As per NetEase’s 2023 Player Behavior Report, 72% of identity v top up consumers prefer regional platforms like Codashop, primarily due to the fact that their prices are on average 18.5% lower than the official channels. For example, Indonesian players spend just 150,000 Indonesian rupiah (about 9.6 US dollars) to recharge 1,000 echoes through Codashop, whereas the Google Play price is 12 US dollars, a reduction of 20% on the price. This price differential is a result of the collaboration between the platform and domestic payment gateways – Brazil’s Pix instant payment system has reduced the transaction fee from 6% of credit cards to 0.8%, enabling the platform to pass on 85% of cost savings to players (source of data: Brazil’s Central Bank Payment Efficiency White Paper).
The range of payment choices is another essential appeal. Codashop offers 28 local payment options in Southeast Asia (such as TrueMoney in Thailand and Momo in Vietnam), which cover 35% of players who cannot use international credit cards. For instance, cash recharge transaction volume of 7-Eleven convenience stores among Filipino consumers increased by 67% in 2023. The transaction amount per unit increased from $8 to $22, and the delivery time was shortened from 3 minutes on Google Play to 90 seconds (an efficiency improvement of 80%). On the other hand, when Turkish users recharged through the official App Store, as the lira lost 44% of its value over the year, the effective response volume obtained decreased by 19% (Data source: Foreign Exchange Report of the Central Bank of Turkey).
The localization operation strategy significantly enhances the user experience. The Japanese DMM platform has introduced a “Echo + Limited Skin” bundle package, which increased the overall value of a 5,000 yen (approximately 33 US dollars) recharge by 27%, adding to a 41% year-over-year growth in recharge revenue for the region in Q4 2023. The payment failure rate of Indian players via PayTM is a negligible 0.3%, while the payment failure rate for foreign credit cards due to review for compliance is 12% (data source: NPCI National Payment Company statistics). In 2022, NetEase cooperated with Thailand’s AIS Telecom to operate the “Call Credit for Echo” campaign. Users who recharged 599 Thai baht (approximately 17 US dollars) were eligible to claim a free echo worth 23%. On the first day that the campaign was launched, it generated a peak of 4,500 transactions per second (source of data: Announcement of the Stock Exchange of Thailand).
The social viral mechanism is the cause of the platform’s growth. In 2023, Codashop ran a “15% Commission for Inviting Friends” in Malaysia. The user count increased by 53% within three months, with 79% of those aged between 18 and 24. Somewhat concurrently, TikTok hosts in Indonesia demonstrated the identity v top up procedure by live streaming. One live stream made over 180,000 US dollars in sales, and the conversion rate was 22 percentage points higher than that of traditional ads. But the invasion of black and gray industries is still a threat – in 2022, Vietnam’s “EchoFarm” gang exploited the platform’s invitation reward mechanism to earn commissions through tens of thousands of robot accounts, bringing in over 800,000 US dollars illegally (as reported by the Vietnam Cyber Police).
Security and response speed are significant factors to consider when making decisions. The legitimate cooperative platform employs the PCI-DSS certified payment interface, and the risk of data leakage is 97% reduced compared to unauthorized channels. For instance, MyCard (Taiwan region) employs SSL 3.0 encryption technology that controls the transmission error rate of recharge information at 0.0001% and that recorded no security incident reports in 2023. In contrast, for third-party channels: In the Philippines’ “Load2Echo” fraud case in 2023, the employment of a fake payment page led to the freezing of 14,000 accounts, with a below 3% fund recovery rate (Philippine Department of Consumer Protection data). The standard cycle of resolving complaints for compliant channels is 6 hours, while for unofficial channels it may take up to 14 days (NetEase Customer Service Annual Report).
Geographic technology adoption is improving the experience. When users in Brazil use Pix to pay, the system selects clearing banks through intelligent routing, reducing the time to arrive from 180 seconds with credit cards to 8 seconds and reducing the failure rate from 5.2% to 0.4%. Russian clients used QIWI wallets due to Visa/MasterCard sanctions. Despite a 7% commission rate for transactions, the rate of use increased by 29% in 2023 compared to the trend (statistical source: Russian Payment Association). NetEase’s geofencing technology in Argentina (triple checking of IP, device time zone, and SIM card country) has boosted cross-regional recharge identification accuracy to 96%, and the account ban rate of illegal violations is enhanced from 71% in 2022 to 89% in 2023 (NetEase Risk Control Log).
The essence of player preference is a triangular exchange between cost, efficiency and security. While there may be a higher than 30% discount in unofficial channels (for instance, the echo price of the Indonesian black market for the year 2023 is only 65% of the official rate), the probability of suspending the account exceeds 85%. According to NetEase data, users’ LTV (Lifetime Value) on compliant platforms is 2.3 times the users’ in non-official channels because they continuously participate in game activities (such as the 2024 limited skin which has to be unlocked by collecting compliant recharges of 200 US dollars). When technological dividends such as blockchain payment shortening the clearing cycle from 72 hours to 22 seconds are well ingrained in localized operations, the identity v top up platform can establish the “golden triangle” favored by players.