MARCH 26, 2011 • Ask gamers in Turkey about South Korean publisher Joymax and there’s a very good chance they will recognize the company thanks to the popular free MMO Silkroad Online. The same would not be true in North America where Joymax is not very well known. However, that situation is changing. Joymax is making a big push to raise its market share worldwide.
Last year Joymax merged with another Korean gamemaker, WeMade. The latter is best known for The Legend of Mir franchise. The combination is considered complementary. WeMade has a stronger development expertise, while Joymax has greater strength in worldwide publishing. In late March of this year, Joymax added another established Korean development studio by acquiring IO Entertainment, responsible for online PC titles such as Lost Saga and Survival Project.
DFC went to Jamie Cho, Joymax’s general manager of strategic global marketing, to get the full picture on the company’s beefed up growth model.
DFC: Please describe Joymax and WeMade today. How did both firms get their start? What are your existing major products, how many active users do your serve, how many employees do you have, and how do you intend to grow your business in the coming years?
Jamie: Joymax was founded in April 1997 in Seoul, Korea. Its first game was “Final Odyssey” which was published in 1999. Since then, the company has released numerous titles for the PC online platform. Its First MMORPG, Silkroad Online, launched in 2004 and has been a huge success in a competitive global market, offering service to players in over 200 countries. Joymax’s strength lies in the Direct Global Service and Platform it has spent many years building on.
WeMade was founded in February 2000, in Seoul, Korea and has become one of Korea’s leading developer and publishers of online games. WeMade has created several online games including the Legend of Mir2 and The Legend of Mir3 with over 350,000 active concurrent users.
WeMade and Joymax have approximately 800 and 250 employees worldwide respectively, with offices in Korea, North America and The Philippines. Joymax has over 20 million users playing Silkroad Online alone and 150,000 concurrent users of the game. The Legend of Mir3 has over 350,000 active concurrent users. A majority of Joymax’s games are available in multiple languages including Korean, English, Arabic, Turkish and Spanish, with future plans to broaden into other languages.
The combination of Joymax’s strong Global business reach, and WeMade’s strength in development, offers many great opportunities for the company. In addition, Joymax is very excited about the partnership with noted First-Person Shooter developer, Dragonfly. Dragonfly has developed numerous titles including Special Force, Karma, and Karma Returns. Being one of the true pioneers of online FPS development, Dragonfly intends to build on its signature titles, and is making efforts to expand its distribution overseas, with the help of the strong Joymax Global Platform.
DFC: This is a momentous time for Joymax and WeMade. Please tell us more about what led both companies to merge, and how the deal came about?
Jamie: Joymax’s strength was in its Global reach via its service platform while WeMade offered a tremendous amount of development talent. The Global Service Platform is the term we use to describe a full platform system with various billing & E-Pin distribution, marketing networks, a multi-language service center and a global service infrastructure. As you can imagine an extensive platform like this takes a great deal of time and energy to build.
Building a global service platform requires several years of effort and experience until it’s fully ready for supporting various games for many different regions at the same time. Since Joymax has achieved success in servicing Silkroad through its global platform, we felt confident that any games that would be serviced through this platform would give them the best chance of success when being published worldwide. The way we saw it, Joymax was like a beautiful high-performance car with no gas and WeMade provides that fuel for the platform. By joining forces, WeMade will focus more on development while contributing greatly to Joymax’s global business extension.
DFC: What titles generate the most revenue for you, and are the same titles the strongest in different international markets?
Jamie: Joymax’s Silkroad has been generating the most revenue from Turkey, Germany, the U.S. and Egypt. WeMade’s Legend of Mir2 has been generating the most revenue from China. Both Silkroad and Legend of Mir2 are still the largest revenue generators today. Because of its strong Global Direct Service Platform, Joymax generates revenue from different regions at the same time.
DFC: Why is it that Joymax has been mostly invisible to gamers in North America?
Jamie: Joymax had a huge success with Silkroad Online and spent their marketing and promotional efforts on really promoting the game and its community, but they didn’t make an effort to make sure that players knew who the game was made by so now we want to make sure people know the Joymax name and associate its quality with the games they already love.
DFC: How does Joymax intend to increase awareness for its products in North America?
