On February 16, according to 3DMGame report: Youtube officially announced the signing of an exclusive live broadcast contract with Activision Blizzard. It is reported that the price of the contract is as high as US $ 160 million. This cooperation is not only about live game broadcasting, but more importantly, Google Cloud Service will provide Activision Blizzard with convenient cloud computing services. It can be said that the two parties are a mutually beneficial and powerful alliance.
This year, Google continues to add chips to its cloud computing business, which focuses on the layout of the game business. This cooperation with Activision Blizzard is also a big move for Google Cloud in the cloud gaming market. As we all know, the global game industry is also undergoing cloud upgrades, which has made cloud giants eyeing this big cake. In recent years, Google has continued to move in the gaming field, and it has become increasingly ambitious to snatch more well-known game manufacturers.
Domestic Tencent Cloud announced on August 2 last year that it will provide one-stop cloud gaming solutions for global game manufacturers and platforms. According to this development trend, both Google Cloud and Tencent Cloud seem to be accelerating their layout in cloud games. Will the two sides have a battle in the future? Looking at the world, in the 5G era, cloud games are ushering in the best development era. Who will snatch more markets in the future?
Why is there such a guess? Based on the similarities between the two cloud game layouts
This time Google can get a cooperation with Activision Blizzard, which will drive the development of several of its major businesses. At present, the cloud computing business has become the focus of the development of technology giants. Both Amazon and Microsoft borrow cloud computing to successfully break through the trillion-dollar market value, and the cloud computing business still maintains a very rapid development. In addition to Amazon, Microsoft, and Alibaba, giants represented by Google and Tencent are also accelerating.
Google provides cloud computing services for Activision Blizzard. This step will also drive its competitiveness in cloud games. At present, the game industry has great demand for cloud computing, which has also become an important market for giants to grab. This time Google's big game moves will increase competition in the cloud gaming industry. Why do some voices think that Google and Tencent will usher in positive competition in cloud games? This may still be closely related to their business layout.
Google's stance as a "challenger" to march into growth markets cannot be ignored. Google will launch commercial services in 14 countries in Europe and America. Five months before the service began, Google announced that it had prepared at least about 30 works. Google's basic idea is that without a host, you can play as long as you have a terminal with a display such as a mobile phone, computer, or TV.
At present, Youtube, Google Cloud, Stadia and advertisements of Google all rely on games for vertical connection. From an external perspective, it is clear that this is Google's cross-group strategy, and the left and right hands complement each other. This is a proof of the value of Google Cloud and Youtube concepts. They may use this to counter Amazon's AWS and Twitch and find a firm foothold in the market.
In the same way, Tencent's core business has always been games, and the market dividends for cloud games are also accelerating. The business of Tencent Cloud Services also occupies a greater advantage in games. In the field of the pan-Internet industry, especially in the game and video cloud traffic industry, e-commerce, and information and social industries, Tencent Cloud's market share ranks first, surpassing Half of the game companies provide services.
As of April 2019, Tencent Cloud's infrastructure covers 25 regions on five continents, operates 53 availability zones, and has a data storage scale of EB level, and has deployed more than 1300+ acceleration nodes globally. In May 2019, Tencent deployed more than 1 million servers around the world, with a peak bandwidth of 100T. In July 2017, Tencent Cloud's business in Europe was gradually on the right track. Tencent Cloud was centered in Frankfurt, Germany, and then covered the entire Europe.
According to the layout of the two companies in the game business, with the help of cloud computing service game manufacturers have also become a growth point of their cloud business. According to their previous financial report, in the last quarter, Google's cloud computing business generated revenue of 8.92 billion U.S. dollars in fiscal 2019, compared with 5.84 billion U.S. dollars in 2018. The company claims that its annual revenue can reach 10 billion U.S. dollars. . According to Tencent ’s Q3 financial report, Tencent Cloud ’s third-quarter revenue was 4.7 billion yuan, up 80% year-on-year.
