Winning the game

The company expects by then that revenue from the overseas market will be 70 per cent of total revenue, which is expected to reach Bt300 million.

Chanin Wanijwongse, chief marketing officer of CyberPlanet Group, said the company realised that the local market is too small for the game industry, due to the strength of pirated game software and the large number of consumers that prefer not to pay for games. The company therefore intended to expand overseas, especially to high-consumption countries such as China, European countries, and the United States.

The company has adjusted its business model from concentrating on developing strategic PC games for online players and games for mobile devices to focus on developing console games.

Its strategy is to develop games for Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation II devices, of which there are millions in use worldwide. The company is an authorised game developer for Nintendo DS and has a licence to develop games for the Sony PlayStation II.

Last year, the company entered the global market by selling console games to some countries in Europe, the US and Singapore. It supplied six game titles for Nintendo DS and 10 other titles for Sony PlayStation II. The revenue from these games represents 10 per cent of its total revenue, expected to reach Bt90 million.

The remaining 90 per cent is from the local market, which is divided into two parts - PC games 70 per cent, and mobile games 20 per cent.

Chanin said this year the firm aims to supply 10 game titles for Nintendo DS and 15 game titles for Sony PlayStation II. It will be the first move by the company into the global console-game industry.

The company targets to generate Bt130 million to Bt140 million as total revenue in 2007, with around 30 per cent coming from exports and 70 per cent from the local market. Of total revenue, around 20 per cent is from console games, 15 per cent is from mobile games, and 65 to 70 per cent is PC-game revenue.

"This year, our focus remains on the local market because we entered the global market just last year. Revenue from the global market will increase continuously. We aim to have 80 per cent of revenue from the global market by 2009," said Chanin.

The company also plans to expand its business model to become an application service provider to provide casual PC games and utilities through the easy-to-use Launcher Platform. Launcher Platform is a concept to give PC users easy access to casual games and utilities applications developed by the company. It includes the attractive icons from its famous Bongga Bongga animation characters.

The company plans to distribute the Bongga Bongga Launcher to overseas markets through its business partners' representative offices. It hopes the new platform for accessing applications will generate 10 per cent of total revenue for the company this year.

It will also distribute its casual games through popular websites such as yahoo.com and ralarcade.com. The company also plans to list on the Stock Exchange in the next couple of years.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation