be greatly reduced both in terms of presentation and user experience compared to the PC."

The situation is not good for the game. For the best of known reasons, Google Play's official Android store Google Play in mainland China can not be landed, so all Android mobile phone manufacturers and users can only solve their own application installation, distribution, domestic developers can not have direct contact with the user .

As the largest provider of social entertainment tools, Tencent has hundreds of millions of QQ users sitting on it, providing "QQ Game Center", an Android application platform, which is regarded as a platform for generating more revenue for developers in China.

A Tencent employee disclosed: On this platform, the highest ranking Android mobile phone game is the famous Great Wall version of Zombies, a Chinese version of Plant VS Zombies jointly developed by Popcap and Tencent, Walking is also a way to charge IAP props. Even catch the "zombie" gold signboard and Tencent's powerful channel, the game's daily income will be about 100000 yuan; ranked second in the domestic game "to break the sky" can only receive more than 30,000 yuan a day.

Take the Great Wall version of ZOO with daily income of 100,000 yuan as an example, of which 30% will be allocated to China Mobile, and the remaining part will be divided into five or five by Tencent and developers. In fact, developers only had $ 35,000 in their area, while the second developer, "Fighting the Sky," received only over $ 10,000.

The Tencent employee also said that there are countless users in China who do not yet have their own download application, and they can only rely on applications pre-installed on their Android phone and platforms like QQ Game Center to download the game.

They also do not use online payment tools, can only use mobile SMS to complete the payment. But it is the existence of these "irrational" users, the game has some revenue. For them, the bundling options offered by third-party payment companies and bank credit cards seem reluctant: Many Chinese do not have credit cards or simply do not want to bind their cellphones to credit cards because of security concerns. So SMS payment is still the most simple and most acceptable means.

High-end Android users, then have more choices. They will install excellent third-party application platforms themselves, such as the pea pods supported by the innovative workshop investment by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee or the application sinks created by Luo Chuan, the former president of Microsoft's MSN China. These third-party platforms provide a huge amount of free Android applications (including games), of course, there are some IAP and mobile advertising products. But users often use the free version, because these applications have been "all over the street," you choose.

Therefore, mobile application developers had to take the road outside the wall blossom, curve save the country. This is also based on the fact that they see a phenomenon: top foreign developers seem to have no such troubles, they can stand to make money.

The founder of OMGPOP, the developer of Draw Something, had just over $ 1,700 in bank accounts and overnight sold the entire company $ 180 million to Zynga, a social-gaming start-up, The poor boy's big turnaround. As for Instrgram sold to Facebook overnight billions of dollars, has become the famous inspirational story.

Also from App Annie's data show that China's iOS revenue top 10 publishers are almost all game development companies, such as Boyaa Interactive, LV1, HappyLatte, Pinldea, Haypi and everyone games. In the first quarter of this year, 90% of the total revenue of these top ten developers came from overseas.

Tony Zhang is a Shanghai native iOS game developer. Kung Fu Fox HD, developed by his team iQin Mobile, first appeared in English with a Chinese kung fu gimmick and a sliding class like Angry Birds, resulting in significant downloads in overseas markets.

Now "Fox" downloads half of the local and overseas, while in the income of overseas accounted for more than 90%. Why English First Mandarin? Tony half-jokingly gives the reason: we want to survive.

He also revealed that in addition to looking for foreign distributors, the current version will be revised and a major overseas promotion, the team has two games in the smooth development, but also used to enter overseas markets.

Domestic "reeling" developers now seem to have to look at the sky or simply sailing to ensure income. All this has nothing to do with IQ, in improving the quality of game development, waiting for the maturity of the domestic market and spending habits seem to be the only way.