Southeast Asia’s gaming market is growing rapidly, but developers still face the challenge of figuring out how to monetize, especially since online payment habits vary widely across the region.
Touchten, a Jakarta-based mobile games startup, announced today that it plans to add an online-to-offline (O2O) feature to its games, which it hopes will attract and engage users who don’t use credit cards. The company, which currently has 9 million users and more than 20 titles, also announced that it has raised a Series B led by CyberAgent Ventures and new investor TMS Entertainment, one of Japan’s most venerable animation studios.
Founded in 1946 and now owned by SEGA SAMMY Holdings, TMS Entertainment has produced “Detective Conan,” “AnPanMan,” “Hamtaro,” “Lupin the Third,” and many classic anime series.
Touchten’s other backers include Ideosource and shareholder UOB Venture Management.
The amount of the Series B was undisclosed, but founder Anton Soeharyo says part of the capital will be used to launch its O2O platform, which allows players to win virtual currency and points that they can then redeem for offline goods from Touchten’s partners, including restaurants, fashion retailers, and entertainment venues.
The feature will debut this month in a new Indonesian-language game. Players will be able to redeem points from one of the country’s largest convenience store chains, a daily deals site, several restaurants, a bubble tea vendor, a karaoke cafe, a movie theater chain, and print magazine subscriptions, says Soeharyo.
Touchten hopes to make its O2O rewards available in Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam by the end of this year, and is also looking for partners in the Philippines and Malaysia.
In a statement, Tsurugai Makoto, managing director of TMS Entertainment, said “Indonesia is a big and important country for our company, and we would like to establish a footprint in this country by investing in Touchten’s game platform.”
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