Xiaomi, China’s smartphone manufacturer, rolled out its very own live trivia game on its short video streaming app Youle Monday, marking the latest case of a Chinese tech company throwing itself into a recent fad of app-based live trivia games.
Taking a page from the U.S. hit game HQ Trivia, China starts this year with a series launch of similar offerings from a variety of tech companies, including smartphone manufacturer like Xiaomi, social media services like Weibo, as well as live streaming platforms like Xigua.
They kept upping the prize pool of their games to attract contestants and to encourage friends referrals. And such games, have been proven to be a quick and effective remedy – at least for now – to compete against each other for users in an almost saturated mobile market in China.
Read more at Knowledge Earns You One Million, Live Trivia Game Is A Hit Now in China
Being a later comer in this game of basically buying mobile user traffic with a cash prize, Xiaomi’s offering still stands out as it claims to have streamlined the gaming process to save 25% of gaming time per session, which is literally giving out quick cash to attract users. Its game lasts on average 25 minutes during which contestants will answer 12 questions. Those who answered correctly all the questions will share up to RMB 1m (around US$ 157,000) cash prize.
What’s behind the money splashing move is Xiaomi’s real purpose to promote its live streaming service, which was launched in 2016 and has been struggling to glue users and its team was reportedly leaving in Mars 2017.
That said, Xiaomi chose to stick to the streaming service for two reasons. Apart from being a user traffic magnet, live streaming platform is an ideal channel to promote its whole range of products by itself and companies in its ecosystem.
Just as Zhou Hongyi, Qihoo 360 founder, reflected in a WeChat moment, now more and more Chinese tech giants are weighing in on the live trivia fad. For how long will Chinese mobile users be entertained and glued? That is the question all companies involved are keen to find an answer.