The New Rise Engine in the Gaming Industry: How KGeN Redefines User Acquisition

1. Introduction

In recent years, the scale of the gaming industry has surpassed that of film and music, but it also faces severe challenges. Between 2023 and 2024, the industry has encountered waves of layoffs and consolidation, soaring development costs, and reduced investments. Game publishing and distribution have also become increasingly difficult, with new projects struggling to stand out.

Nevertheless, there are still huge opportunities in the industry. As digital natives, the purchasing power of Gen Z and Gen Alpha will continue to drive market expansion. At the same time, the "Global South" market, which has long been overlooked, is experiencing a rise and is expected to become an important incremental market for the gaming industry in the next decade.

This report will explore the latest challenges in game publishing, analyze the high growth opportunities in the "Global South", and focus on KGeN—a blockchain-based gaming platform aimed at reshaping the incentive mechanisms between publishers and players. We will also assess the feasibility of Web3 task platforms and analyze the structural changes in the value distribution of the gaming industry.

2. Challenges Facing Issuance

One of the biggest challenges in the current gaming industry is publishing. Changes in consumer habits, adjustments in regulatory policies, lower market entry barriers, and content saturation make it extremely difficult to successfully launch games to millions of users.

Players tend to spend most of their time on familiar games. In 2023, the top ten games by monthly active users were all released over seven years ago. In 2024, despite Steam releasing 19,000 new games, the games released that year only accounted for 15% of the total gaming time of players.

The mobile gaming market once had a mature distribution model, but in 2021, Apple's and Google's adjustments to their privacy policies directly affected the way publishers reach their target users. Many publishers have found new avenues for expansion, but small teams are facing greater competitive pressure.

Looking ahead, AI may make UA campaign management more efficient, but it will also lower the market entry barriers and exacerbate the problem of content oversaturation. Web3 games still need to overcome additional obstacles, such as stricter policy restrictions and direct bans in certain markets.

The Web3 gaming market is still a niche sector in the gaming industry, with approximately 6-7 million active wallet addresses interacting with over 3,000 on-chain game protocols. However, there are only about 200 protocols that actually have more than 100 active on-chain accounts.

Faced with numerous challenges, a group of Web3 companies is exploring a new UA model based on blockchain. Innovative incentive mechanisms and on-chain reputation systems may become potential avenues for these companies to gain a competitive advantage through Web3 integration.

3. Global South(Global South)

The Global South refers to countries and regions with relatively low levels of economic development, typically located south of industrialized nations. Due to rapid improvements in internet infrastructure, high smartphone penetration rates, and rise in disposable income, this region is seen as a highly potential gaming market.

The characteristics of the global South gaming market are: a large player base, a reliance on mobile devices for gaming, and a generally low willingness to pay. However, as the younger generation grows and benefits from economic development, many believe they will become a new generation of paying players, driving the gaming industry to new heights.

The following are the characteristics of some key markets in the Global South:

印度(India)

India is rapidly rising as the largest gaming market in the Global South. Currently, there are approximately 466 million gamers, and it is expected to exceed 640 million by 2027. The market revenue is expected to rise by 13.6% in 2024, surpassing $1 billion in 2025, and reaching $1.4 billion by 2028.

The Indian market has a strong preference for mobile games, thanks to the rapid development of the 5G network in the country and the widespread application of the unified payment interface (UPI). The internet penetration rate has increased from 14% in 2015 to the current 52%, and there is still significant room for growth in the future.

India's gaming preferences are unique:

• Mobile games account for 77.9% of total revenue
• PC games and console games account for only 14.5% and 7.7% respectively.
• Real money game ( RMG ) is the largest niche market, with an annual revenue of $2 billion.
• Casual and hyper-casual game revenue rose to $700 million
• The market size of other game categories is approximately $400 million

Southeast Asia(SEA)

Southeast Asia is one of the most mature gaming markets in the Global South. In 2023, the region's gaming revenue reached $5.1 billion, expected to rise to $7.1 billion by 2028. In 2023, there were 277 million gamers, expected to rise to 332 million by 2028.

Indonesia's mobile game downloads are the highest, reaching 2.4 billion. Thailand's in-app purchase revenue is the highest, reaching $400 million.

The community and competitive culture is prevalent in the region, and word-of-mouth communication is the main source of information. The penetration rate of smartphones is high, with an expected average penetration rate of 90.1% by 2026.

Latin America ( LATAM )

Latin America is another major market worth paying attention to, with a large population and a strong gaming culture. In 2022, it was estimated that there were 316 million gamers, with Brazil having 101 million players, generating $2.7 billion in gaming revenue.

The Brazilian market has a strong preference for mobile games:

• 60% of players have played mobile games at least once in the past six months
• The smartphone penetration rate is expected to reach 83% by 2025.
• 43% of players have in-game spending behavior

The Brazilian market will still dominate the growth of the Latin American gaming industry in the future, thanks to the abundant educational resources related to gaming, the large number of game studios, and the tax incentives provided by the government.

