Not all Telegram video games want tokens says TonTon CEO Daniil Shcherbakov

Within the newest episode of the Blockchain Gaming World podcast, editor-in-chief Jon Jordan talks to Daniil Shcherbakov, the CEO of recent sport writer TonTon Video games.

Whereas Telegram continues to be in its early days by way of gaming and UA, Shcherbakov sees this as the start of a brand new doubtlessly enormous market.

We checked in with him to be taught extra about TonTon’s publishing technique, its flagship sport DRFT Get together, and which pitfalls to keep away from as a web3 sport startup.

Blockchaingamer: Give us some background into what you’ve been as much as in your profession?

Daniil Shcherbakov: I've been liable for launching Jap European startups on the Western market, particularly UK and US for over a decade now. For example, I launched advertising platform Radario on the US market and UK. We ended up being built-in as a white label into Eventbrite, the largest ticketing platform worldwide.

In 2021 I moved to the UK as a result of I used to be admitted into the College of Cambridge Choose Enterprise Faculty for the MBA program. I had the intention to get extra data on the right way to remodel from being a prime performing particular person contributor to a enterprise builder who is ready not simply to begin startups but in addition flip them into sustainable enterprises. 

I'm additionally a mentor in Barclays Eagle Labs throughout the UK and College of Cambridge London Faculty of Economics. It’s a ardour for me to share data. 

Mainly, being a writer of video games on Telegram is an ideal mix of what I really like. The business goes to develop and hopefully with the assistance of TonTon Video games, we’ll quickly have nice main titles on Telegram, not simply click-to-earn mechanics.

How was your transition from tech startups into gaming? 

You realize, as they are saying, it takes round 10 to twenty years for an in a single day success. It was an aha second for me. Being 32 proper now, I used to be too younger to participate within the app retailer revolution in 2008. I used to be truly nonetheless in class. The identical applies to the social video games revolution on Fb. 

This chance offered itself and I noticed that that is the start of a brand new doubtlessly large market, and I knew I had all of the data, in addition to a ton of failures. It’s not simply data that’s essential, however a notion of what to not do initially of a enterprise. 

I even have a community of nice mates who're in gaming, who've been within the sport growth business for ages, so I simply felt that it's the proper time to take a shot.

What's it that you simply assume Telegram as a platform is providing? 

I overtly admit that the rationale a majority of individuals are spending time enjoying gamified web3 experiences isn't as a result of they actually get pleasure from tapping on a display screen, however as a result of that is some type of playing that they wish to make investments their time in, with the anticipation of receiving extra. 

That is clearly not the appropriate intention for gaming. However Telegram claims it can quickly surpass the 1 billion month-to-month lively person mark, of which a tiny fraction are individuals enjoying web3 video games, so there is a gigantic alternative to develop and the market will develop with it. 

I consider we're simply initially and I don’t contemplate tap-to-earn clickers and a few of the shady schemes a few of these tokens attempt to do to be a defining second. I genuinely consider that when the mass viewers who actually doesn’t care about financial incentives discover a button in an interface, they are going to be eager to strive it out. Then relaxation is within the fingers of the builders. 

That is the funding thesis for TonTon Video games. We're not after short-term reward, however extra long-term incentives of making enjoying experiences which can be each fascinating for web2 and web3 audiences. I exploit the time period web2.5 – it’s when web3 elements are utilized to make the sport extra fascinating aside from to launch a token. 

I will provide you with a real-life instance. One among our flagship video games DRFT Get together, which is a merge-2 sport will quickly have an NFT assortment and as a way to get these NFTs you could trade tickets that you simply earn whereas enjoying DRFT Get together by way of your Telegram app. Later we're going to launch one other sport by which you should use your NFTs as automobile skins to model your automobile and be a part of the drag racing simulator. 

So with iteration after iteration, the video games turn into extra sophisticated than only a option to distribute a token. I consider that that is inevitable because the market matures.

Will web3 be a key component to that long-term sustainability in all of TonTon’s video games?

