Messaging is the New Platform: (Game) Bots are the New Apps | Alexander Krug

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hi, my name is Alexandr Krug. I‘m the CEO and Founder of SOFTGAMES – the worlds largest HTML5 games plaftrom. We have published over 400 HTML5 games and are entertaining 30m MAU globally. If you havent already noticed, 2016 is the year of messengers Messaging has become the new platform Bots are the new apps. The next 20 minutes we take a look at what bots are, what they mean and which opportunities they bring for game developers + instant apps von google -> tolle neue art -> fun bild zeigen + guidelines (3rd party integrationen erlaubt a la payment etc?) + gleiche technik bei allen bots? Einmal gebaut, überall gelauncht?
• #3: It may be hard to believe but the app boom is finally over - after almost a decade of massive growth. People still use apps but they are far more selective about which ones they download.
• #4: The reality is that in avarage an american downloads zero apps every month.
• #5: And when they decide to download an app they basically download the ones which are advertised the heaviest. This results in the fact that Top 1 % of app developers make 94% of the revenues Big developers can afford the raising cost for UA with the result they get bigger and bigger While indie developers have no chance to compete and win this „battle“ of discovery.
• #6: It‘s the right time for a change! With messangers becoming a platform there is a major pardigm shift on the way... We have had such shifts about once every decade. Let‘s have a short view back ...
• #7: It all started with the PC in the 1980s. Where  the platform was the desktop computer.
• #8: A major success factor of the PC was the fact that developers could add additional functionality through the development of desktop client software. A major developer ecosystem emerged around these platforms enabling users to personalize their PC.
• #9: Major software applications included Lotus, Word, Excel and many others.
• #10: The gatekeepers off the platform were Microsoft and Apple.
• #11: Over time, however, this framework outlived its purpose. 1) The software ended up with lots of features (bloatware), which confused the users.
• #12: 2) The development and cost of upgrades was high since it required additional user action, namely yet another download.
• #13: In the mid-90s, we shifted to another paradigm: the web.
• #14: the browser replaced the desktop OS as the new platform. the website got the new “client”.
• #15: Developers built web sites for specific use cases...
• #16: The new approach came with many advantages ...
• #17: The cost of developing and upgrading websites is much lower than client software
• #18: The approach of building web sites for only a specific use case eliminated the problem of bloatware. A Website provides only the features relevant to that page
• #19: Biggest players...
• #20: But in the mid-00s, with the rise of the smartphones, the dominant paradigm shifted again.
• #21: The mobile OS became the new platform and developers built individual apps for specific use cases.
• #22: In the early days, the mobile network speed was slow So, the client-side approach delivered a better user experiences than a server-side approach would have.
• #23: The problems of client-side software development came right back with it: The cost of development and upgrade is high...
• #24: And app bloatware is becoming a problem again. Twitter – an app to send out 140 characters is 76 MB big!
• #25: Plus, because ist so easy to buid an app, there are millions of apps out there fighting for your attention. App discovery is broken – u can only win when u spent millions of $$$ This is unlikely to get better as both Apple & Google now charging developers for app visibility
• #26: Much bigger challenge: most smartphone users have all the apps they need. Just ask yourself: how many different apps u use every day? I bet only a handful!
• #27: On the other hand, messaging apps are experiencing explosive growth Soon they will be used 2 billion people globally Messengers are the most used app in a smartphone: Today, they take 80% of the time you spend on your smartphone - and this is where the chatbots come out to play
• #28: Messaging apps are becoming the new platform, they are subsuming the role played by the mobile operating system. Bots, are the new apps. The bot store is the new app store.
• #29: Bots are a fancy way to describe automated messages. Bots are new platforms for developers, they are an interface for users, they represent a whole range of new opportunities!
• #30: Messaging bots have the same advantages as websites. The cost of development and upgrade is lower than apps. Plus a bot is always build for specific case only.
• #31: Users dont have to leave their Comfort Zone  -> users don’t have to download, install and register across different apps. They can stay within the messaging app that they already love and trust while using the services.
• #32: Developers are building messaging bots to support specific services: Get customized notifications and news from the Forbes, Yahoo or TechCrunch Bot
• #33: Current: more text-based approach to chatbots as something similar to the way companies were approaching websites in 1996.
• #34: If a message format remains plain text, it either limits the capabilities of the bot or requires multiple iterations to precisely specify the request.
• #35: Better are “smart” messages that structure content, like mini-web pages, to enable precise and efficient communication between bots and humans. 
• #36: Bots in combination with smart messages, enables replication of any site or app onto the messenger platform. Almost any transaction or workflow can be mapped to the messaging framework.
• #37: Beside services Bots can be also the starting point for a game.
• #38: Very early days, limited UX First steps -> Text adventures
• #39: Similar to C64 Games.... At least 30 years back!
• #40: Social Sharing -> bekannte mechanismen von FB spielen -> bsp lade freunde ein, um mehr zu produzieren
• #41: Well known mechanics from the early days of FB games.. -> growth opportnities are similiar strong due to the big advantages of bots as a platform “no downloads, no new account, no new interface”.
• #42: First bots are using web view already, which opens a simple HTML5 game.
• #43: user
• #45: Such high quality content is what gamers epcect today – not a text adventure in the look and feel of a C64 game. In order to deliver the quality the users demand and expect, HTML5 is the technology u should use! The evolution will proceed super fast, as HTML5 is ready to deliver a high quality gaming experience. Um die Qualität den Nutzern zu geben, die sie erwarten und gewohnt sind, führt kein Weg an HTML5 dran vorbei.. Die Entwicklung wird dabei sehr schnell voran gehen, da die Technology is ready to deliver high quality gaming experience.
• #46: What‘s currently possible shows our „FreeGameADay“ bot. It sends users a new game every 24h. Their goal is to climb up the leaderboard. The game itself is build in HTML5 and opens in a webview. Sign up yourself – it‘s huge fun 
• #47: The combination of HTML5 and Bots is super powerful. Now ist up to smart game developers to create use cases which brings together the uniqueness of a bot with H5. Everything is possible currently – as it‘s super new and everybody can try – as in the early days of FB games.
• #48: What are the challenges?
• #49: One of the biggest challenges of this paradigm is the discovery... Should each messenger provide their own bot store, where users can browse recommended bots?
• #50: OR.. Should bots be accessed in-context through a dedicated expansion interface?
• #51: What about Monetization? IAP? Ads? Ideas?
• #52: Apps won't die but more and more usage will migrate to bots... Bots with an intuitive interface and high quality content have a huge potential. So, instead of wasting thousands of dollars pushing an app on an unwilling public, take your games Kik, Facebook Messenger or Telegram that your customers are already using.