Among the board game companies, Hometown Interactive is an invisible boss who has not attracted much attention.

Hometown Interactive's operating income has been growing for 4 consecutive years, and its revenue in 2023 will reach 1.78 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.9%. This revenue growth has been achieved in the context of weakened promotion efforts. In 2023, its sales and marketing expenses will be 340 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 37.4%. It seems that hometown interaction is taking a path of natural growth.

After reducing the advertising efforts, Hometown Interactive tried more and more effective means to harvest traffic, such as WeChat mini programs.

According to QuestMobile, Hometown Interactive and its parent company, Yutai Network, ranked 5th and 10th respectively in the proportion of mobile game enterprise traffic in February 2024. The representative games of the two companies, "Weile Hometown Mahjong" and "Weile Egg", are also one of the few games that mainly rely on WeChat mini program traffic to make the list (the rest is a casual game "Sheep").

Since its IPO in 2019, Hometown Interactive has gradually moved away from the key card business, and its anxiety about revenue has prompted it to pay attention to every opportunity sensitively. From the Douyin live broadcast purchase volume in the first two years to the mini program platform later, Hometown Interactive has not missed the opportunity that should be seized. Even the company has developed business directions such as casual games, SLG, and indie games, and is thinking about how to promote the revenue structure in a healthier direction.

4 chess and cards are entrenched in the waist of the best-selling list

Recently, on the best-selling list of WeChat mini games, there are 8 chess and card games that are often ranked within 100, of which 4 are hometown interactive products. Although the ranking is not so high, Tencent's "Happy Landlord" and Wingfeng's "Sparrow God Guangdong Mahjong" basically occupy the top two with TOP30, but the 4 games of Hometown Interactive are entrenched in the waist of the list of 30~70, which is also a good result on the whole.

The recruitment information of the affiliated company of Hometown Interactive mentions that if calculated according to the number of games, the chess and card games under the group can rank first in China. If with the diversion of a large number of local chess and card versions, it is not difficult to understand that Hometown Interactive has quietly achieved revenue growth.

Judging from the ranking of the iOS best-selling list, the only ones that could enter the TOP200 of the best-selling list last year were "Weile Fighting Landlord" and "Weile Hometown Mahjong". And they are all outside the top 100, having both declined in the past year. Compared with the stable ranking of the Mini Program version, it seems that WeChat Mini Games have become a battlefield that chess and card games pay more attention to.

In 2022, live streaming has become a new opportunity for chess and card games, and hometown interaction will naturally participate in the competition. But in the follow-up long-term competition, Hometown Interactive did not choose to fight Douyin.

Compared with the live broadcast with the play list in the same time period, it can be found that Hometown Interactive (Weile Game) has obvious advantages in the WeChat video account, and on Douyin, it needs to compete with companies such as Zen Tour, Tuyou, and Duole Games. It should be noted that there are still many medium and heavy mobile games on the Douyin platform that participate in live broadcast purchases, and on the video number platform, hometown interactive chess and card games can directly rank at the top of the overall list.

Moreover, the live broadcast of Channels has the advantage of shorter drainage links. iOS users who watch live broadcasts on Douyin will be directed to the APP version, and on Channels, they will directly enter the Mini Program version, which is probably the advantage of the current live broadcast purchase volume of Channels.

According to QuestMobile, the top 15 chess and card games that can be ranked in the monthly active list in February this year are "JJ Mahjong" (3.21 million), "JJ Chess" (1.41 million) and "Mango Fighting Landlord" (1.19 million). Due to the platform's review regulations, many popular chess and card games have not been able to list the mini program version on Douyin, which highlights the opportunity for the video account.

Of course, Hometown Interactive has not given up the accumulation on the Douyin platform, but is trying other ways to tap the value of traffic. For example, relying on events or KOLs to expand the coverage of the game.

