Karol Severin

Karol is a co-founder and Research Director at MIDiA. With over a decade of experience in consumer research, industry analysis, and consulting, Karol oversees the direction, coverage and quality of all MIDiA’s research output. Prior to co-founding MIDiA, Karol gained experience in TMT market research and consulting, as well as an entertainment industry startup founder. He holds a business management degree from Queen Mary, University of London, with specialisation in strategy, quantitative methods, and entrepreneurship.

Twitter Lite is now available on Google Play In 24 more countries

Karol Severin

1 Dec 2017

Twitter has launched Twitter Lite on Google Play store in 24 countries. The move comes after successful testing in the Philippines. Users in countries where mobile data is expensive, and perhaps disposable income is relatively low, will welcome the Lite version.

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Quick Take: Is Rovio’s 20% stock price dip justified?

Karol Severin

27 Nov 2017

Rovio reported its Q3 2017 results, the first financial report since its initial public offering (IPO) as a listed company. Despite revenue (€70.7 million, or approximately $84.2 million) having increased 41.

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Games Video Viewing
Broader Propositions Will Increase Mainstream Adoption

Cover image for Games Video Viewing

Karol Severin

November 2017

games video

gaming video

gamer video

Games related video viewing is a relatively new but vibrant marketplace. It has multiple use cases across the gamer segments: from newbies watching walkthroughs, to hard core fans viewing an e-sports event online. Though currently still a niche activity among gamers overall, it has a mainstream penetration of 54% among 16-24 year old males.

How Much Money Is Tencent Really Making From Games?

Karol Severin

17 Nov 2017

tencent q3 2017 results

Tencent reported its third quarter results this week, surpassing analyst expectations. It is hardly news that Tencent is going from strength to strength in terms of its games-related revenues. However, the way it reports financials still underestimates just how important games are to its money-making efforts.

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Quick Take: Zynga’s Q3 results and acquisition of Peak Games’s Card Game Studio

Karol Severin

8 Nov 2017

In August, we wrote about Zynga swinging back to profit and its plans to focus further on branding and ‘forever franchises’ (games it believes will remain long-term successes), to maintain its positive momentum.

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Quick Take: Will PlayStation’s growing VR games catalogue move the needle for its VR hardware?

Karol Severin

1 Nov 2017

We have written on the potential of VR in the past , specifically about our concern that gaming VR headsets will not take off en masse, until there is content mix compelling enough to justify device price points.

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Rovio’s Pre-IPO Health Check

Cover image for Rovio’s Pre-IPO Health Check

Karol Severin

October 2017

rovio

Angry Birds

Angry Birds 2

Rovio, the publisher of Angry Birds, announced it would go public in October 2017 via NASDAQ Helsinki. The company is beyond its user growth peak, but is midway through a company turn around in terms of revenues and profitability. The company has IPOed as a profitable and revenue (rather than user growth) – oriented enterprise, willing to pay dividends from the get go.

MIDiA Fuse Is A Researcher’s Dream – Here’s Why

Cover image for MIDiA Fuse Is A Researcher’s Dream – Here’s Why

Karol Severin

4 Oct 2017

The days are passing by apace, taking us closer and closer to MIDiA Research’s launch of Fuse — a self-service data and insight tool, which we believe is going to make lives easier for research, insight, strategy and sales teams in digital media and entertainment across the world.

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Quick Take: What The New 280 Character Limit Really Means For Twitter

Karol Severin

29 Sep 2017

Twitter announced this week that it started trialling an extension of its established 140-character limit to 280 characters. This islargely about trying to improve engagement and, concretely, time spent.

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YouTube plays catch up, adopting Twitch-style Sponsorships programme

Karol Severin

22 Sep 2017

games streaming

Live video streaming

YouTube announced this week, (September 20th) that it is expanding its sponsorships programme, following successful testing. Sponsorships will allow viewers to purchase digital goods directly from creators’ channels and support them via recurring monthly payments of $4.

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Going Beyond Sync
Mutually Beneficial Opportunities in Music And Games

Cover image for Going Beyond Sync

Karol Severin

September 2017

Music behaviour

music services

playlisting

There is a significant behavioural and demographic overlap between gamers and music consumers. An affinity for music, adoption of subscription services, attendance of live music events, merchandise sales and following celebrities on social media, are just a few of the many indicators in which gamers over-index, compared to average consumers.

Quick Take: Zynga Partners With Ferrari To Delight CSR2 Players

Karol Severin

15 Sep 2017

Zynga’s CSR2 , a leading racing mobile game, has partnered up with Ferrari for a promotional in-game event to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the iconic car brand. A mutually beneficial brand-building partnership Having kicked-off yesterday and running through till February 2018, CSR2 will gradually roll out six special anniversary Ferraris, adding to the 10 Ferraris already available in CSR2 .

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Thoughts On Rovio’s IPO – Can The Positive Traction Last?

Karol Severin

7 Sep 2017

angry birds movie

cross-entertainment strategy

Rovio has announced it is preparing for an IPO. It would be listed on Nasdaq Helsinki and it plans to issue €30 million worth of shares. Rovio’s announcement highlighted the recent growth of its monthly unique payers and average revenue per user.

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How E-sports Could Fit Within The Olympic Framework

Karol Severin

1 Sep 2017

e-sports in olympics

The president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, said in an interview that while genres like sport simulators are still in the running to be considered for 2024, the Olympics have no interest in promoting anything to do with violence and killing.

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Mobile App Discovery
Targeting Gamers With Word Of Mouth

Cover image for Mobile App Discovery

Karol Severin

August 2017

ASO

app store optimization

app discovery

App discovery has come a long way since the rise of mobile app stores. What were once relatively simple app marketplaces are evolving into more carefully curated experiences, in a bid to showcase effectively a greater amount of the two million strong app ecosystem, rather than just the top 50.

GamesCom Takeaways – Gaming Has Become A Fully Fledged Cultural Movement

Karol Severin

25 Aug 2017

As we descended upon Cologne to attend GamesCom 2017, various expectation scenarios were playing out in my head. It’s safe to say that the reality beat most of them. Having spent three days at this monster rendezvous, it was a real eye-opener to the sheer force that the global gaming industry has become and where it is heading.

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Rovio’s ‘Games-First’ Strategy Is Not Just About Games

Karol Severin

17 Aug 2017

cross-entertainment strategy

cross-platform entertainment

Rovio reported its Q2 results this week. Total revenue was €86.2 million, a year-on-year (YoY) increase of 94%. While the majority of Rovio’s revenue was driven by games (€61.3 million, 65% YoY increase), its brand licensing revenue grew the fastest with a 242.

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Super Evil Megacorp Pushes Mobile Gaming Boundaries

Karol Severin

10 Aug 2017

e.v.i.l. engine

The company most known for its multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) title Vainglory, has announced that it successfully raised $19 million to further expand its studio space. Besides its name, Super Evil Megacorp is worth watching because of its persistent vision of mobile gamers deserving more than sub-par gameplay experiences, due to the limitations of their mobile device.

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Quick Take: Zynga Swings To Profit in Q2

Karol Severin

3 Aug 2017

forever franchise

Zynga is turning things around. Its Q2 2017 revenue and booking performance were the best in four years. The company’s revenue was $209.2 million, up from $181.7million in Q2 2016. What’s more, Zynga had a $5.

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Nintendo’s Results Beat Expectations

Karol Severin

27 Jul 2017

Nintendo is going from strength to strength. According to its quarterlyearnings results released yesterday, the company earned ¥154.1 billion, surpassing analysts’ median forecast of ¥136.5 billion.

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