We don’t push all of our video games to have tokens. We consider that the sport ought to have an actual want for a token to be launched. We are attempting to place all that we've got on the desk for a step-by-step shift in the direction of extra actual video games, extra real experiences, than the issues we discover proper now available on the market. 

That is very sluggish, however we consider in a progress loop the place the market and the gamers mature with the video games themselves.

To be sincere, the best way I’m it, it’s just like the ICO market in 2017 or the dot-com disaster in early 2000s. There could be a disaster after which the businesses that actually make a distinction, like Google and Amazon, will survive and lead the market. We are attempting to challenge ourselves on this option to construct a sustainable enterprise with actual want as an alternative of simply going after financial rewards within the quick time period.

Other than the crypto stuff, how are you discovering Telegram mini-games by way of in-app buy economies? 

Let’s have a look at DRFT Get together, it was our first sport which we launched in August 2024, so it’s solely been available on the market for a couple of months. At present it generates 4 figures each day in income which is I consider a wholesome quantity.

Is it at Catizen stage? No, it isn't. However the guys did a terrific job and I didn’t actually see quite a lot of damaging sentiment concerning the TGE. Clearly, there have been some folks that had been upset, however general it was positively buzzing. 

Relating to the in-app monetization, we’re not pushing individuals to spend extra. DRFT Get together, we’re going to have an NFT launch, however we aren't making an attempt to place it in every single place within the utility. We're not making an attempt to push individuals to get the cash out of their pocket. 

In actual fact, we’re fairly proud that final month our sport obtained into the highest 10 grossing apps on Telegram, which is humorous as a result of our app has 1.2 million month-to-month lively customers, whereas all different apps round us have a minimum of 5 to 7 million. This additionally speaks to the truth that we are attempting to nurture our customers, to construct a sustainable enterprise. 

You’ve mentioned you’re getting dozens of firms approaching you on a weekly foundation. How are TonTon Video games approaching publishing? 

We don't develop any merchandise internally, and I consider we must always draw a high quality line between developer and a writer. 

Relating to how will we choose the tasks, for us you will need to have a correct web3 narrative for the sport. Not simply to say we’re gonna launch tokens. We wish to see groups which can be mature sufficient to not try to promote umbrellas underneath the rain, which is nice, however we're after a distinct factor. 

Tech-wise, it is vital that the sport is developed on HTML5 as an alternative of Unity. By way of design components, for those who see that the product is simply generated utilizing AI and chatGPT, for example Hamster Kombat, that’s positively not for us. 

For us it’s additionally essential to work with groups for a minimum of a couple of months and to listen to how they react to our suggestions. The assist we offer is not only about visitors and person acquisition, however our group consists of business veterans from gaming, we assist them with sport mechanics, with core sport loop. I additionally consider safety is essential. So for those who care about these issues it means you might be right here for the long term of the market. 

General, that method permits us to simply reject as much as 95% of video games that attain out to us. 

And talking of the genres that we're at present , I feel it has a resemblance within the subsequent DRFT sport of drag racing. We additionally consider that PvP video games like tower protection or mafia wars are within the subsequent circle to turn into fairly fashionable, and we have already got these within the portfolio. Video games like Subway Surfers, limitless runners, can even be fairly fashionable. 

It’s additionally price mentioning that it’s not sufficient to take a web2 sport, even a profitable web2 sport, and put it on Telegram and count on cash to develop on timber. There is no such thing as a viewers at present for that. It ought to have a correct, well-developed web3 narrative. With out it, individuals gained’t play it, a minimum of the individuals which can be enjoying now. 

General, the web3 viewers at present outweighs the informal gamers. However over time, and it'd occur in months if not weeks, this ratio will begin to change because of the huge adoption of Telegram. Then the web3 viewers gained’t be seen as a major viewers of Telegram, only a teeny fraction of the entire viewers.

By way of demographics, the place are your builders and gamers based mostly?

Most of our builders are situated both in Central Europe, Western Europe, or within the nations from Asia like Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Our pure focus is on firms from Europe and Asia.