非洲(Africa)

The African gaming market is at a critical development stage, with revenue expected to exceed $1 billion in 2024. Mobile games account for nearly 90% of the market share.

Main challenges: high data costs ( 42% ) is the biggest obstacle, followed by hardware prices ( 31% ) and network connectivity issues ( 31% ).

The payment system is both a challenge and an opportunity: 63% of players engage in in-game purchases, but payment methods vary by region. Kenya leads in mobile payments, with 67% of players using mobile wallets for gaming consumption.

Middle East and North Africa(MENA)

MENA is the fastest growing gaming market in the world, with revenue rising by 4.7% in 2023, reaching $7.1 billion. It is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 9.4% from 2024 to 2030.

MENA-3( Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt ) are the core markets in the region, with expected revenues reaching $2.9 billion by 2027. Market drivers include a high proportion of young population, increasing internet penetration, and widespread adoption of new technologies.

4. What is KGeN

KGeN is a blockchain-driven gaming platform that promotes user engagement across different games by utilizing on-chain and off-chain data, an incentivized task platform, and a decentralized reputation system. Unlike other UA platforms, KGeN returns the publisher's funds to users, driving its rise flywheel.

The core of the platform is a decentralized player data network, covering millions of micro-game communities (KGeN Tribe ). The network utilizes "Player Proof" (Proof of Gamer, PoG ) engine, creating a cross-chain player reputation layer that provides publishers with a highly engaged target user base.

Since January 2024, KGeN has shown significant rise: the total number of registered accounts has increased by over 700%, the monthly active users (MAU) have risen by 1333%, and the total amount of data attributes has increased by 992%. This makes KGeN the most active Web3 task and player reputation platform in the market.

The KGeN ecosystem is gradually becoming decentralized, protecting the PoG engine through a distributed oracle network and providing greater transparency for core stakeholders. Both the oracle network and the KGeN store are powered by KGEN tokens.

( 4.1 grassroots rise

The core of KGeN's rise lies in its grassroots tribes and the network of tribal leaders. The tribes represent thousands of micro-communities that have joined the KGeN ecosystem. As of December 2024, KGeN reported a total of 2,525 tribes, of which 152 tribes have more than 100 members.

The tribe is one of the core ways KGeN promotes user acquisition based on recommendations. Tribe leaders invite members and have them complete tasks to earn points. Approximately 1.7 million KGeN accounts verified through KYC have been acquired through the tribe.

KGeN's largest market currently is India, but over 30% of independent active wallets and transactions occur on Kaia, which is LINE's proprietary blockchain. This indicates that KGeN has strong rise potential in Asia.

![Let gamers prove: how KGeN redefines user acquisition])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-0edfaf9accefa4de93c0fa72feaa027c.webp###

( 4.2 Incentivize participation through KGeN Play

KGeN Play is the front-end interface where most players on the platform participate, and all reward tasks are published here. Users can access KGeN Play through the PC portal or mobile app.

When an account is created, the system will automatically create a blockchain wallet in the background to store all of the user's assets and non-tradable player reputation NFTs. KGeN wallet supports multi-chain and gasless transactions.

The task activities are divided into K-Drops and K-Quests, both of which are limited-time participation activities with limited availability, rewarding participants with K-Points, achievements based on the leaderboard, K-Cash, or tokens. K-Drops provide automatic real-time verification through API integration, while K-Quests are conducted through a manual verification process.

![Let gamers prove: how KGeN redefines user acquisition])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-e150f998ddcdedf65ff8cbb46b3245f9.webp###

( 4.3 PoG Engine

The PoG engine is a decentralized player rating system composed of five core pillars:

• PoH)Proof of Humanity###: Tracking user "humane" data
• PoP(Proof of Participation): Determine the player's level of participation in the platform.
• PoS(Proof of Skill): Recognizing players' abilities and achievements
• PoC(Proof of Contribution): Identify the monetization potential of users
• PoSN(Proof of Social Network): mapping user social profiles

The PoG engine currently consists of over 270 million data attributes, coming from more than 13 million registered accounts and 4.4 million MAUs.

Using the PoG engine, KGeN is leading the "effective customer acquisition cost" ( eCAC ) alternative UA framework. KGeN only charges active users who reach the middle or bottom of the user funnel, rather than simply for display or installation.

5. Competitive Landscape

( 5.1 King of Advertising Technology: Past and Present

Facebook: Facebook found its foothold during the late stage of the web gaming era and the rise of mobile platforms. Its core competitiveness lies in the in-depth mining of user profiles and behavior analysis. Facebook integrates with game SDKs to track user behavior after installation and optimize downstream metrics such as ROAS.

Applovin: Applovin is a mature advertising technology platform with a presence on both the supply and demand sides. At its core is a machine learning engine.