On December 16, Celadon Games was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with the stock code of 06633. HK, which became the first and probably the only game company to successfully go public this year.
As of the afternoon close, the share price of Celadon was HK$10.76 per share, and the market value of Celadon Games on the first day of listing was HK$7.3 billion.
Placed, Roguelike showed its might, and Celadon had a revenue of 1.264 billion yuan in the first half of this year
When it comes to celadon porcelain, I believe that most people's first reaction is the product "The Strongest Snail".
As one of the most representative products of Celadon Porcelain, "The Strongest Snail" has attracted a large number of players with its witty and funny style, and has also attracted the attention of the whole industry for the placement of this game category. According to the prospectus, since its official launch in June 2020, the game's first monthly turnover has exceeded 400 million yuan, and in 2020, it has achieved the second best-selling result in iOS best-seller list, and as of the end of June this year, the total revenue of this game has reached 1.688 billion yuan.
Founded in 2012, Celadon is a developer and publisher focused on mobile games, currently operating six games, Including The Strongest Snail, Lantern and Dungeon, Unthinkable Labyrinth, Ares Virus, Yugong Moving Mountain 3 and Endless Adventure, with the core vision of bringing exciting and fantastic experiences to players around the world through iconic and engaging games and content.
Through the accumulation of experience in a variety of products, Celadon has also summarized a set of ecological models that promote performance growth, that is, through systematic development methods and strong distribution and operation capabilities, it provides players with engaging content, attracts players and enhances their participation in the game, and enhances the influence of the game and the Celadon brand, thus forming a unique "Celadon Community". According to the prospectus, as of October 31, 2021, Celadon Games already has nearly 10.4 million Celadon iron fans, which are contacted through official accounts and social media platforms.
Under the unique ecological operation mode, several games of Celadon are deeply loved by young users, which has helped Celadon rise rapidly.
According to the latest prospectus of Celadon Porcelain, the revenue of Celadon in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was RMB98.42 million, RMB88.7 million and RMB1.226 billion respectively, while in the first half of 2021, the revenue of Celadon was ALZ 763 million yuan.
Behind the rapid revenue growth, it is naturally derived from the continuous development of its game products. In the first half of this year, the new products under the celadon system performed prominently, and the old products could also provide stable flow, which together formed an important pillar of performance growth.
According to the prospectus, in the first half of this year, "The Strongest Snail" performed strongly, with a half-year revenue of 516 million yuan, and another new tour, "Lanterns and Dungeons", also had outstanding results, with a half-year revenue of 229 million yuan. The remaining games are still making steady efforts, and the revenue in the first half of this year is 10.46 million yuan for "Unthinkable Labyrinth", 4.05 million yuan for "Ares Virus", 2.28 million yuan for "Endless Adventure", and 198,000 yuan for "Yugong Moving Mountain 3".
In terms of active users, several of Celadon's games have also performed very stable. For example, last year's popular "Strongest Snail", the average MAU reached 4.417 million, and there are still a large number of players in this game, and the number of users is very stable. For example, the prospectus shows that the average MAU for the six months until the end of June this year was 1.481 million, while the average MAU for the eight months until the end of August this year was 1.431 million, and the overall change was not much.
The launch of "Lanterns and Dungeons" in March this year will be very impressive, with an average MAU of 1.401 million in six months and an average MAU of 1.017 million in eight months.
It is worth noting that in addition to the two new products launched in the past two years, the user activity of several old products under the celadon is very stable, such as the average MAU of "Ares Virus" in 2020 is 424,000, and the average MAU as of the end of June 2020 and the end of August 2020 is 380,000 and 477,000, respectively, and even a certain increase.
In terms of major shareholders, in April this year, Gigabit issued an announcement that it would transfer 10.11% of the shares of Celadon Digital, and this transaction intends to transfer 3.37% of the shares to Tencent Venture Capital, Lingxi Interactive Entertainment and Phantom Electric Information respectively, and Celadon has also become the median game company in the industry that is not held by Tencent, Ali and B Station at the same time.
According to the prospectus released by Celadon in June this year, before the IPO, Gigabit, Tencent, Alibaba Lingxi and Station B held 23.10%, 3.37%, 3.37% and 3.37% of the equity respectively.
Product reserves are abundant, going to sea or becoming a new growth point
It is not difficult to find that so far, although Celadon has been established for nearly 9 years, there are not many game products launched, and it is mainly placed and Roguelike games. The prospectus also mentioned that the company is currently a bit too dependent on the product "The Strongest Snail", so it can also be seen that Celadon has increased its efforts to lay out more tracks and strengthen its own product line.
It is reported that Celadon has reserved 10 products, four of which are self-developed products, and a wide range of categories cover parkour, SLG, ACT, STG and ACT RPG.
For example, "Time Travel", which is expected to be launched in Q1 of 2022, is a Roguelike RPG game, which integrates and refines the gameplay of many classic strategy games, and the game has gained a version number.
Expected to be launched in Q3 2022, "Magic Project" is a brand new placement game, with a very distinctive natural and cute drawing style and a variety of team combinations, skills and equipment with strategic mechanisms, and the game has also received a version number.
In the Q2 quarter of 2022, Celadon will launch two games, one is the sequel RPG game "Ares Virus 2" and the other is ACT RPG "Knight Rush duck", which does not disclose much information at present.
In Q4 2022, Celadon will also launch a parkour game "Blade Heart 2", which adopts the traditional Chinese freehand ink style and improves the overall game performance based on the previous game, which has also received a version number.
In addition, Celadon also has two temporarily unnamed SLGs (one of which is a tower defense type), an STG, a casual game and an ACT game will be launched in the next two years.
It is worth mentioning that the above ten games will not only be launched in the Chinese mainland market, but also launched in overseas markets, so going to sea will also bring a new growth point to the performance of celadon porcelain.
In the prospectus, Celadon said that it is expected to launch the local versions of the above-mentioned games in 2022 and 2023, and will also be released in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States, and the specific target market, development progress, marketing strategy and performance of each game will be different.
In fact, "The Strongest Snail" has been launched in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, and has won the first place in the free list, the 5th best-seller iOS and the second place in Google Play respectively.
In the prospectus, it is also disclosed that "Lantern and Dungeon" and "The Strongest Snail" will take the lead, the former will be launched in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in Q2 2022, while the latter will be launched in the Japanese market at the same time period.
Judging from the description of the prospectus, Celadon in the overseas market should adopt a refined distribution and operation route, organically combine overseas local characteristics and culture with game content, so as to carry out localization transformation, win the recognition of more overseas users and break through the market.
Finally, according to the prospectus, as of June this year, the celadon development team has a total of 150 members, mainly for the design of new gameplay, original content and new product development, and optimization of existing game products, and another 115 members are mainly responsible for game operations and distribution.
The funds raised from the listing will be mainly used to expand the Group's game product portfolio and investment in game research and development capabilities and related technologies, expand the Group's business in overseas markets, strengthen the Group's game distribution and operation capabilities in the Chinese mobile game market, the Celadon brand and the Group's IP market awareness, and make strategic investments and acquisitions in the upstream and downstream companies of the mobile game industry chain in the next three to five years. Nowadays, Celadon has been successfully listed, and what kind of products will be launched in the future is worth looking forward to.
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