By way of Asia, the place they can communicate Russian, we are able to talk with them in the identical language. After all, we are able to change to English when wanted. However let’s be actual, it's not possible to compete on the Chinese language market, not understanding the nuance, specifics and the tradition variations. 

As a writer, how does the UA and advertising facet of issues work on Telegram? 

Generally I really feel like a jack-of-all-trades to be sincere. As a result of the market is growing so quick, there are only a few good high quality advertising devices at present out there to drive visitors. 

Think about that you simply come to us and would really like us to publish your sport. You move by way of the filters and are glad with us. The primary choice we've got is so-called visitors from duties. So all of these large apps, they've a job board the place they are going to add a job for cash, let’s say to play this exterior sport. And it will carry you customers. 

At present you'll be able to get customers for between one to 6 cents into your app. We shouldn’t overlook that the motivation of these customers may be very totally different, they wish to get a foreign money or some type of development within the unique sport, not in yours. However that’s one avenue, and it’s clearly not automated. 

You agree and construct these relationships with totally different purposes manually. There are companies which can be making an attempt to try this, however under-the-hood they're doing precisely the identical factor, but in addition including a margin. There are additionally thirdparty advert exchanges and lots of others. 

By way of the platform itself, it’s within the very early levels of growth. Solely till just lately it was not possible to take away your utility from a promotion, so you possibly can see an advert in your personal sport in your personal sport. You would get visitors from that, however little or no focusing on choices. 

Then the third choice is launching the Telegram advertisements themselves. So that is an advert within the teams, within the chats, and that is additionally one thing customers is likely to be extra motivated to check. That is truly one in all two sources of buying customers that may have by no means heard about Telegram video games. That is about enlarging the funnel, and that is why I like this channel.

Final however not least it’s concerning the customers from different sources, whether or not it's Fb, Instagram, or TikTok. It is likely to be by way of advertisements themselves or viral content material, working with affect entrepreneurs and that stuff. 

At its core, launching a Telegram sport isn't very totally different from launching a cellular app or social sport since you’re going to make use of roughly the identical channels and instruments however merely quite a lot of the instruments should not that effectively developed. 

What number of video games are you seeking to publish by the tip of the 12 months? 

We plan to launch as much as 10 extra video games by the tip of the 12 months. We're additionally switching gears to focus extra on the tasks we have already got printed to begin understanding who're the highest performers, who're the center ones and who should not assembly the expectations. 

In a nutshell, the publishing enterprise isn't far totally different from enterprise capital, the place even the highest tier VCs are dropping as much as half of their investments. 

Proper now we've got principally redeveloped the analytics platform based mostly on Google Looker studio, however nonetheless there isn't a out-of-the-box resolution for analytics. We have now began to meticulously test the metrics lifetime worth, the retention price of the primary 7 to 30 days. We're getting very deep into the info, letting it drive our selections, whether or not it's advertising, publishing, or person acquisition.

Are you able to give us any tough metrics round retention? 

That is what we see; for those who discover a terrific viewers who're genuinely enjoying your sport, your consideration could be larger than within the cellular market, as a result of it's simpler to play and other people spend far more time utilizing Telegram or another messenger than a single sport. 

If we're speaking about simply Webstream lovers seeking to get one thing in return, the retention charges are very poor and that is principally the hen and egg drawback. Methods to successfully and fairly quick discover the viewers that may actually get pleasure from your sport, maybe for a financial reward on the finish, however with out it being their sole motivator? That is why we're getting so deep and constructing our inner analytics platform so as to have the ability to section to have the ability to evaluate the audiences.

At present we're in talks with a couple of automobile web sites to attempt to promote DRFT Get together there, and on the identical time we attempt to promote the sport for crypto wallets. These are very totally different audiences. They don't have anything in widespread. 

However that is how I consider startups fail, it’s not when they're out of cash or when founders are inexperienced, however once they run out of speculation to check. And gosh, I‘ll inform you, we've got a ton in our backlog.

Discover out extra by way of the TonTon Video games web site.

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