Online games: how and with what are payments made in Russia?

In 2011 Russian online gaming market volume was $668 million. It is expected to reach $1 billion by 2013 according to industry experts. Below are results of a very interesting research conducted by Mail.ru - one of the biggest Russian gaming vendors.

If you are considering monetisation models for your project it will be useful to know how users prefer to make payments online and to offer them the most convenient method. At the same time it would also be good to make sure that users won't change their minds halfway: strange as it seems, this also depends on the payment channel used.

Using our data for all of our online games over the past few months, we have calculated how Mail.Ru Games users top up their accounts and what percentage of payments is made through certain payment channels. We also analysed the number of successful transactions for each channel.

It is common knowledge that the level of bank card penetration in Russia remains too low: for example, some 10% of funds received in online games were paid using bank cards. In addition, only 37 out of every 100 planned bank card payments made it to completion.

To give a brief summary for those readers who are too lazy to look at the month-by-month data: the stable trends can be more or less identified as terminals and cards. Almost half of payments in online games are made via terminals (automatic cash kiosks), but their overall share is gradually decreasing. On the other hand, the number of bank card payments, which currently sits at 10% of the total, is on the rise.

Mobile payments are very convenient but in this case the stumbling block is the commission taken by the mobile operator, which raises the price of a purchase by an average of 11-20%.

The results of this are clearly presented below:

This shows data for all users who clicked "Pay" and chose one or another payment channel. Even terminal payments have a much larger share of successful transactions than bank cards.

If you are thinking about the price of artefacts in a new game, our information on the demand for in-game items may be useful.

Our browser game Legend. Legacy of Dragons uses a free-to-play model: players do not pay for subscription but have the choice whether to earn currency in game or to deposit cash and save their time. Most frequently Legend players buy objects that stay with their character for the duration of the game:

Legend

• 24% of the total volume of transactions in Legend falls under goods for raising reputation
• 15% - mounts (animals)
• 14% - armour
• 9-15% (depending on gamer level) - supplies (one-off items which are used in battle or which raise a character's attributes)
• 6-8% - resources for completing quests

The distribution is different in client games. For example, in the foreign blockbuster Perfect World the spread looks as follows:

Perfect World

• 34% - item creation/upgrade
• 25% - chests containing unique rewards
• 19% - items for simplifying game process (inventory expansion, attribute reset, hammers for opening chests)
• 10% - easy levelling (Stones of Knowledge, amulets and idols)
• 9% - appearance + modes of travel
• 3% - socialising

And last but not least, the statistics for our home-developed Allods Online MMORPG:

Allods Online

• Runes that improve character's attack and defence stats on a constant basis: 26%
• Boxes containing unique rewards (mounts, talents etc.): 18%
• Items that increase experience, reputation, valour and loot: 15%
• Mounts, astral ships and portals: 7%
• Elixirs - special attack and defence potions that temporarily boost a character's stats: 5%

Now you hold all the cards – you know how users pay and what they pay for.

Happy monetising!

Evgeny Mikhno,
Mail.Ru Games Director of Operations