Mentioned in this article
- Huya is planning a product aimed at China’s growing animation, comics, games, and novels (ACGN) segment, per a report.
- China’s ACGN user base exceeded 370M in 2018, a majority of which are members of Gen Z (the generation born between the mid-1990s to early 2000s).
- A separate platform would allow Huya to compete against ACGN site Bilibili, which boasts 110.4M MAU as of Q2 2019.
Chinese streaming platform Huya is planning a new product to accommodate the country’s growing animation, comics, games, and novels (ACGN) segment, according to a report.
Sources close to the matter told 36kr that the new ACGN platform is still in the planning stages and would target women born between 1995 and 2000. It is unclear whether it would be offered as a standalone website or app, as Huya refused 36kr’s requests for comment.
Huya, like Twitch, hosts user-generated content that focuses primarily on gaming. However, a number of channels host other topics as well, including ACGN. According to an August 2018 interview with 36kr, Huya’s ACGN fans accounted for around 10% of its users.
A secondary platform would allow Huya to focus on this particular demographic while competing with Alibaba-owned ACGN site Bilibili. Launched in 2010, Bilibili reported 110.4M monthly active users (MAU) as of Q2 2019, whereas Huya reported 143.9M MAU.
ACGN, also referred to as “ACG,” “erciyuan,” or “two-dimensional space,” is experiencing a period of growth in China, according to a number of reports. The country had more than 370M ACGN users in 2018, according to research institute Gamma Data. Plus, a 2015 study by iResearch suggests some 75% of ACGN users, a majority of which are members of Gen Z, are willing to pay for games.
While Huya currently does not make its user base demographics public, it likely has a male-dominated audience, considering typical demographics for the live-streaming platform’s focus areas: esports and gaming. Therefore creating a separate product for a mostly young female audience with little overlap in demographics compared to the company’s main product, enables Huya to construct marketing, user acquisition, and monetization strategies custom-tailored to the specific needs and purchasing behaviors of the AGCN community.
Tobias Seck contributed to this article.
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