As early as 2013, Ying Shuling, the founder of Hero Interactive Entertainment, proposed the concept of "mobile e-sports". Due to the general environment at that time, mobile e-sports was not understood and recognized by the industry. It was not until 2014 that mobile e-sports received widespread attention from the outside world and the gradual attention of the industry with the explosion of the FPS mobile game "Shootout for All".
The real popularity of mobile e-sports was in 2016, with the addition of game giants such as Tencent and Giant Network, and the increasing number of mobile games on the market, coupled with the first National Mobile E-sports Competition (CMEG) held by the Sports Information Center of the General Administration of Sports of China, which further promoted the development of mobile e-sports.
According to the data in the "2016 China Game Industry Report (Summary Version)" released by Gamma Data, mobile games surpassed terminal games for the first time in 2016, accounting for 49.5% of the domestic game market share, with sales of 81.92 billion yuan.
In addition, the sales of video games in China reached 50.46 billion yuan, accounting for 30.5% of the market.
It is not difficult to see that 2016 is the first year of the real rise of e-sports games, and it also reflects the decline of the terminal game market, and players are more inclined to mobile games.
In the face of the big cake of the mobile e-sports market, Razer was the first e-sports peripheral brand to enter the game, and in 2017 released the world's first e-sports gaming mobile phone, the Razer Phone. Unfortunately, this phone was not sold in China, so it did not affect the domestic mobile e-sports market.
However, Razer fired the first shot, bringing mobile esports to smartphones for the first time.
On the other hand, in China, JD.com released the "game phone" standard for the first time in 2017, and said that the first batch of game phones that meet the standard will be launched in the second quarter of 2018. It was at this time that domestic mobile phone manufacturers began to enter the mobile e-sports market.
E-sports gaming mobile phones, after all, are just a passing cloud?
In April 2018, Black Shark released the first e-sports gaming mobile phone in China. Although the sales performance of this mobile phone at that time was not too optimistic, only selling more than 100,000 units, it allowed Black Shark to gain a firm foothold in the vertical category of gaming mobile phones.
In September of the same year, ROG, a sub-brand of ASUS, also released an e-sports gaming phone, the RGO Phone, whose hardware configuration is no worse than that of the Black Shark.
After ROG, ZTE's sub-brand Nubia also officially entered the e-sports gaming mobile phone market and launched the Nubia Red Magic e-sports gaming mobile phone. At this time, Black Shark, ROG, and Red Devil formed a three-legged situation in the e-sports game mobile phone market.
It should be noted that with the establishment of iQOO, a sub-brand of vivo (February 2019), the blurred boundary between gaming phones and gaming phones has been broken.
Feng Yufei, head of the iQOO brand, said that although iQOO pursues the ultimate gaming performance and brings users an e-sports-level experience, it does not mean that iQOO is a gaming phone, iQOO is an e-sports phone.
In 2020, 5G technology will be fully rolled out, and Lenovo will officially join the battle of e-sports gaming phones and release Lenovo Legion e-sports mobile phones.
If the development of e-sports game phones is divided according to time, it can be roughly divided into the early adopter period of manufacturers before 2017 (exploring more possibilities of game phones), the market formation period in 2017 (mobile games are PC, and the market is in urgent need of mobile phones with stronger game performance), the market growth period in 2018 (the development of professional game phones accelerated by popular mobile games), The market precipitation period in 2019 (refining the category of e-sports gaming phones according to the different needs of users), and the 5G era in 2020 (major manufacturers are vying to launch 5G versions of e-sports gaming phones).
Judging from the development trend of e-sports gaming mobile phones alone, it looks like it is thriving on the surface, but in fact, professional e-sports gaming mobile phones are going downhill. Nowadays, the only ones who still insist on making gaming phones are Red Devils and RGO. Black Shark, which once won the country's first e-sports gaming phone, announced the suspension of business because the company had financial problems in 2020. Later, because of Tencent's capital injection and Black Shark's internal optimization and adjustment, it was saved from falling from the cliff into the abyss.
After Lenovo launched two generations of Legion e-sports gaming phones, it has not updated this series of product lines. iQOO, which previously claimed to be an e-sports mobile phone, has also adjusted its product line accordingly, with the Neo series taking e-sports games as its core selling point, while its own high-end flagship no longer uses the original e-sports as its main selling point, and even cancels the game shoulder button.
It is not difficult to see that the current game mobile phone industry is facing a big dilemma, that is, users have always had the demand to play games, but the sales of game mobile phones are very small, and the price is generally high.
Previously, Lu Weibing, the head of the Redmi brand, said that e-sports mobile phones are doomed to die, because the current traditional mobile phones have comprehensively surpassed the so-called e-sports mobile phones in terms of performance and picture smoothness.
In addition, Lu Weibing once revealed that the shipment of gaming mobile phones in 2021 will be about 1.7 million units. According to the data of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology at that time, the overall shipment of mobile phones in the domestic market in 2021 will accumulate 351 million units. After comparison, it was found that the shipment of game mobile phones in 2021 accounted for only 0.5% of the domestic mobile phone market. From this, it is not difficult to see that gaming phones are really niche.
You may think that the data mentioned by Mr. Lu is not necessarily accurate, the following set of data comes from Whale Staff, in 2022, from January to September, the sales of domestic game mobile phones will be about 3.2 million units. For comparison, statistics from market research agency IDC show that in 2022, China's smartphone market shipped about 286 million units. Although the shipment of domestic gaming mobile phones in 2022 will increase compared with 2021, it is still a very niche product.
