Google is pushing for a cookie-less, « more private web ». Removing third-party cookies on Chrome, the most-used browser as of today, is also a surefire way to ensure it keeps its main competitor Facebook out of the race…

Looking to focus your business efforts towards the Nordics? AdColony’s Under the Microscope series is looking at the mobile space in Denmark this week.

LONG READ OF THE WEEK: A look at the hottest topics that shook in the industry in 2019: Politics, labour issues, sexism, and what future are games envisioning for humanity?

Gaming is exploding, but what kind of gaming? Mostly mobile gaming.

AppAnnie’s State of Mobile 2020 :

When asked about crowdfunding for games, I always refer Thomas Bidaux’ expertise to studios. His analysis is always on point, and this Kickstarter and Games in 2019 is no exception.

Wechat users spent $115Billion through mini-programs (games, shopping and more) in 2019. Is it becoming a viable alternative to app stores?

Mobile phones are an extension of Chinese users’ hands: they spend almost 2 full days a week glued to their smartphones.

Not especially games-related, this article from Luxury Society about the future of influencer marketing being in China is a boon of learnings on the years-ahead Chinese influencer industry. Topics not even brushed on in the West include influencer incubators, KOL-led creative studios, and more.

More than three months after a tweet inflamed the relationship between the NBA and the Chinese public, Tencent has pulled out live streaming of NBA matches, and basketball fans are not happy about it.

How to successfully launch new mobile games in a highly competitive market. Especially useful if you have a portfolio of different games, as this strategy relies heavily on cross-promotion.

Eric Seufert is introducing Theseus, a python library for cohort analysis. Now I gotta learn Python and Jupyter…

Attribution. Just the word can give you headaches. Here’s a not-too-complicated rundown of the major attribution models, along with their pros and cons. Helpful when deciding which ones (yes, plural!) you should use when assessing the performance of your campaigns.

Planning your upcoming soft launch? Not sure where to start? Start with Facebook, test creatives don’t push to global launch too soon!

Planning a remarketing campaign is never easy, and it’s mostly due to the relatively smaller size of your audience. Run a reach campaign on Facebook to ensure you reach everyone in your audience at least once. Don’t wait until your App Engagement campaign fails to test this!

Unity is running a webinar on LTV, what it is and how you can use this very important metric to improve and grow your game.

Your app engagement is dipping? Use there 5 countermeasures to keep it afloat and increase it.

If there’s one theme that keeps coming back to the PM section of this newsletter, it’s the importance of Data Analysis. Having an analyst is good. Having a data scientist is great.

Episodic games were once a possible profitable business model for gaming companies. Until they failed.

Correlation doesn’t imply causation. Yet understanding causality is key to understanding what drove any decision your players made.

It’s always interesting seeing hot takes from people outside of the industry of why video games will take over. They already have, and if you’re not on that train, it might be too late.

Newzoo’s latest study shows the difference in motivation for Chinese and US players. As usual, cultural localisation is more important than just the translation of your text.

Deepfakes are incredible. They’re also incredibly scary. That’s why Facebook is taking steps to ensure deepfakes don’t make it onto its platform.

TouchArcade gives you its best mobile games of 2019. Quite a lot of ports, and the very welcome revival of Rolando, one of the first iPhone megahits. I met the Rolando team at develop: Brighton last year, they’re a super sweet and passionate bunch. Play Rolando!

In the 90s, Japan had the most bizarre video game magazine I’ve ever seen. You can now read all of Game Urara here (sometimes NSFW, always WTF).