3 things I wish we knew
You have a successful growing business in the US market, and you want to expand globally. How should you tackle it? Hire a team internationally? Send someone from HQ? Wait until there is traction?
Every business is different. But, in today’s world, it is hard for any entrepreneur to not think about expanding past one’s own door step. Most of US and western goods are created internationally and flown in. And when it comes to entertainment, little to no shipment required. Therefore, the world is at any entrepreneur’s doorstep no matter where they are.
For Kabam, we started in the US, but quickly expanded into the Western markets. We quickly followed suit by opening up an office in Luxembourg , and then China. We eventually opened up 6 offices with the majority being outside of the US: Canada, China, Germany, Korea and the UK.
Lesson #1: Nail it then Scale It
Oftentimes, investors and future customers look for traction. Traction is not the same as buzz, traction is “when a lot of people are using your product or service frequently.” But before you have traction, you must first build your product and NOT launch it in your target market.
First, launch your product in BETA, so you have a smaller group of people to get feedback and get the bugs fixed. For those that are doing a mobile app, it is best to go into another country and do your BETA there. The main reason is Apple tends to like to feature new apps, so you do not want to waste your chance at getting featured in on Apple in your target market, fixing bugs and iterating on your product. In choosing a BETA market to launch your app, you should identify markets that have similar behavior and spending habits to those in your target market but also cheaper to buy some traffic. Spend some time buying traffic (at least 30 days) so you can get data over time and make some good conclusions about your product.
For us we first began buying BETA traffic in Canada and then moved to other western countries once it got too expensive for us to buy BETA traffic. For those that are operating outside of the US and wanted to expand to US markets, consider your home country as the BETA market and then move into the US markets.
Lesson #2: Localization beyond language
Before we opened our first European office, about 40% of our revenue was coming from Europe and the only thing we had done was translate our game. We began to expand our team overseas as we thought about how we could localize beyond just the language. We began to imagine the impact of a local person from the country being able to answer customer support tickets in their language and in their time zone.
As the mobile industry consolidates even more, the importance of localizing beyond language becomes more and more important. Take for example the practice of Ramadan in the MENA region.
“During Ramadan people watch more online content, perform more searches and access the Internet on their mobile devices more frequently.”
Thinking With Google
If gaming companies just localized their game, they would miss out on a large featuring and timing opportunity to get their hands into more people in that market. And sometimes the market can be quite large
Lesson #3: Investigate and iterate
As a Western company entering into non-Western markets, it is imperative that you learn the landscape and markets thoroughly. Although we had an office and team presence in China since 2010, we did not even attempt to try to enter the Chinese markets until 2016. This is because the ecosystem was so incredibly different in China that we needed time to learn about all the players as well as to build relationships. For example, in China the market is dominated by the Android OS, but Google is blocked. This means there is not one (or even two) app store platforms but dozens. AND, the market is so big (1.2 billion people) that you need to integrate with several to make sure all your bases are covered.
China itself is a very special country. There are many things that make China unique to where you need time to investigate, understand to have the right approach. And even then, you should investigate some more.
Countries that are more similar to your current markets in language, culture, regulation are often the best places to crack first. Oftentimes, for mobile gaming companies that are popular in the US, it is so much easier to expand into Canada, Australia and UK simultaneously, then into the western European countries.
As you are thinking of expanding globally, remember to nail and then scale it, push beyond just localization and investigate and iterate. Think past what is locally offered in that country and how your product and company can fit into that culture and society. Most of all, best of luck!
I am co-founder of Kabam a mobile gaming company that recently sold for $1- 2 billion dollars. We grew Kabam to over 1500 employees with 6 offices worldwide. The thoughts here are my own. If you would like to reach out to me, please DM me on twitter @hollyhliu
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