IGG (0799.HK) won the high-profile “Outstanding Digital Technology Enterprise of the Year” award at the 9th “Greenway Global Investment Carnival 2024” held in Shenzhen from December 5 to 7 for its outstanding digital technology strength and forward-looking innovation strategy. This award is not only a high recognition of IGG's intensive work and courage to explore in the field of digital technology over the past year, but also high hopes for its continued leading role and great potential in the development of the industry in the future.

The “Outstanding Digital Technology Company of the Year” award aims to recognize outstanding enterprises that can empower all walks of life and provide innovative tools and new scenarios for all types of enterprises in the context of the booming global digital economy, thereby promoting the development of the digital economy. With the continuous innovation of cutting-edge technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, these technologies are gradually becoming an important force driving the world's scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation.

Focusing on IGG, it is actively embracing AI technology with an open attitude and laying out the future with a forward-looking strategic vision. Against the backdrop of booming growth in the global game market and rapid changes in mobile internet technology, IGG is expected to further consolidate its leading position in the industry with the cost reduction and efficiency advantages of AI technology, and achieve more significant breakthroughs and leaps forward in emerging new market opportunities.

The game app business went hand in hand, driving diversified revenue and multiplying profits

As a world-renowned developer and operator of mobile games and mobile applications, IGG's gaming business has always been the core driving force for the company's development. In recent years, IGG has continued to innovate in the game field and successfully created a number of blockbuster games, such as “Age of Kingdoms”, “Doomsday: Last Survivors”, and “Viking Rise.” These games have not only won the love of a large number of players around the world, but have also brought considerable revenue growth to the company.

According to the latest financial data released by IGG, in the first half of 2024, the company achieved revenue of HK$2.74 billion, an increase of 9% over the previous year. In terms of profit, after reversing a loss of HK$73 million last year, the company's profit doubled in the first half of this year, achieving a profit of about HK$0.33 billion. Among them, the game business, as the company's main revenue force, performed particularly well. “Kingdom Era” is the company's classic evergreen game. It has been eight years since its launch, and its turnover is still steady. In the first half of the year, it contributed HK$1.34 billion in revenue, accounting for 48.9% of the company's current revenue.

“Doomsday: Last Survivors” and “Viking Rise” have performed similarly as IGG's key game products for the past two years. In the first half of 2024, these two games contributed approximately HK$0.493 billion and HK$309 million respectively, accounting for 18% and 11.3% of the company's current revenue, which is a significant increase compared to 10% and 4.9% in the same period last year.

It is easy to see that these two games have gradually succeeded “Kingdom Era” and have become the company's new growth engine, fully proving the company's ability to successfully launch high-quality new products in a short period of time, further consolidating its leading position and extraordinary strength in the SLG game field. Notably, IGG gaming products are still challenging their own limits. Recently, the post-apocalyptic survival SLG mobile game “Doomsday: Last Survivors” developed by IGG collaborated with “B.Duck Little Yellow Duck” on a global scale. During the linking period, the game also received recommendations from the Apple Store and Google Store at the same time.

“Doomsday: Last Survivors” has made significant achievements in content planning and long-term operation, successfully attracting and stabilizing a core strategic player base. Today, the game goes one step further, targeting popular mass entertainment IPs such as Little Yellow Duck, with the aim of broadening its audience base, going beyond the category of core strategic players, and exploring a wider range of influence expansion strategies. Behind this series of initiatives, it highlights the company's strategic thinking and philosophy of relentlessly pursuing innovation and breakthroughs in multiple dimensions, deepening the brand's market penetration.

In addition to the game business, IGG's app business is also worth paying attention to. In recent years, iGG has continued to make efforts in the app field. According to the company's financial report, in the first half of 2024, the app business contributed HK$0.409 billion in revenue, accounting for about 15% of the company's revenue for the same period, and has become a new engine for the company's diversified growth.

According to user data, in the first half of 2024, the app business had more than 41 million monthly active users. The rise of the app business has not only brought IGG considerable revenue growth, but more importantly, it has opened up new growth points for the company's future development and built its own traffic platform.

With the rapid development of mobile internet and broad prospects in the app market, IGG is expected to continue to work hard in this field and achieve greater breakthroughs.

Actively embrace AI technology and promote business innovation and upgrading

In terms of cutting-edge technology, IGG also maintains a keen insight and forward-looking layout. With the rapid development of AIGC technology, IGG is keenly aware of the huge potential of AI in game development and operation, and is actively embracing this technological transformation.

According to information, IGG has thoroughly applied AI technology at various levels such as R&D, planning, art, and procedures, effectively improving R&D strength and efficiency, and achieving large-scale cost reduction and efficiency.

For example, through AI technology, the company can more accurately analyze user needs and behavioral habits to provide strong data support for the development and operation of game products. At the same time, AI technology has also played an important role in localized customer service, global game language translation, and promotional copywriting and video production, helping the company achieve efficient and refined operations.

IGG Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Xu Yuan said that the company can reduce costs and increase efficiency through AI technology. In the first half of 2024, the company's R&D expenses were reduced by 21% year-on-year, but the number of R&D projects did not decrease, and efficiency was greatly improved.

In the future, IGG will continue to increase investment and R&D efforts in AI technology, promote business innovation and upgrading, and bring players a more immersive and interactive gaming experience.

Xu Yuan said that the company's development goals place equal emphasis on diversification, growth and profit. In the future, it will launch a variety of new games and accelerate the development of the app business, while looking at globalization and using cutting-edge technologies such as AI to drive the company's performance growth.

IGG also performed well in terms of steady operation. The company not only pays attention to diversified business development, but also attaches great importance to the protection and return of shareholders' interests.

According to public information, IGG's cumulative repurchase amount in the first half of 2024 was nearly HK$33 million, accounting for about 10% of the profit in the first half of the year; at the same time, the company also declared an interim dividend of HK8.5 cents per share, accounting for about 30% of the profit for the first half of the year; the total dividend and repurchase amount declared in the first half of the year accounted for about 40% of the profit for the first half of the year. The implementation of dividends and repurchase plans has not only increased shareholders' returns, but also strengthened the market's confidence in the company.

In addition, IGG's executive team has also increased their holdings of the company's shares several times. For example, between August and October 2024, Shen Jielei, the company's executive director and Chief Financial Officer, and Xu Yuan, the company's executive director and chief operating officer, each increased their holdings of the company's shares, at a cumulative cost of about HKD millions. The executive team's actions to increase their holdings not only demonstrated their confidence in the company's future development, but also set a positive example for the market.