In the live broadcast operation of chess and card games, the event is the official main content. As of the first half of last year, Hometown Interactive has set up 10 event accounts on Douyin and another 6 event accounts on other live streaming platforms to help increase brand exposure. Taking "Weile Sichuan Mahjong" as an example, this game is operated through the new media account "Mahjong Research Institute", which expands the user coverage through the number of talents.

Starting in 2023, Hometown Interactive will operate its own social media account "CML Mind Competition" to further expand the influence of "Weile Sichuan Mahjong" and "Weile Hometown Mahjong" through the event. Last year, Weile Games became a competitive mahjong examination platform jointly designated by the International Mahjong Federation and the Hangzhou Branch of the China Chess Academy, and cooperated to hold the Global Mind Sports Promotion Tournament and the "Taobao Live Cup" National Competitive Mahjong Star Challenge, etc., to further deepen the operation of the event.

A live stream of the "CML Quiz Tournament".

In addition to Douyin Kuaishou, super apps such as Taobao have also become one of the options for live broadcast of events. This year, CML Championship held the Spring Tournament of the Global Mahjong Champions League, dividing the audience according to the magnitude of the event, choosing to broadcast the First Division on Douyin account, and the Second Division on Channels, Taobao Live and Kuaishou.

Similarly, last year's Champions Cup annual finals of JJ Mahjong, a competitor, were also broadcast live on Douyin, Taobao and other platforms. The competition between chess and card games has gradually spread from Douyin to other platforms.

Hometown Interactive has no obsession with Douyin live broadcast. Also in order to expand the coverage of the audience, Hometown Interactive did not increase its efforts to expand the matrix of small and medium-sized anchors, but tried to break the circle through the head KOLs.

In the early days, Hometown Interactive did not rely so much on signing talents, and it was not until October 2022 that Hometown Interactive launched its own MCN business after the establishment of a subsidiary, Weiying Interactive. According to public information, the live broadcast base of Weiying Interactive has a site of more than 10,000 square meters, more than 200 employees, and more than 200 offline live broadcast rooms.

In addition to signing live broadcast talents, Weiying Interactive has also signed a number of KOLs, which are not limited to the field of chess and card games. For example, singer Feng Timo, "Glory of Kings" professional player AG Mengxi, "Golden Shovel Battle" expert general Pan Feng, "League of Legends Mobile Game" talent nickname Da Intelligent, etc., all have a certain amount of audience accumulation.

These top anchors can help hometown interaction expand the audience circle. For example, Feng Timo previously had a huge fan base, and has accumulated more than 30 million fans since signing in August last year. Its live broadcast rhythm is singing at noon and games at night, and there is no lack of volume for "Weile Fighting Landlord" in the game link.

After absorbing several top anchors, Hometown Interactive's expectations for the MCN business are not just live broadcast purchases.

According to the financial report, this part of the business will also directly connect with the products of other game companies and provide intermodal transportation or distribution business. The official account of Weiying Interactive has successively released several anchor recruitment orders, covering "High Energy Hero", "Valorant", "Battle of the Golden Shovel", and "Planet: Reboot". Hometown Interactive believes that the potential of this sector is expected to bring incremental performance.

So far, live streaming is still a promotion method that cannot be ignored. Hometown Interaction does not pursue short-term outbreaks so much, rather than directly smashing the volume with a large price, it is better to avoid head-to-head confrontation and choose an emerging track to tap traffic.

Spin-off of chess and non-chess businesses

In addition to the stable development of chess and card business, non-chess and card business has gradually received the attention of hometown interaction.

In January this year, the group established a new company entity, Shenzhen Hometown Future, and transferred the rights and interests of four shareholding companies engaged in non-chess and card business to Hometown Future. According to the company's announcement, Hometown Interactive hopes to use this to spin off the board game business and non-board game business. After the new contract comes into effect, the vast majority of non-board game revenue will come from the future of Shenzhen's hometown.

At present, Hometown Interactive divides its revenue sources into self-developed mobile game revenue, third-party mobile game revenue and advertising revenue in its financial report. Maybe after the growth of the non-chess and card business, the division will become more detailed.

