AppLovin Creates Buzz at ChinaJoy, Amplify Workshop Explores Sustainable App Growth

It was a busy week in Shanghai for the AppLovin team as they participated in two different freestanding events: ChinaJoy and our signature Amplify Workshop.

ChinaJoy is the largest annual gaming and entertainment exhibition in China, held every year from July 30 to August 2. The show attracts millions of visitors, and AppLovin returned for a fourth year as an exhibitor to share space with partners and clients doing business in the region.

In addition to our presence at the exhibition, Amplify Workshop made a welcome return at a different location. We also teamed up with Adjust and hosted a “closed door happy hour” for VIP clients, and Frankie Xue, Head of Business Development from Lion Studios, joined a panel at the China Digital Entertainment Congress as guest speaker. 

Now let’s take a look at highlights from this year’s two events.

AppLovin booth

That’s right! Our booth was one of the hottest spots in the exhibition hall. Our little game “Catch the Stick” attracted hundreds of visitors and almost 300 participants won prizes for participating. 

Amplify Workshop explores sustainable growth

AppLovin held its Amplify Workshop on July 31 at the Jumeirah Himalaya Hotel. Under the theme of Riding the Wind and Waves｜How to Create a Winning Marketing Strategy in a Fast-Evolving Mobile World, we had guest speakers from Xiaomi, Smillage, Pangle, ME2ZEN, App Annie, and Adjust share insights on the latest trends and topics. 

Event opening: Michelle Ao, Marketing Director, AppLovin

Panel discussions & presentations

Among the highlights for the Amplify Workshop was a presentation from AppLovin’s Sr. Director of Business Development, Ada Hang, on “How to Create Efficient and Sustainable Growth for Your Apps.”

  Ada Hang, Sr Director, Business Development, AppLovin

Ada shared that AppLovin has long been committed to growing the mobile app ecosystem. MAX, AppLovin’s mediation product, provides developers with a 360-degree approach to monetization that enables holistic growth. Ada also shared two successful case studies, Nox Joy and Geisha Tokyo, and further explained how to use MAX to improve ARPDAU as well as how to achieve scale growth through AppDiscovery, a product for user acquisition that can meet the needs of IAA and IAP apps and help developers acquire high-quality users at reasonable costs.

Bidding Panel with AppLovin, Xiaomi, Pangle, and Smillage

During the panel discussion on the topic “Embark on the speedboat of bidding: how it makes your monetization revenue ride the waves,” moderator Ada along with Jessie Song, head of Xiaomi International Game UA, Zhengchao Lu, CEO of Smillage, and Le Zhong, Business Director of Pangle, discussed how to develop and facilitate bidding to enhance monetization efficiency for developers and future bidding trends.

Key takeaways included:

• How high operational costs and difficulty maximizing revenue are three major pain points for developers using Waterfall. 
• Waterfall often sees a great number of layers in its monetization stack, which many developers find untenable.
• An increasing number of developers are choosing Bidding, and more of them are trying to get fair opportunities during competitions.
• For those who wish to shift from Waterfall to Bidding, Le Zhong suggested that they start with a network with complete functions such as MAX. 
• Zhengchao and Jessie advised developers to embrace new trends and accept new things, which might bring unexpected results.  
• All three speakers agreed on their monetization abilities and unprecedented improvement in operation efficiency after adopting the bidding solution MAX. 
• Jessie and Zhengchao said their revenue has been enhanced by 15% and 40% respectively after using MAX. 

How to win in the post-iOS 14.5 world

iOS14.5 panel with ME2ZEN, Adjust, and App Annie

On the panel discussion titled “How to win with mobile marketing in the post-iOS 14.5 world” moderated by Jeffery Zheng, Country Director of App Annie Greater China, Jerry Yang, Marketing VP of ME2ZEN, Lori Shen, Head of Technical Account Management, and Eric Wang, Sales Regional Team Lead of Adjust, this group of experts discussed how to rapidly adapt to the new policies and make effective strategies in marketing.  

Key takeaways included:

• Since iOS 14.5 was launched, tracking couldn’t be performed accurately and efficiently, and the advertising fill rate and eCPM suffered a lot, becoming a bottleneck for expansion and growth. 
• For iOS, overall ad revenue reduced by more than 30%. 
• ME2ZEN was forced to reduce its advertising budget on iOS and spend more time on Android.
• In the future, casual and hyper-casual games will find it increasingly difficult to survive if merely relying on advertising monetization. 

Positives:

• The impact of iOS 14.5 has led people to improve their media strategies while understanding relevant causes.
• On average, about 20% of users consent to being tracked. In the U.S., that number is lower, whereas in Australia, it’s relatively higher.
• An increasing number of users have upgraded their devices to iOS14.5 or above, and they will be accustomed to authorizing the pop-up consent window and understanding the importance of seeing relevant ads. 
• In the future, the consent rate among users may increase by 40%-50%.

Eric Wang, Sales Regional Team Lead of Adjust, added: “In the post-IDFA era, the goal of Adjust is that advertisers can still make data-based marketing decisions. ATT and SKAdNetwork are the two solutions provided by Adjust. For now, SKAdNetwork is completely free of charge because we hope our clients have enough time for sufficient tests without worrying about the costs.” 

Lucky Draw

A lucky draw is a must-have for such an exciting event. As Michelle Ao, the Marketing Director of AppLovin Greater China, announced the names of prize winners, the event was brought to its climax. Stay tuned and follow us on WeChat. We will have more insights to share with you!