From the perspective of revenue growth brought by the cloud computing business, this does indeed allow Google and Tencent to see the potential for development. How to gain more market share in the cloud computing market and still have a certain advantage in the field of their own competitive advantages . As cloud gaming has become a trend in the development of the gaming industry, the competition between Google Cloud and Tencent Cloud has already been staged. Who will have a greater advantage in the future?
Who will gain a greater competitive advantage in the global market as the cloud gaming competition accelerates?
At present, the layout of enterprises represented by Google and Tencent in the field of cloud computing is oriented to the global market. Under such a background, the competition between Google and Tencent for the cloud computing market is intensifying. This time Google's cooperation with Activision Blizzard has also caused a lot of discussion in the game industry, which will also increase the influence of Google Cloud in the game industry. All along, Tencent is the world's largest game company. Tencent Cloud serves more than half of domestic game manufacturers. Who will be more competitive in the future of cloud gaming?
1. From the perspective of global popularity, Google Cloud is slightly better than Tencent Cloud
Although both giants have launched cloud computing services around the world, in order to get more cooperation overseas, in fact, the company's popularity is still a very important factor. In this regard, Google Cloud may have certain advantages over Tencent Cloud. Google Cloud is backed by Google, and Google ’s search engine is used by billions of users worldwide, including many in the European market.
Taking the European market as an example, although European cloud services have existed for a long time, they are almost all belong to American companies, such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google. As far as Europe is concerned, there are no large cloud service providers. Google currently has a data center in London for cloud computing services leased by third parties. The facility is its second cloud computing data center in Europe after Brussels, and promises to provide faster access to nearby customers.
According to Li Shiwei, head of Tencent Cloud Europe, although many Europeans know WeChat and QQ, they do not know that WeChat and QQ belong to Tencent. Many people do not know the brand Tencent, let alone Tencent Cloud. Tencent Cloud still lags behind Google Cloud in the promotion of cloud computing technology. In terms of global visibility, Google Cloud has certain advantages over Tencent Cloud, and will naturally have some advantages in competing for customer resources.
2. From a technical point of view, Tencent Cloud and Google Cloud have their own advantages
In fact, the concept of cloud gaming is not new. As early as the 2009 San Francisco Game Developers Conference, relevant manufacturers have already conducted live demonstrations. Now that ten years have passed, the cloud gaming market has still not been what the service providers imagined. Now, with the 5G landing has become inevitable, the improvement of the underlying communication technology has also made countless practitioners rekindle their enthusiasm for cloud gaming, cloud gaming is blowing a blast.
At this stage, because of the powerful capabilities of 5G, this makes cloud gaming more likely than before. Some players have previously stated that the cloud computer in Huawei ’s EMUI computer mode has been able to play some PC games, but the frame number and image quality during the game are still relatively ordinary, and they have not achieved the desired effect. The 3A masterpiece of the platform is naturally unavailable.
For Google and Tencent, if you want to compete for the cooperation of game manufacturers, the key is to look at the technology, and in the field of cloud games
The focus of the solution provided by the competition is two parts: reducing delay and reducing bit rate. In order to win the favor of users, can audio and video technology achieve low latency and low bit rate to ensure the user's gaming experience. Both technology giants are strong in technology, but still have their own advantages in details.
Like the technology accumulation of Tencent Cloud in the field of audio and video, Tencent Cloud serves more than 80% of customers in China's TOP100 live broadcast platform, and has accumulated rich experience in the field of audio and video. There are also ecological resources inside, which can be implemented in more scenarios. For example, in the cloud game advertising demo scene, Tencent Cloud is trying to internally coordinate ecological resources and cooperate with more existing entrances to help game manufacturers increase conversion rates.
For Google, its advantage is that its youtube has accumulated a lot in the video field. This time, it reached a cooperation with Activision Blizzard, not only its Youtube can provide live broadcast for it, but also the use of cloud computing can better enable Activision Blizzard brings users a better experience in the field of cloud gaming. From a technical point of view, in fact, both sides have their own strengths, the key is to see who has core competitiveness in key areas.