Jamie: Joymax recently started to really promote its presence in the U.S. with the opening of its Kirkland, Washington office. Joymax is now doing PR and marketing in North America and bringing its complete 2011 lineup to North America in the English language. We’re combining the experience of our Korean offices with an enthusiastic and polished English speaking staff to give us the best of both worlds.
DFC: What from your Korean business model translates well to North America, and what does not translate so well?
Jamie: What players want and need, or think they want or need, are very different between the two areas of the world. There are very little “one size fits all” answers in an online game, whether it be gameplay mechanics, speed and method of leveling, purchasing decisions, etc. In short, we try to localize every aspect we can because that is what gives us the best bet of making the community happy, causing it to grow and what will make us successful.
DFC: We understand that Joymax has decided to use social networking as a major vehicle to boost awareness in North America. Please tell us how you are using social networks, and what are the benefits?
Jamie: Social Networking is simply a part of everyday life in North America. Studies have shown as of 2010 that Facebook is the favorite website of youth as young as 8 years old, and the startling numbers don’t stop there. More than 90% of 8-11 year olds of both genders have played games online. These are the gamers of tomorrow who are looking to social media networks like Facebook for everything they do and we plan on being the leaders of how to run successful social network site campaigns. The same studies show adults between 21 and 35 to be within 5% of their younger counterparts and in addition, the over 50 market is growing steadily in both social networking and participation in online games in general – many play with their kids and grandkids, but the 65-plus crowd also often plays together after retirement.
Our process for communicating via social network channels is simple: make a plan, and stick with it; reward loyal readers with advanced notice of events, and sponsor contests to bring in the shy. There are innumerable benefits, but the one that springs to mind is how much feedback the users give us when provided with the opportunity. We have several items we’re working on that have come from user commentary and we’re pleased to be improving our games for the better.
DFC: According to the Korea Communications Commission, 65.7% of Koreans use social networking sites. For those in their 20s, the figure is 89%. Despite such strong penetration, we get the feeling that Korean companies are not so quick to market via social networks compared to traditional media. Why is that?
Jamie: At first, it was just more effective if we advertised in famous portals, game oriented community sites and PC cafes, however, the rate of integrating SNS marketing with traditional methods is increasing everyday at a rapid rate.
Korean companies may not be taking advantage of the rise in social networking for the same reason companies in North America are sluggish in picking up the trend: there’s still doubt, even considering the evidence, that social networking is a power that will remain strong in the coming years. We can’t say why other companies would give up such a rare opportunity for fantastic marketing to a broad and engaging audience, but perhaps it is that like all things that are new it is foreign to them. We have found that not just anyone can jump onto Facebook and effectively communicate with our players there. It takes an understanding of why they are there and what sort of communication they are looking for. What makes them read more posts and what makes them unfriend/de-list? Learning the needs, wants and behaviors of the community is very important to a good social networking campaign.
DFC: How much of a cultural hurdle has it been to market via social networks outside of Korea?
Jamie: The biggest hurdle in regards to culture isn’t moving from Korea to North America – it’s how to address an international community who speaks a hundred different languages, all playing the English version of our games. We always take care to craft a message easily understood while being both entertaining and informative.
DFC: Based on your current experience with social networks, when and how do you expect to leverage that experience back in South Korea?
Jamie: We don’t have a specific date or deadline for when we want to take our social networking site experiences into our other regions. Every day is a learning experience and the more seasoned we become in representing our message, the better we can serve our players when we do launch a more aggressive social networking campaign for our Korean titles.
DFC: Where does Joymax fit within the European market? Which of your products are popular there, and which countries are you strongest in, and why?
Jamie: Joymax’s Silkroad is already very popular in European regions including Turkey and Germany. It’s even doing very well in the Arabic regions where most games find it hard to be successful due to the language barriers and several restrictions. As soon as we noticed the demand in these countries, we responded with localized languages and game content as quickly as possible. European markets are more sensitive to language localization and it’s obvious that players are more comfortable when everything is in their native language. The North American market is a bit easier because it is a large market with the primary language being English.
DFC: Why has Joymax been so successful in Turkey? What was the spark that made that success possible?
Jamie: Language localization would be the first reason for the success. As mentioned earlier, Joymax’s Silkroad is serviced in four different languages: English, Turkish, Spanish and Arabic. All the marketing we do has also been done in these localized languages so we have really made an effort to communicate with the players.
