Being a huge fan of Popcap games (especially Bejeweled Blitz), I was feeling really excited on the way to the Shanghai’s Popcap office. Questions such as “How would the Popcap office look like in China?” and “How did Popcap succeed in China?” were running rampant in my head as my heart pumped faster with each passing second.

The CEO of the Asia-Pacific Popcap; Mr Gwertzman was the person who received us when we stepped into the Popcap’s cozy and brightly-colored office. His aura of warm-heartedness and gay laughter quickly won us over and we were made comfortable in his presence. The session was held in Popcap’s pantry and recreation room, where it was furnished with Wii, PS3 game sets as well as sofas and refrigerator. In addition, the walls were painted with the trademark characters from Popcap’s games. All these gave off a vibrant and playful vibe in reflection of Popcap’s lively and youthful culture.

Over the next hour, Mr Gwertzman gave us in-depth insights into two issues: Popcap’s hiring criteria and how Popcap came into China. For the most part, he covered ground on how employees in Popcap are empowered to practice self-leadership. For example, he mentioned about the 80/20 rule where employees can utilize 20% of their time for creation of new things for the company, which is beyond the job scope.

For the latter half of the session, he spoke of Popcap’s obstacles in entering and succeeding in the China’s market. The gaming scene in the US and China are not very different, where Popcap can target people who are causal gamers. However, when it comes to business models, they vary to a relatively large extent. In China, the people do not typically pay to play games and they tend to prefer a multi-players platform instead of a single player platform. Thus, in order to generate revenues from the China market, companies have to look for alternative revenue streams. For the case of Popcap, they are choosing to look at selling VIP accounts, or providing something of extra value to players who would pay. The sense of being superior or privileged would thus encourage the Chinese netizens to pay for such services.

Additionally, mobile gaming is increasingly popular in China where people like to play games on the go. This trend is also observed with many other countries in recent years. Popcap deems China to be one of the most important markets and expects China to be the best selling country for Popcap in year 2011. In the current year, Japan is holding the position of best selling country for Popcap.

Within the one hour spent at the office, I felt that I had gained much insight into Popcap. This is especially so with regards to its culture. Nothing beats having an actual experience in the office where all operations take place and the chance to speak to the Popcap’s CEO. Popcap is indeed growing fast in the Chinese market and it has overcome much obstacles of government regulation. Through it all, Popcap has made its mark in China and it will definitely continue to leave a stronger impression in the Chinese market.

Tags: Gaming, Popcap, Shanghai

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 24th, 2009 at 3:01 am and is filed under Shanghai. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.