免費線上遊戲經營與獲利模式之個案分析

Case Study on Management and Profit Pattern of The Free Online Game

謝安(An Hsieh)

指導教授 ： 王存國

國立中央大學/管理學院/資訊管理學系碩士在職專班/碩士(2006年)

摘要

摘要
網際網路的蓬勃發展，帶動了娛樂內容的成長，也使得電腦遊戲從單機版走入線上遊戲時代，線上遊戲已經成為數位娛樂內容中不可或缺的角色之一，使用族群也已經涵蓋各年齡層，以往線上遊戲相關之文獻探討雖然涵蓋層面涉及研發、行銷、策略管理、品牌傳播，但皆以收費線上遊戲為主，未曾有針對免費線上遊戲經營與獲利模式進行研究探討。
隨著網路基礎建設的提昇，寬頻網路已不再是問題，因此線上遊戲已儼然成為青少年族群在網路上的主要娛樂活動，加上網路的泡沫化並未影響到線上遊戲產業市場規模，不但未曾遞減還履創新高，引起各方企業大舉投入資金，導致競爭越趨激烈，甚至衍生出免費線上遊戲類型，因此如何經營免費線上遊戲並發展合適的獲利模式，成為現今網路遊戲公司急欲探討的課題。
本研究之主要目的為透過個案公司研究來瞭解免費線上遊戲之成長狀況與市場機會，並針對免費線上遊戲整理出一套完整的經營、收入、獲利模式，進而歸納出免費線上遊戲經營之關鍵成功因素，本研究一開始將描述、分析線上遊戲產業背景、現況與未來發展趨勢，並以個案公司為研究對象，透過個案研究法來進行實徵性探索，整理出免費線上遊戲之道具類型有個性化道具、輔助類道具、便利型道具、強化類工具、工具型道具共五大類，並搜集個案公司經營管理與財務資料，進行深入探討、分析，進一步整理出免費線上遊戲之經營模式主要分為經營目標、行銷策略、定價策略、銷售方式、通路策略五大方向。
並以經營模式為基礎，繼而從經營模式發展出道具販售、產品包、集卡類商品、加值服務、包月型產品，此五種收入模式，再依據國內外學者提出的各項獲利模式中，整理出免費線上遊戲的七種獲利模式，分別為解決客戶問題獲利模式、時間獲利模式、新產品獲利模式、大規模獲利模式、利潤共享模式、商品組合獲利模式與通路獲利模式。
最後歸納出免費線上遊戲經營之關鍵成功因素共有七項，以滿足玩家需求為優先考量、正確的市場定位與主配套措施、快速招募會員擴大經濟規模、策略聯盟與異業結盟、良好的品質與服務、經營管理資訊化、強大的通路系統與付費機制，本研究並建議未來政府可以投入較多的資源來協助線上遊戲產業，以推動國內線上遊戲業者邁向國際舞台。

關鍵字

道具銷售 ； 線上遊戲 ； 經營模式 ； 獲利模式 ； 關鍵成功因素

並列摘要

ABSTRACT

With its rapid development, the Internet enriches not only the entertainment contents but also opens a new page for computer games, from the single-board games to the online games. Nowadays, online games play an indispensable role in the digital entertainment field with its tribe covering all ages. Although there are discusses about the R&D, marketing, strategy management and brand promotion of online games, we hardly can find an essay aiming at analyzing the management and the profit pattern of free online games.

Since the use of Internet has been increasingly common and the broadband service is no longer a problem, the online games apparently have become the major active for the teenagers on the Internet. The Internet bubble had little effect on the online game industry. In fact, the profit of the industry had been increasing every year in the past. This situation attracted many companies to invest into this business, intensifying the competition in the industry. Some companies even offered free online games in the market. Thus, how to operate the business of free online games and develop a proper profit model should be the most important issue facing the online game companies.

The main goal of this research is to understand the development status and the market opportunity of free online games. The study attempts to develop a complete pattern of management, analyze the revenue and profit structures of free online games, and generalize the key factors to how to run this business successfully. This research starts with describing and analyzing the background and environment of the online game industry and the possible future trend of free online games. Since the profitability of free online games depends largely on the properties they offer, we take the related fixed price model as the basis and conduct a case analysis as the illustration. As such, we can easily collate the five major free online game properties: Identity properties, Assistant properties, Facilitate properties, Consolidation properties and Implement properties. By gathering and analyzing the management and the finance database of the case company, we can define the case company’s five major directions: Manage target, Marketing strategy, Price strategy, Sell pattern and the Channel strategy.

Based on the management model, online game companies can expand the properties of selling, product package, card-collection merchandises, value-added serviced, and monthly-charged commodities for greater earnings. Such a strategy can be executed with other profit modes such as customer service profit mode, time profit mode, new product profit mode, large-scale profit mode, benefit-sharing profit mode, combined-merchandise profit mode and the channel profit mode.

With this study, we identify seven key success factors for the free online game business: satisfied online customers; correct market positioning with appropriate expedients; broader membership for greater operational scales; strategic alliance and integration alliance; high quality products and services; better information management; better channel and payment systems. Also, it is suggested that the government can invest more resources into this field to push the online game industry as an international business.

並列關鍵字

key success factors ； profit mode ； management pattern ； online game ； property sell

參考文獻

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參考文獻