In fact, whether it is an e-sports mobile phone or a gaming mobile phone, the reason why they have become niche products is that the gaming mobile phone has not been able to open much gap with traditional mobile phones in terms of hardware parameters and performance, and has even been surpassed by traditional mobile phones. If it is just for the sake of more abundant accessories for gaming shoulder buttons and gaming mobile phones, it is very niche to buy a gaming mobile phone at a price similar to or higher than that of traditional mobile phones.
Unless they are gaming enthusiasts and professional mobile esports players, ordinary consumers, even if esports is their hobby, will give priority to buying a more comprehensive and practical traditional mobile phone.
At this time, maybe you will launch a soul torture, isn't e-sports too niche?
Diversification, a key to success
According to the "2023 Global E-sports Industry Development Report" jointly released by Penguin Youtuo, Tencent E-sports, and E-sports magazine, China's e-sports users are expected to reach 478 million in 2023, of which 47.3% are female, and the 25-44-year-old group accounts for the largest proportion. If divided by academic qualifications, 46.2% have a bachelor's degree or above.
Moreover, regardless of the tiers of cities, the distribution of domestic e-sports users is relatively balanced. Therefore, it can only be said that gaming phones are too niche.
In this case, does this mean that the road of linking mobile phones to e-sports is doomed to fail?
The answer is no. iQOO is a great success story. First of all, iQOO has made a clear distinction from gaming phones from the very beginning, and its product positioning is based on traditional mobile phones, bringing users an e-sports-level gaming experience. In terms of hardware parameters, iQOO has always been based on the best hardware that can be obtained in this price segment, and it is more aggressive than ordinary mobile phones in chip performance tuning.
Secondly, iQOO has carried out in-depth cooperation with KPL and other e-sports events, not only as the designated machine for official competitions, but also through the establishment of special awards such as "iQOO Strong Performance Responsibility" to enhance the relevance of the brand to the event, forming a unique brand memory point. Because of this, iQOO can gain wide attention and recognition in the esports circle.
In addition, iQOO is not only limited to traditional sponsorship and title sponsorship in e-sports marketing, but also realizes the diversification of mobile e-sports marketing through documentaries, iP marketing, content marketing, etc. This will not only enhance the influence of the brand, but also further expand the business value of esports marketing.
Not only that, iQOO also adopted a three-dimensional marketing communication strategy in e-sports marketing, effectively grasping the progressive communication rhythm before and after the release of the documentary, deepening the bond between the brand and players, and strengthening the brand's favorability and communication power.
Finally, iQOO has created a scenario-based e-sports hall, from competition machines to broadcast large screens, e-sports chairs, professional event headphones, etc., and launched competition activities in the store, narrowing the distance between iQOO and e-sports enthusiasts, and providing them with a more professional and scenario-based e-sports experience.
Looking back at the niche and marginal game phones, I just blindly emphasize how radical the performance tuning of my own products is, how many rich game accessories there are, but I can't open the gap with traditional mobile phones, and the product differentiation is getting smaller and smaller, and the end of this road is naturally an infinite abyss.
There is an old saying in the mainland: "Those who win the hearts of the people win the world." Through various marketing models, iQOO strengthens the relevance of brand e-sports attributes, while not forgetting to pull in the relationship between brands and e-sports users. So, that's the key to iQOO's success.
Surviving is the core of mobile e-sports marketing competition
In recent years, the e-sports industry in mainland China has developed rapidly, and more and more mobile phone brands have taken a fancy to the huge potential of e-sports marketing and are scrambling to inject resources. For example, Honor invited "Honor of Kings" professional player Nuan Yang (Lin Heng) to serve as the experience officer of Honor GT series products, Red Devil E-sports Mobile and RNG E-sports Club reached a global strategic partnership to jointly promote e-sports culture and Red Devil brand, OnePlus Mobile cooperated with FNC team to enhance OnePlus mobile phone's influence in the international market through the team's high exposure, etc.
It is precisely because major manufacturers have entered the mobile e-sports marketing market that the competition in the market has become more and more fierce, and how to survive has become a problem that major manufacturers need to think about.
As we all know, the two major fields of e-sports and games are relatively sensitive industries in China, and not all citizens support and advocate the development of these two industries, because the two major industries often become a thorn in the side of many parents and affect their children's learning.
Therefore, despite the increasing support and attention of the esports industry, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the relevant regulatory policies. Mobile phone brands also need to pay attention to changes in relevant policies when conducting esports marketing to avoid getting into trouble.
In addition, it is not just a matter of finding an e-sports event organizer, professional players, teams and brands to do a fusion, you can attract more e-sports users. Only by effectively integrating mobile phone brands with e-sports culture to form a unique brand imprint and create differentiated marketing is the right cooperation model.
Don't monopolize, just roll in
The faster the e-sports industry develops, the user base will naturally grow accordingly, which also creates a greater market space for the mobile e-sports market. This also makes manufacturers have a bigger stage in mobile e-sports marketing, which is like the cooperation between Pacific Technology and the Beijing WB team sponsored by Honor, forming a tripartite cooperation between the media, the e-sports team, and the mobile phone manufacturer.
In the future, AI technology will also be applied to the field of mobile marketing, which can accurately locate and gain insight into the needs of target user groups, and brands can provide appropriate personalized marketing content and interactive experience for different users.
With the maturity of AR/VR/MR and other technologies, mobile phone manufacturers may introduce these new technologies in order to maintain their dominant position in e-sports marketing to bring more creative gameplay to users.
Therefore, instead of being monopolized by one manufacturer in mobile e-sports marketing, it is better for all manufacturers to participate, and the more serious the involution, in this high-pressure environment, manufacturers can get out of their comfort zone, achieve more innovation, and enter a virtuous circle of development with the e-sports industry.