CASE STUDY #1) Gaming market in LatAm (10/20 of the final grade) From: https://blog.boacompra.com/online-gaming-in-latam-market-stats/ There is no debate about the gaming industry's tremendous growth over the last decade. Fast connections, the evolution of graphic design, and a massive fanbase created the environment for it to become a substantial sector - especially in regions like Latin America, which is seen as a key market for companies. The pandemic played a significant role in accelerating online gaming in Latam; a study released by Newzoo predicted an increase of 10% in live-streaming audiences in 2021 over the last year - reaching 728.8 million people. With COVID 19 and its social restrictions, people turned their time and attention to the screens in an attempt to disconnect from the outside world and engage socially with their peers. Online gaming in Latin America is a prosperous market. Even though Latin American countries are still on the road to build modern networks and provide a stable and fast internet connection to urban and rural places, around 58% of the online population are playing mobile games. A meaningful context to understand why and how this market is rising exponentially. With strict import laws and high prices for consoles and gaming PCs, the mobile game model finds a bigger audience and reaches a larger public. The segment already represents 48% of gaming revenue and projects to have over 351.9 million smartphone users in the region by the end of this year. With wider access to mobile devices and improved connectivity, this category is where gamers are more likely to spend money, and developers have more opportunities to acquire loyal and frequent users that become buyers. According to Headway Digital, the mobile gaming segment will take over 50 per cent of the market. Overall, the Latin American market is considered to have the most engaged amount of users, both male and female. Largely dominated by thefree-to-play business model, the Latam market has an organic way of creating a solid customer base, established with word-of-mouth, referral network, and search engines. With this new reality imposed by the pandemic, gaming is more democratic and also customer-centric. Every point of access with a company can create a loyal evangelist or make him look for another option. Especially when consumers are more aware of the type of experience they want to have and experts about online purchasing. A scenario that combined with Latin America's different payment systems creates a challenging and yet prosperous market. In the next few years, all this potential is expected to grow quickly with the introduction of 5G and internet penetration rising across Latin America. Mobile devices are no longer expensive peripherals and have taken over all smartphones. Today, every cell phone is a video game and this democratizes the market in an unprecedented way. From: https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/overview-newzoos-gamer-segmentation-and-gamer-personas/ Newzoo's Gamer Segmentation and Personas The Ultimate Gamer "Gaming is in my DNA! There are few things I love more. I spend my free time and money on games." The Bargain Buyer "I enjoy playing high- quality games, preferably free-to-play or discounted titles. I will only spend on hardware when necessary." The Time Filler "I only game when I have time to spare or at social events. Mobile games are my go-to." The All-Round Enthusiast "I am interested in all forms of gaming, from playing to watching and everything in between." The Hardware Enthusiast "I am always following the latest hardware news and trends. Whether it's for work or play, I want an optimized experience." The Backseat Viewer "I used to game a lot. Whenever I watch a big esports event and watch others playing games, that passion is reignited." The Community Gamer "If it's game-related, I'm there! News, videos, podcasts, forums, games-I love it all. And I'll never shy away from a community discussion!" The Popcorn Gamer "Playing video games may not be my favorite hobby. but I definitely enjoy watching others play." The Lapsed Gamer "Back in the day I used to game a lot, but my time became more limited when I started working and I gave priority to other interests over gaming." From: https://labsnews.com/en/articles/technology/who-plays-video-games-in-brazil/ Since 2013, Pesquisa Games Brasil (PGB) has been outlining the Brazilian gamer's profile. Besides continuing this work, the 2021 edition, published this week, sheds light on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in a sector that, due to its characteristics, had everything to gain projection at a time like this - and it did. Due to a coincidence of dates, the 2021's PGB obtained an accurate picture of the pandemic impact on Brazil's gaming industry. "Last year, we conducted [the survey] in February, so we had the behavior before the pandemic," explains Carlos Eduardo da Silva, responsible for organizing the PGB research. "Now, we did the research in that same