Digivizer starts new venture to tap into $65 billion APAC gamers’ market

Sydney, 18 August 2017 - Australian social and digital analytics technology company Digivizer has launched a new venture, called goto.game, to tap the global esports and online games market.

Goto.game is a media hub, run by gamers for gamers, designed to connect great content, events, activations, competitions and influencers within the one ecosystem.

According to digital and online games research company Newzoo, the market is worth AU$131 billion globally, AU$65 billion across APAC, and AU$1.5 billion in Australia and New Zealand alone.  There are more than 1.1 billion gamers in the APAC region, according to Newzoo.

Digivizer has formed goto.game as a separate company that will operate alongside Digivizer itself, supported by Digivizer’s analytics technology, the same technology that Digivizer offers its commercial clients.  

Digivizer and goto.game CEO Emma Lo Russo explains the decision to launch goto.game: “The gaming space is not new to Digivizer. We’ve provided social and digital insights and services in this market for clients that include Lenovo and Intel over the past three years. We’ve engaged some of the biggest influencers and esports teams in the APAC region, generating highly successful activations, streams, content and sponsorships, providing gaming and non-gaming brands with opportunities to be involved in the lucrative esports market.”

Digivizer has worked with gamers and brands at some of the largest gaming events here in Australia. The audiences and attendance at these events outstrip those for many mainstream television and sporting events.

“Our analysis of the market, and our work at events such as PAX, RTX and this year’s Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) esports event in Sydney, makes it clear that there is a huge opportunity to fill a gap in the market,” says Emma Lo Russo.

“Over 7 million live views of IEM and 92 million in-content views for a single event represent audiences almost double those of mainstream TV viewing numbers, including the major traditional sporting AFL and NRL grandfinals.  And we have seen this market grow, in size and in the number of engaged fans who influence each other.

“Our strategy for goto.game is to bring these three groups - gamers and influencers, their fans and brands - together in a new ecosystem that treats everyone with equal respect, adds expertise and value at every point in the engagement, and uses real-time data to understand what’s working and where to go next.

“Gamers and esports teams want to connect with commercial sponsors, without compromising their values. Brands want to understand how to work effectively in what for many remains unfamiliar territory. And fans want to enjoy their gaming without selling out to anyone. Goto.game meets these needs. This is a gaming destination run by gamers for gamers.

“And our experience shows that using data and advanced analytics, combined with the best-possible understanding of this very specialist marketplace, is the only way to deliver value and meaningful engagements to all.

“For fans, influencers and brands, this is about creating a win-win-win, with content and contexts that matter to them. We have been thrilled by the overwhelming support we have received from the wider gaming influencers and esports teams across the APAC region, and from partnerships with the major social and streaming platforms.”

Goto.game will be headed by Digivizer’s gaming team specialists Phid Oldfield and Jack Hudson, highly credible gamers and streamers in their own right, supported by a team of gamers including their advertising specialists.  Goto.game is already talking to top-tier gamers and esports teams, and launches with clients AKRacing (which is launching a new specialist gamers’ chair on the goto.game web site), Intel, and Legion by Lenovo.  

Goto.game will identify new sponsorship opportunities for brands, influencers and gamers, provide a web portal for news, opinions and reviews, develop and stage new esports events, and create and run social media activations.  The website will publish original and aggregated content from brands and gamers, and provide site take-over opportunities for brands seeking to ‘own’ the web site for marketing programmes.

Digivizer’s first breakaway venture

The new venture is aiming at the APAC market. Underpinning everything will sit Digivizer’s real-time analytics technology, providing insights for everyone operating in this new ecosystem - corporate marketers, influencers and gamers alike.

Goto.game starts operations as Digivizer approaches its seventh year of operations, growing its operating revenue 290% over the last year alone. Starting in classic Silicon Valley fashion with two people in an office smaller than one of the meeting rooms in its current location in the Sydney CBD, Digivizer now employs over 50 people.

It has clients in ANZ, APAC, EMEA and the United States, in the IT, financial services, consumer products, automotive and corporate leadership segments. The company won the Carnegie’s Den round in May 2014, signed a Strategic Alliance Agreement with Deloitte in December 2014, and has concluded one round of private investment. Goto.game is its first breakaway venture.

ENDS

Goto.game is at:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gotogame

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoToGamers/

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/gotogame

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goto.game/

Web: www.goto.game

CEO Emma Lo Russo is available for interview.  Photographs and logo artwork available.

For more information:                                             

Alan Smith                                                                          

Head of Strategic Business Communications, Digivizer                   

0404 432 700                                                                  

alan.smith@digivizer.com              

Twitter: @alansmithoz