In the fast-growing global mobile gaming market, global expansion faces multiple challenges including market saturation, soaring investment costs and intensifying competition. Among them, mini-games, with their inherent advantages of "lightweight design and high virality", are emerging as a new growth frontier for Chinese game global expansion. On June 26, the "LinkStart Salon: Breakthrough and Growth for Game Global Expansion in Emerging Markets", co-hosted by eclicktech’s two business brands Cyberklick and Yeahmobi, and joined by partners including Google, BeesAds, AppGrowing and Tencent Cloud, concluded successfully in Chengdu.

The event attracted game developers, industry practitioners and authoritative media from across China, who gathered to explore a new blueprint for global mini-game growth and embark on the next chapter of Chinese game global expansion together.

01 Breaking Industry Dilemmas: Focus on Hybrid Monetization

In recent years, the global mobile game market has seen slowing growth, with user acquisition costs continuing to rise. Faced with challenges including difficult user acquisition, low retention and market saturation, mini-game global expansion urgently needs to break away from reliance on "single monetization" and move towards more diverse and composite revenue models.

Against this backdrop, Yang Xi, Mobile App & Gaming Industry Manager at Google Ads Greater China New Client Department, pointed out that the global casual game market is entering a new phase of transformation from "single monetization" to "hybrid gameplay + diversified revenue". Developers should integrate IAA (in-app advertising) and IAP (in-app purchase) into their product structures to achieve comprehensive improvements in user retention, lifetime value and profit margins.

She emphasized that the "lightness" of mini-games does not equal "short lifecycle". By designing game loops with "acquisition-consumption" resource cycles, streamlined yet engaging story structures, and enhanced visual icons and interactive feedback, lightweight gameplay can equally support long-term retention and high user stickiness.

Kasty, Senior Brand Operations Manager at eclicktech’s Yeahmobi, shared that hybrid casual games are becoming the new market growth engine. According to statistics, IAP revenue of hybrid casual games grew 37% year-on-year in 2024, demonstrating strong commercial growth potential.

By combining lightweight operations with immersive gameplay experiences, plus exquisitely designed tiered reward mechanisms, hybrid casual games continuously expand gameplay boundaries, successfully attracting a broader range of casual users while extending user in-app lifetime.

Kasty also provided an in-depth analysis of Twitch platform strategies: "New traffic goldmines for game global expansion have quietly emerged." She emphasized that Twitch gathers a large number of young, high-paying and highly interactive core gaming users, making it an ideal platform for mini-game global expansion to achieve brand exposure and immersive marketing. Through live streaming ecosystems and native content formats, combined with precise targeting of gaming users, developers can quickly drive traffic and achieve subsequent conversions.

02 Breaking Traffic Bottlenecks: AI Reshapes Content Growth Engines

As the number of mini-game global expansion developers continues to rise, traffic competition has become increasingly fierce, and surging user acquisition costs have become an unavoidable pain point for enterprises.

Tang Zhilong, Key Account Manager at AppGrowing, stated: "AI-generated user acquisition creatives have become the preferred efficiency improvement model for many advertisers." Leveraging AI’s efficient generation capabilities not only significantly shortens production cycles and reduces delivery costs but also opens up more possibilities for creative expression. An increasing number of casual game developers are trying to combine "AI storytelling + plot interpretation + choice-based interaction" to create more immersive reverse-engineering creatives, breaking away from generic template styles, enhancing user perception and memorability, and achieving viral content dissemination.

Ted, Senior Business Manager for Overseas Pan-Entertainment at eclicktech Cyberklick, shared the "three-step strategy for mini-game global expansion", focusing on three key words: Speed, Depth, Breadth.

• Speed refers to market insight and entry speed—quickly identifying potential markets, accurately targeting users, and seizing first-mover advantages;

• Depth emphasizes refined polishing for target markets, including product adaptation, user acquisition strategy optimization, in-depth localized content, and continuous refined operations investment;

• Breadth means relying on strong overseas distribution capabilities, integrating self-developed or licensed product resources, conducting large-scale testing and delivery, and deploying a comprehensive user acquisition strategy through batch distribution to achieve breakthrough growth.

03 From User Acquisition to Monetization: A Full-Chain Efficiency Revolution

At the roundtable forum themed "From User Acquisition to Monetization: A Full-Chain Efficiency Revolution", moderator Leo, Senior Business Manager for Overseas Pan-Entertainment at Cyberklick, invited four guests to conduct in-depth discussions on growth paths and efficiency improvement strategies for game global expansion.

Yang Xi, Key Account Manager at Google Ads, analyzed how to find traffic goldmines in emerging markets from three dimensions: "People, Product, Place":

• People: Pre-emptively deploy data collection to accurately target potential audiences;

• Product: Encourage the adoption of IAP+IAA hybrid monetization models, focusing on product form innovation and localization;

• Place: Break away from reliance on traditional Tier 1 markets and find the balance between cost and revenue from a global perspective.

Kasty, Senior Brand Operations Manager at Yeahmobi, shared applications of AI in advertising creatives and game operations, such as generating personalized storylines based on user behavior and automated creative generation. These methods not only improve delivery efficiency but also optimize user experience, achieving dual efficiency gains from user acquisition to monetization.

Facing the growing App-to-Web monetization trend, Mona, H5 Monetization Business Lead at BeesAds, believes that the key to ensuring ecosystem stability lies in content relevance and deep scenario integration: Web content should match user interests, and embedded designs should serve game tasks and reward scenarios, avoiding abrupt jumps. Through differentiated content and reasonable interactive design, developers can extend user dwell time and enhance monetization capabilities.

Liu Weixing, Director of Pan-Internet Industry Solutions at Tencent Cloud, pointed out that AI has been deeply embedded in all aspects of game global expansion, including game art asset generation (such as 3D character creation, skin smoothing and skirt animation), game marketing asset generation (such as image and video translation), localized content generation, NPC creation and intelligent customer service. AI effectively reduces labor costs, improves development and operational efficiency, and builds an "automation engine" for game products going global.

As an active promoter of game global expansion, eclicktech has always been committed to providing comprehensive support for developers. Looking ahead, we will continue to hold high-quality industry exchange events to promote knowledge sharing and resource matching, while launching more precise customized consulting services to help Chinese game enterprises expand steadily overseas and jointly explore new global opportunities.