Another Social Casino?
What is a social casino? For those of you that don’t know, it’s a Casino built for social networks that sells virtual currency/coins as their revenue model. Social simply comes from ‘social network’. Think Double Down Casino, Zynga Poker, Double U Casino, Slotomania, Slotspot,, Best Casino, SlotCity, Casino Zone etc.
So, does the world really need another one? If you are into the gaming space, you might be quick to dismiss the news of yet another social casino about to launch. Yes we know how you feel and agree it only holds lack-luster excitement, if any at all these days….plus most developers in this space also know that social casino players (especially ones on Facebook) have a short LTV (life-time value) compared to real money and all come from literally the same marketing channels. So how do you differentiate and why are there still so many popping up?
There are many reasons to why one would build a social casino and some include:
Staying Realistic
As a designer of a HTML5 social casino on the brink of launching on Facebook with a very modest marketing budget, it is hard for me to look at all the hard work, and still be realistic enough to see the “glimpse of almost inevitable” fail about to happen after launch. As contrary to what people say about being a successful entrepreneur, you have to believe! believe! believe! in your product and to always think ‘positive‘, so much that it can’t and won’t fail. Well, my ‘standing-outside-looking-in’ view couldn’t be further from negativity. In fact, having a realistic ‘it is what it is’ approach – I feel I am able to ask the right questions on how to move forward in planning and actually take the company to success given the situation. Call this a standing in truth if you will.
Questions I might ask are:
By doing this kind of forward thinking and questioning, we are better able to continue innovating, adding new pieces and waste less time in the ‘inevitable fail’. We can be proactive in actually moving forward, making changes that make sense, making changes that better our product whether it be technology, UI, UX, innovation, new concepts, new ways of working etc. In other words, think of building the casino gaming platform as a foundation…how you take it, shape it, grow it, market it etc., is a whole different level of science. As we like to say, launching is when the real work begins.
The Social Casino Industry 2013
The social casino space as it currently stands (March 2013) is extremely crowded and difficult to thrive in and it is only going to get worse. Even popular titles from previous year that had millions of players are now down in numbers and retention of players as well as customer acquisition costs continue to rise and be a challenge. This however also tells us that there must be opportunity present… and there is alway room for great products, no matter how saturated the market is. (Google MirrorBall Slots!)
Building a social casino these days, you almost need a secondary motive beyond monetization to WHY you are building a social casino to make it worthwhile.
To be successful in social media of all sorts including games, you need to stay agile and continue to flow.
So after reading all of this and you still want to get into the social gaming casino business, feel free to hit us up! We have many options available from custom to white-labeling. Our platform is also built in HTML5 meaning it is cross-platform and browser friendly.
Until next time… keep designing, programming, innovating, surviving,
-s-
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