Crypto Growth Theory | TON Foundation Kenny: Discussion on TG Ecological Traffic Strategies

Mentor: Kenny, TON Foundation

Editor & Organizer: BeWater

Preface: On September 21, the second session of the Growth Hacker Camp, co-hosted by BeWater & PANews, successfully concluded in Singapore. During this event, mentors from top projects and VCs in the Web3 field deeply discussed core topics such as personal branding, growth strategies, community building, user retention, and conversion, providing valuable insights and inspiration to the attendees.

This growth training camp received high praise, and BeWater has compiled the content shared by the mentors into written form, establishing a "Growth" series for readers! The first article in this series is "Introduction to the TG Ecosystem and Gameplay Discussion" by Kenny from the TON Foundation. Below is a summary and extraction of Kenny's speech:

I. Basic Introduction to the TG Ecosystem

TG: The Third Largest Social Platform Overseas and Regional Market Distribution

TG is the fastest-growing social platform globally, with the latest MAU surpassing 950 million, serving as the "WeChat" for the CIS region with a population of 240 million. Currently, it is a billion-level app, targeting 1.5 billion users in the next three years, which is a 50% absolute growth rate. It is hard to imagine that WeChat or Douyin will still have a 50% growth rate. Compared to the top two, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, TG offers more flexible openness, a more complete functional infrastructure, and a tighter ecological loop, making it the platform closest to the WeChat ecosystem overseas.

Apart from developed countries, TG serves as the "WeChat" for the CIS region with a population of 240 million. Other key markets include populous third-world emerging markets like India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Iran. Telegram's nearly 1 billion users actually have a relatively low proportion of crypto users; in many countries, it is used as a national IM software rather than a fringe or underground communication tool.

Functionality Building of the TG Ecosystem

Channels (public accounts), Stories (friend circles), etc., have become important infrastructure and growth tools for TG ecosystem developers.

One of the most well-known Chinese projects on TON creatively used short videos in its early stages, which significantly enhanced user stickiness and community atmosphere, growing from tens of thousands of users in March to hundreds of thousands of views daily for its "addictive" friend circle posts. The live streaming feature is similar to WeChat group live streaming, and projects related to events are currently in the trial and development phase. Additionally, founder Durov, as the god of the TG world, provides significant reference for TG ecosystem entrepreneurs through his public account channels. The wallet function will focus on promoting decentralized Ton Space in the future. The TG mini-program ecosystem is developing rapidly, achieving near-complete coverage of the types of WeChat mini-programs and introducing new categories that WeChat cannot realize, with recent popular mini-programs like TADA for ride-hailing, e-commerce, ticketing, and short dramas.

The TG advertising system has not yet emerged as an industrialized method for acquiring volume, leading to the emergence of a grassroots advertising system to address data layer issues. The TG advertising system is divided into official and grassroots advertising systems. Currently, the TG App center only features manually curated content and a "what's new" function. Additionally, the Appbar offers personalized recommendations, but the official advertising system currently only supports graphic text insertion for public accounts, and the effectiveness of ad placements cannot be accurately achieved without collecting user information, which relates to the product philosophy of TG's founder, who does not agree with Facebook's practice of using mobile user information for ad placements. Therefore, grassroots advertising systems have emerged in TG, attempting to solve data layer issues through various forms such as on-chain data and group performance.

II. Discussion on Traffic Growth on TG

TG is a Huge Traffic Sinkhole for Overseas Mini-Games

TG is a huge traffic sinkhole for overseas mini-games, and future penetration rates and users may experience a Davis Double Click. The form of mini-games on TG is continuously evolving. Many believe that mini-games are currently very competitive, and traffic costs are high. Regarding the development prospects of mini-games, I have outlined this chart; while it may be difficult to reach WeChat's 45% penetration rate, I believe it can exceed Facebook's 12%.

Facebook's problem lies in the lack of an active gaming ecosystem and commercial closed loop. In contrast, based on the current penetration rate of TG mini-games (of course, my definition of mini-games does not include the most primitive tap types), we can predict that the penetration rate of TG mini-games could at least double.

On the user growth side, the platform has a 50% absolute growth rate in the future. The combination of mini-game penetration rates and user growth drivers represents a Davis Double Click. The second point is that the form of mini-games is still evolving; the current form of TG mini-games is relatively light. If we look at the development history of mini-games in WeChat, there are many forms of games worth looking forward to, and we should have confidence in this. The third point is that TG will continue to iterate on its products; the speed of official product updates is relatively slow compared to domestic commercial software, which leads to new benefits being released with each iteration.

How Should TG Projects Go to Market?

