Tencent wants to assist the listing of "Vietnam Little Tencent": to the explosive game agent, the half-month turnover exceeded 30 million

For Chinese game companies, the Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Southeast Asian markets can be said to be an important first step for games to go global. These markets are not only culturally similar, but also have relatively low policy thresholds and common language environments, attracting many Chinese game companies to explore to test the playability and profitability of games.

Tencent is no exception. In the past few years, Tencent has typically handed over the distribution of its games in relevant markets to its long-term SEA-owned game brand Garena. With products such as Free Fire, Garena has a deep accumulation of distribution resources and experience in the Southeast Asian market.

However, GameLook recently found that Tencent chose Vietnamese game publisher VNG instead of Garena, a mobile game product independently developed by TiMi Studio, licensed by SNK and independently developed by TiMi Studio, in eight markets, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and some Southeast Asian countries.

You know, as early as the first half of this year, "Metal Sluggish: Awakening" quickly showed its strong ability to absorb gold after its domestic listing, and it is estimated that the turnover in the first month successfully exceeded 100 million. Combined with the influential IP of "Metal Slug", "Metal Sluggish: Awakening" will not be bad as long as it is properly released overseas.

In fact, according to data from third-party platforms, in more than half a month since VNG's release, the total turnover of the "Metal Slug: Awakening" game exceeded 30 million yuan, and the maximum daily turnover reached 3 million yuan, which is currently stable at about 2 million yuan.

Regarding Tencent's choice of VNG to release "Metal Slugg: Awakening" instead of Garena, in GameLook's view, there may be two main reasons.

On the one hand, it is currently in a critical stage of VNG's US stock listing, and Tencent, as the company's largest shareholder, also needs to help VNG go out of Vietnam and enter the international market.

In August this year, the SEC disclosed VNG's prospectus, and VNG expects to complete the listing process as soon as September. According to MNG's prospectus, Tencent is one of VNG's largest shareholders, holding 43% of the shares but only 23% of the voting rights; GIC holds 10.1% of the shares and 5.4% of the voting rights; Ant Group holds 5.1% of the shares and has 2.8% of the voting rights. If VNG is successfully listed, Tencent, Kingsoft and Ant Group will also receive additional incentive shares.

VNG owns Vietnam's largest instant messaging app, Zalo, with 70 million Vietnamese users, similar to China's WeChat. VNG accounted for approximately 39.2% of the market share of Vietnam's mobile game market in 2022, making it the largest mobile game publisher in Vietnam, with revenue of US$320 million in 2022, of which game business revenue was US$250 million, accounting for 80% of the total revenue.

Tencent may hope to expand its business in international markets outside Vietnam by supporting VNG's listing, while helping VNG attract more investment and players around the world. For Tencent, this is a strategic and economic win-win.

As one of the largest Internet companies in Vietnam, VNG, founded in 2004, has always had a close relationship with Chinese companies in terms of game publishing, according to third-party data, in the era of mobile games, VNG has reached cooperation with many Chinese game companies including Netease, Tencent, Xishanju, Perfect World, etc., and publishes a large number of ace products of related game companies in Vietnam and other markets, such as "Heavenly Oracle", "Sword Warrior Love R", "Coast of the Land", "QQ Speed" and "Perfect World".

This also gives VNG a rich experience and cooperation history in representing Chinese games.

The data shows that the top four countries and regions in which "Metal Slug: Awakening" revenue contributors are Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Thailand, and Vietnam, to which VNG belongs, ranks fifth. "Metal Slugg: Awakening" currently has about 6 million downloads, and Vietnam only ranks third in terms of downloads.

It turns out that part of VNG's distribution experience, out of Vietnam, has indeed worked.

On the other hand, from Garena's point of view, it has already represented Tencent's other game product "Dawn Awakening" this year, and is gradually developing its own self-research business independently in recent years. Tencent may want to give Garena more space and opportunities to develop, not just the role of acting as an agent for publishing Tencent games.

Unlike VNG, which is still in the stage of going out of the Vietnamese market, Garena already has world-renowned game products and a strong self-developed game team and publishing team, so if Garena can grow into a more independent game brand on its own, rather than relying on agency distribution business, it may be a more profitable future for Tencent as an investor.

As one of the largest game companies and investment companies in China, Tencent's choice may be more based on longer-term and comprehensive strategic considerations. The choice of distributors such as "Metal Sluggish: Awakening" and Tencent's various actions overseas also give us a glimpse of the intricate relationship within the Tencent Group and its ability to operate in the global market.

In any case, through this cooperation, the relationship between Tencent and VNG will inevitably become closer, and it will also bring new opportunities for the international development of the two companies.