3. From the perspective of global game layout, Tencent is more competitive than Google
Going back to the game business itself, in terms of the layout of Tencent and Google in terms of games, Tencent still has a more competitive advantage. After all, Tencent's own business is to make games, and it has already built its game ecosystem in the world. Compared with Google, Tencent's game layout is larger and wider. It may be that the game business that Google is involved in, Tencent has done, but the game business that Tencent is involved in may not be covered by Google.
Tencent has been investing overseas in recent years to expand its overseas presence. Tencent currently holds shares or invests in multiple overseas game companies. As of now, Tencent has invested 100% in Fist, 84% in Supercell (developer of "Clash of Clans"), 48% in Epic (developer of Fortress Night), 28% in CJ Games and Kakao The company has 13% shares, Activision 12% shares and Ubisoft 5% shares.
With the increasing trend of "Tencent Game Globalization", the "Pan Entertainment Age" has brought Tencent a lot of revenue, which is why Tencent attaches great importance to the global layout of the game industry. Tencent's ambitions are definitely not satisfied with becoming only the second Steam, or simply to be a game agent. What Tencent wants is a game empire that belongs to Tencent. Judging from the game business layout, Tencent is still more widely deployed than Google. Having so many shares of well-known game manufacturers will also help it compete in cloud games.
For Google and Tencent, the two companies have different business development priorities, but as the layout of cloud games is accelerating, this also makes two companies that are not competitors in the field of cloud games. Start a round of head-to-head competition. From the above three points of view, Google and Tencent each have their own advantages, but the overall strength can not be underestimated, which is why the outside world is looking forward to their fight in the cloud gaming market. Just behind this competition, who has more ability to gain more markets?
Cloud games will become the future trend of the game industry giants join forces to grab market dividends
In fact, behind the giants' efforts to develop cloud games, the main thing is to see the development prospects of this market. According to market research firm Niko Partners' recent research on the Asian cloud gaming market, it is estimated that in the Asian market alone, cloud gaming services will bring in revenue of US $ 270 million in 2019, and this number will climb to 30 by 2023 100 million US dollars, which also means that the global cloud game market has more room for development.
From the past experience, games continue to put forward strict and growing demands on hardware performance; and the improvement of hardware computing power will eventually spill over into the field of productivity; we clearly see that similar logic will be staged again in cloud gaming applications. With the advent of the 5G commercial era, the cloud-to-end transmission rate has been greatly improved. With the promotion of technology, this will also make the use of cloud games more and more, and the gameplay will be more intelligent. Once the cloud game connects all links in the industry chain, the subsequent migration to productivity will come naturally.
At present, Google and Tencent are both on the two paths in the cloud gaming industry. On the one hand, they are deploying cloud games on their own. Google has launched Stadia, a cloud gaming platform, and has partnered with Ubisoft, EA, Bethesda, Bungie ( Now it has collaborated with Activision Blizzard), THQ, 2K, R Star, Sega, Warner, Larian, Capcom, Kele, SNK, SE, Nanmeng Bandai, etc.
Tencent has also deployed a "cloud game" and opened its own "START" cloud game's internal test appointment, which can be said to follow the same path as Google.
On the other hand, both Google and Tencent use cloud computing technology to provide technical services to game manufacturers, which has become the focus of their future development. Not only can they reach closer cooperation with well-known game manufacturers, but also more important It is this that can drive their revenue growth in the cloud computing business, which will also become the focus of their competition in the global market.
Entering the era of cloud gaming, we can see that the pioneers of the cloud gaming market are all joined forces by giants in the industry. Google and Activision Blizzard, Tencent and Nvidia cooperate to build a cloud gaming platform, and Sanqi Huyu and Huawei jointly explore the direction of cloud gaming development. Such a strong joint model will be a trend. In this general trend, perhaps the dividends in the cloud gaming market will still be divided among the giants.
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