Nowadays, in terms of self-developed business, Hometown Interactive has been trying the leisure category. The casual tower defense game Meet Meows is the first step. This game got the version number in 2021, and after its domestic launch in 2023, it ranked 124th on the iOS best-selling list, and then its revenue fell rapidly. After years of preparation, the game still didn't succeed.

Hometown Interactive also exposed the new product "Home: Dream Party", which is now available for pre-order on TapTap. According to the official introduction, this game integrates social gameplay such as simulation management and SLG. "Home: Dream Party" has been in development for three years, and it is likely that Hometown Interactive will regard it as a casual SLG and participate in SLG's track competition.

In addition to self-developed mobile games, Hometown Interactive has also had a lot of enthusiasm for independent games in recent years. In 2022, Hometown Interactive has successively invested in independent game developer Shanghai Yanxing Network (representative work "Babel Hitchhiker's Guide") and independent game publisher Shenzhen Yaozuo Technology (Independent Ark).

After the foreshadowing, the hometown interaction secretly ended up in person. Hometown Interactive is associated with independent game publisher Archive Games, which released a card-building game similar to Slay the Spire, The Theseus Protocol, which last year received only 67% positive reviews on Steam. The developer of this game is suspected to be a related subsidiary of Hometown Interactive, Keytang (Xiamen) Network, which may be a self-developed product of the group.

In addition, in terms of mobile game agency income, Hometown Interactive once achieved rapid growth through mini games. In 2022, the revenue of third-party games of Hometown Interactive will rise from less than 40 million yuan to 184 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 363%, and the main products include "The Legend of Beauty" and "National Scholars". Among them, "National Learning" was selected as a creative mini game by WeChat Mini Games at the end of 2021, and it is still hovering between 40~80 on the best-selling list of mini games.

However, the revenue of third-party games did not maintain growth, falling 21% year-on-year to 145 million yuan last year. In addition to the group's main body of the company, Hometown Interactive, Guangzhou Keyyang, and Weile Star, the holding company Youcheng Interactive (40%, which was once the main operator of the "National Learner" mini game) has also issued a number of mini game products, hoping to keep the agency income stable in the income level.

Among these products, there are categories that are relatively familiar to hometown interaction, such as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "National Scholars" both belong to the simulation business category, and the audience groups of the two should be very similar. There are also some categories that are hot in the market, such as "King of the Gods", "Jungle Bird Adventure", "Me and My Heavenly Palace", etc., all of which adopt the unboxing gameplay and rely on packaging to make differentiation.

After several years of business accumulation, the chess and card business of Hometown Interactive is deep enough, and it also has the spare strength to develop different business tracks. Although it is not clear how much impact the non-chess and card business has on the company's operation for the time being, it will at least make the revenue structure appear healthier.

epilogue

So far, hometown interaction is still known for local chess and cards, but there are still many things I want to do behind the scenes.

For example, chess and cards go to sea. The first overseas target of Hometown Interactive is the Southeast Asian market. In 2022, Hometown Interactive launched the fishing game "Fishing Game Zone" overseas, but it has not improved. Until November 2023, this game began to enter the TOP200 iOS best-selling list in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia, and Hometown Interactive's overseas business has shown signs of growth.

In the past year, the test products have also focused on the Southeast Asian market, including "Tongits Show" and "Tongits Tara" for the Philippine rummy card game Tong-its, and "Dummy Party" for the Texas Hold'em game tested in the Thai market.

After that, Hometown Interactive probably also plans to enter the chess and card markets in other regions. According to public information on the Internet, the affiliated companies of Hometown Interactive have opened a number of positions related to ACG Japanese mahjong, and it is estimated that they are interested in exploring the Japanese market.

Hometown Interactive has developed a number of new business directions, and perhaps the company's positioning in the future will no longer be limited to "chess and card bosses".