DFC: How can you leverage your success in Turkey to grow your business in the region?
Jamie: As we are doing in North America, we will put more effort on improving Joymax’s direct communication with players in Turkey, via social networking sites. Communicating with users back and forth is very important and a lot more effective than one-sided communication. We will not only use this method to notify players with information, provide events and give out rewards, but also to listen and apply suggestions to let players feel that they are part of the process.
DFC: Silk Road Online, and Changchun Online feature some Chinese cultural inspiration. How successful have these titles been in China?
Jamie: Silkroad Online, has some Chinese influence but it’s not all Chinese. This game bears the historical background of Silkroad, an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe. This historical background is very interesting for players from all around the world and this is probably why it’s even more popular in European regions than in China. Changchun Online is an eastern fantasy MMO, featuring a lot of Chinese cultural inspiration. Its background is the Three Kingdoms, a very popular story of Chinese history. Changchun is the most popular of our games in Taiwan at the moment.
DFC: How big a consideration is the Chinese market to Joymax, and what are the challenges in serving that market?
Jamie: One major challenge is that a publisher cannot operate a game directly in China but must work through a Chinese partner.
DFC: Which are your top markets according to revenue?
Jamie: Our top markets are Korea, Turkey The Middle East, the U.S., and Latin America.
DFC: What international markets are at the top of your list for expansion, and why?
Jamie: When taking our games outside of Korea, we are looking to bring them to the U.S., the Middle East, Turkey and Spanish Language Markets. It is in those territories and those languages that we have found the most success and built the biggest communities surrounding our games.
DFC: How do you go about localizing your titles in new markets? Do you prefer to perform localization internally, or work with regional partners?
Jamie: We take into consideration a lot of factors. First is choosing which titles we want to bring to a wider audience. Then we need to consider balancing the game for a new audience and how we want to create a PR approach to the game. Some regions will require local partnerships for a better marketing result. We currently have IDC in North America and Korea, but we’re also looking into having another in the European region so we can provide even better connections worldwide.
DFC: You operate two Silkroad Online servers dedicated to Latin America: Aztec and Maya. How well have players of the game there embraced these servers?
Jamie: The Latin American market is of course very attractive, but very challenging at the same time. Of all countries in Latin American regions, Brazil seems to show the biggest potential. The Latin American market is still in its beginning stage of adopting online games, however, the growth rate is remarkable every year. Joymax has been striving for early adoption of its games in the Latin American market and we will continue putting a great deal of effort into building our gaming communities there.
DFC: What must publishers like Joymax do differently in Latin America to be successful there?
Jamie: Many Asian publishers would go through many more struggles if they entered Latin American market first. Joymax has its own global direct service platform which helped in successfully opening our game to Latin American users. Still, Latin America is a financially challenging area because of the high cost in marketing and applying payment services.
DFC: How many active users does SRO have worldwide?
Jamie: SRO has over 700,000 monthly active users worldwide.
DFC: Does Joymax have aspirations for becoming a big player in mobile phone titles for iOS and Android?
Jamie: We are always looking to expand our business and reach our players through as many platforms as possible – Browser, Facebook, Twitter, iOS, Android, etc. – however, our core business model will always be to focus on free-toplay online games.
DFC: How is it that your Global Service Center ended up in the Philippines? What are the benefits, and how many calls does the center handle in a year?
Jamie: Our games are played by people all over the world, so our customer support center could have been located just about anywhere in the world. The Philippines happened to be a good economical decision for us, and so far, it has been working well for us and we are continuing to build and grow our customer support efforts there. We currently offer Multilingual Mailing Service, FAQ Management, 24 Hour Web monitoring, Forum Moderation, Minor Translations and Game/ Billing/Account Assistance.
DFC: What are the challenges of servicing customers well around the world?
Jamie: There are always challenges when dealing with customers around the world. Different customers have different needs so it is important that we learn what our customers need from us and have the correct personnel in place to give them what they need. The most important thing we can do with our customers is communicating with them as much as possible. We have people available 24 hours a day to provide support for our players and we are strengthening that support every day. It is something we are very proud of and are working very hard on right now.
