Investor: 5 reasons why Catizen can become the leading game in TON ecosystem

Author: Aiko, Folius Ventures; Translation: 0xjs@黄金财经

After the TON explosion, other developers rushed to develop click games, Catizen laid the foundation in the TON ecosystem 1.5 years in advance, and then succeeded gracefully with their popular games.

Here are 5 key reasons why Catizen can surpass its competitors in all aspects:

1. Game design (popular games can unlock reward systems with positive externalities)

While others were still making click games, Catizen was ready to build an entire empire from day one. It took their team four to five months from selecting a promising prototype to the actual release of Catizen.

Interesting gameplay is the foundation. Catizen's flywheel works like this: fun - users - cash flow - partnerships - more valuable rewards for users and the ecosystem.

2. Monetization (Web2+Web3 model of profitability, sustainability and value sharing)

Players spend money to buy fish coins for fishing (Gacha mechanics), or purchase discounted items and automated tools from the store - monetization models familiar to Web2 gamers.

Starting with solid monetization and revenue, Catizen became the only Web3 company among all gaming projects in the space to develop TON mini-games and earn over $12 million in revenue. Catizen combines classic Web2 monetization with Web3 Launchpool and airdrops to provide a powerful platform for the TON ecosystem, partners such as Mentle and its players (who get NOT and TON tokens). Token airdrops) created tremendous value.

Through the Web2+Wbe3 monetization approach, they achieved three milestones:

Acquire users with spending power and likely to adopt cryptocurrencies; Opened up a new market of TON gamers, not just airdroppers; Educated users to build a long-term Web3 engagement loop: Spend - Play - Gacha - Get multiple reward airdrops in different assets.

3. Operational capabilities (ensuring it continues to attract attention, increase users, and scale)

Operations are key to maintaining long-term engagement - a testament to the team's commitment. Catizen deeply understands Web3 culture, partnerships, and leverages Web2's operational experience.

Two classic examples are:

- NPC: including Memes like Pepe or mascots of partners such as TON (randomly increase profits/airdrops/number of cats);

- Meow Transfer: an activity where users can get more Gocha opportunities by inviting friends, and the rewards include partner token drops (xZEN) and in-game items;

It's easy to launch a game, but it's hard to maintain growth and user stickiness through operations.

Catizen is not a short-lived miracle - it continues to benefit users through operations.

4. Social media voice

Most game teams lack the basic ability to operate social media and increase organic appeal. They either rely on NFT marketing with high-quality graphics or rely on "guilds" to get more exposure, just "copy" and "paste" marketing strategies, with almost no active users.

However, Catizen pioneered its own method and operated their Twitter like a cat lover's TikTok account. They make funny videos, use lots of cat memes, and often comment on well-known tweets. These things are naturally attractive, and people will stay and follow Twitter, whether they are gamers or not.

Now that Catizen has over 1.2 million on-chain users and a total of 21 million registered users, they no longer need to prove how popular they are.

Memes are just the surface, and behind them is a professional development and PR team. If you noticed that they announced that they would use 1% of their profits to save stray cats, you know they have bigger plans.

5. Popular content pipeline (this is no fluke, success can continue)

The development team behind Catizen has been developing mini-games since 2018 and has created over 20 popular games with over 300 million downloads on WeChat, Google Play, and Facebook Gaming.

For new TON game developers, it takes time to figure out how to find product-market fit, build infrastructure, and acquire users.

However, Catizen has a pipeline of 200 games. We can expect them to quickly leverage their existing user base and raise the bar higher for all gaming audiences on TON with each release - making truly great games increasingly difficult to develop.

In addition to games, Catizen and its parent company are also preparing to launch short video content and e-commerce products.

Conclusion

Finally, many are eagerly awaiting the next Axie Infinity, and a sustainable game that can attract a large user base and generate positive cash flow.

Well, check out Catizen on Ton. They have all the makings of an explosive Web3 play with great potential.

Disclaimer: None of this is financial advice. DYOR. Aiko always speaks highly of teams she truly believes in based on facts and data. It's no secret that Aiko invested in the talented Catizen team.