hen asked what the most popular Web activity is, most people probably wouldn't think of online gaming. It doesn't get the press coverage that social networks and online video does, yet it's emerged as a powerful business model with multiple streams of income.
The press coverage of social networks would make you think they were the leading online activity, but in comparison to online gaming and watching video, it's a distant third, drawing 19 percent of U.S. weekly visits. For online gaming, it clobbers social networks with 34 percent of U.S. users visiting gaming sites once a week. Viewing online video comes in at 29 percent watching online video weekly, far outperforming social network visits.
“Despite the growing popularity of YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, gaming remains the king of online entertainment, driven largely by casual gaming activities,” said James Kuai, a research analyst at Parks Associates. “Gaming also has business advantages. Unlike sites for social networking and video streaming, which rely solely on advertising revenue, casual gaming has more mature and heterogeneous revenue models, including web-based and in-game advertising, try-before-you-buy, subscriptions, and micro-transactions.”
For growth rates, it does show that online gaming companies will have to be careful, as video streaming grew by a large 123 percent last year, while gaming increased by 79 percent, showing it could start to draw people away from gaming. Social networks on the other hand, only grew by 46 percent.
It just shows you have to look at facts and results, not hype and talk when understanding what's really happening in the online business world.
While I've known online gaming was the number one activity of middle-aged women, I didn't know gaming overall was such a powerhouse over the other entertainment activities also.
When you look at the way they have developed their online business models and the different ways they monetize their entertainment, it's definitely worth looking at some of the gaming companies and seeing how you can integrate things they're doing into your online business.
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