period, in February 2021, so we were able to have an accurate picture of how much this consumption really increased. The public, in general, is the same as last year, but now people are spending more time at home, working from home, with more time available. Consequently, we had an increase in playing time," explains Carlos. Two thirds (75.8%) of the interviewed players said they had increased the time they spend playing games during isolation periods. Almost half (42.2%) said they were spending more money on digital games in the same period as well. Trends that defy common sense and that had already been detected in previous editions, such as the strong female presence (the majority, or 51.5% of gamers, are women) and the democratizing role of cell phones (the leading platform in preference, with 41.6%), remained. In the 2020 edition, for example, women accounted for 53.8% of the total of gamers and cell phones was the favored platform for 52% of gamers. 62.2% of female gamers in Brazil play games on their cell phones. In consoles and computers, this proportion is reversed: men are still the majority using these devices, 61.9% and 59.6%, respectively. Another group strengthened by the mobile rise in the gaming industry is composed of less affluent classes, people from classes C (with a family income between 4 to 10 minimum wages, today at BRL 1,100) and D (from 2 to 4 minimum wages) in Brazil. And this phenomenon is elementary: the entry barrier is lower with cell phones. They are cheaper than PCs and consoles. The survey found that 77.3% of players belong to classes B2 (people that earn up to 10 minimal wages a month), C, and D. These classes, which previously had no access through PCs and consoles, can now do so thanks to their cell phones. Carlos points out the technical advancement of cell phones and the huge base of potential users as the factors responsible for the greater attention that game producers have given to the devices, with investments in new titles, tournaments, and their promotion. Even competitive games, the so-called esports, which demand precision and quality impossible on mobile phones until recently, have surrendered to touch-sensitive screens. "Today, you have games and products that give you a good online experience. Fortnite, Free Fire, Among Us, all these games, which have been very successful in recent years, are also on mobile," recalls Carlos. Free Fire, which is exclusive to cell phones, is pointed out as an example to be followed: "An ecosystem has been created around it, of content creators, esports". The evolution of cell phones as gaming platforms has generated a curious effect: the so-called "hardcore" gamers, those who invest more and get used to playing on expensive consoles and PCs, are opening up space in their routines to play on their cell phones as well. "You have a casual audience [on cell phones], which is already a majority, and a hardcore audience, which is multiplatform. The latter continues to play on the console, on the PC but will embrace the phone as another platform. Thus, the cell phone will continue to grow in terms of revenue and consumption," says Carlos. This year, the PGB registered the players' ethnicity. It found that blacks and browns are the majority of the players (50.3%), which, according to the study, "makes evident the particularities of the Brazilian ethnic composition". Despite this, there is still a lack of representativeness - there are few black characters in electronic games. If, on the one hand, this audience is present, on the other hand, there is a lack of diversity in the game producers. Questions: HOWTOPLAY FREE FIRE SERVER Gamingonphone.com 10% FOR THE HHI CALCULATION MOBILE GAMING - BRAZIL IN 2021 40% 20% 30% FREE FIRE AMONG US FORTNITE MANY OTHERS 1) What are the main marketing internal and external factors to be taken into account for the expansion of the online gaming services? Why Latin America could consequently be considered an extremely fertile ground for online gaming in the next future? (1,5 point) 2) What is meant by "culture" in marketing, and what are its fundamental elements? Can you identify any specific distinctive cultural factor regarding Latin America starting from the articles? (2 points) 3) What is the difference between primary and secondary data, and what is the process of data collecting described in the articles? What could have been the possible alternatives? (1,5 point) 4) What are the specific Hofstede's model dimensions you would consider in order to optimise the social study of LatAm for online gaming, and why? (1,5 point) 5) Identify the complementary qualities of the "online gaming" product/service starting from the information indicated in this case study. From a marketing perspective, what are the specific elements to improve with respect to these complementary qualities? (2 points) 6) What is the Herfindahl-Hirschman index? Starting from the graph, calculate the HHI for Brazil in 2021 about mobile gaming titles. What can you say about this HHI result? (1,5 point)