Projects on TG need to first identify their target users, clarify which regional market they want to enter, and determine who they want to earn money from. This can be confirmed from both geographical and Web2/Web3 dimensions. In the coordinate system below, the horizontal axis represents regions, with related markets having over 100 million TG users. Here, a significant difference between TG and WeChat is that WeChat is a unified large market with the same culture and system, while TG's market is cross-regional, with significant cultural differences between populations in different regions, each having different resources and strategies. The vertical axis represents user profiles, i.e., Web2 or Web3 users. Currently, over 90% of projects are targeting off-chain users who do not have wallets; they are not here for airdrops. A typical profile can be likened to parents or elders using WeChat as a communication tool, occasionally spending on casual games but not getting addicted. This user segment has strong purchasing power and high user stickiness.

Therefore, when making mini-games on TG, beyond the business model of issuing assets, revenue can be realized by selecting suitable markets and user groups. For example, some project parties have successfully navigated pure Web2 IAP (In-app purchases) paths, monetizing based on the consumption capacity, usage duration, and habits of a time machine version of WeChat. However, due to the absence of IAA, the more common model currently is a hybrid monetization model of IAP + heavy asset issuance. The customer acquisition path on TG differs from traditional platforms like Douyin, as it cannot rely on paid advertising, so it heavily depends on the social virality of core seed user circles. This positioning should be quite clear.

CIS Market

The entire TG ecosystem is positioned in the CIS region, where the Russian-speaking market's "high ground" is reflected not only in user numbers but also in user quality, usage duration, and user commitment; this market is the most worthwhile to develop. Notcoin, Dogs, Hamster, and other star TG projects come from the Russian-speaking region, while Catizen has already integrated well into the Russian market. Other regions, such as India, have the highest MAU, but user value and penetration rates are low. Additionally, some markets like Iran are worth paying attention to.

The logic of external traffic for TG: A lot of traffic for TG comes from outside, especially from large traffic platforms in the Russian-speaking region, which are worth exploring, such as Hamster finding agencies on TikTok and YouTube.

Several takeaways regarding growth:

1. Compared to the traditional gaming industry: the development cost on TG is low, expectations are not high, but ROI is high. Currently, there is no mature, scalable customer acquisition method, and it is hoped that some advertising alliances can solve this problem.
2. Currently, there is no mature growth path that is scalable or industrialized; thinking through the process of elimination is key. A significant wave of mini-games in 2022 was due to the integration of WeChat and Douyin, with 60% of mini-games coming from Douyin, which has an internal advertising system. The official TG, due to its Web3 product philosophy and the decentralized ideology of its founder, finds it challenging to propose an industrialized method for acquiring volume. Therefore, it is necessary to think through the process of elimination, and other methods need to be continuously tried and refined.
3. Products do not need to be the best, only the most suitable and matched. Many projects feel that the current product quality is average and relatively rough compared to WeChat, but I believe we need to consider how to define "the best." Is it a AAA masterpiece? I think it should only be the most suitable or matched, meaning it aligns with the current user's usage habits, monetization methods, and traffic acquisition methodologies. Only then can you say that this product is good, rather than just saying that these game products have simple UIs and interactions; matching is the most important.
4. Treat users as traffic ➡ Leverage users for mutual growth. The fourth point I believe needs a shift in perception: users are not just traffic; you need to leverage them more. Many people already have this consensus, viewing users as nodes and considering how they can help you grow together. However, even with this understanding or idea, more attempts and actions are still needed.
5. Gradually clarifying a new hybrid monetization model, centered around value feedback loops. WeChat mini-programs and mini-games use a hybrid monetization model of IAA + IAP. However, IAA is relatively difficult to implement on TG. Many domestic project parties are increasingly adopting the IAP + heavy asset issuance monetization model. But some may question that users are only here for airdrops, suggesting that these users are only after benefits. However, I personally believe that the core still revolves around your value feedback: what can you bring to users? When you are growing and seeking monetization, think about what value feedback you can provide to users. Airdrops can be one form of feedback, such as providing them with unlockable items in the game. You need to consider from the user's perspective, even if you are providing entertainment value. The core is still about what kind of value feedback you can provide to users.
6. Three-tier theory of social dissemination. When doing social interactions on TG, we believe there are three tiers:
7. The first tier is having social functions in your product. Many products still lack this feature; whether you are in a tunnel or standing somewhere, I believe this function must be present.
8. The second is how to design the value chain, returning to the perspective of value feedback, which is how to leverage users to help you provide feedback, which can also connect with the fourth point. For example, some mini-games have directly copied Pinduoduo's "cutting a knife," and many domestic operations are currently being replicated.
9. The third, which is more elusive, is cultural attributes. You might want to consider how to create icons or how to approach different markets. For instance, if you are targeting Russian-speaking users, understanding their psychology and the icons relevant to them is something I believe requires some research.

As we enter Q4, we plan to conduct offline tours in communities around the world to share more detailed insights on traffic growth aimed at TON developers, and we will invite several outstanding project parties at different stages of development to share practical experiences. We welcome everyone to participate at that time. Thank you.