King Digital (KING)’s Focus Is Retention And Diversification: Hope Cochran

The main goal of King Digital Entertainment PLC (NYSE:KING) after its breakout Candy Crush Saga game is player retention and diversification, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Hope Cochran, told Leslie Picker on Bloomberg’s Street Smart.

For King Digital Entertainment PLC (NYSE:KING), the success of Candy Crush Saga has both been its boon and bane. On the one end, the success of the game has made the company a lot of money. However, its success has also been seen by some observers as too hard to replicate.

According to Cochran, King Digital Entertainment PLC (NYSE:KING) is making great strides in diversifying its portfolio of games as it looks to continue growing off the back of its Candy Crush Saga success.

“When you look at 2013, [it] was a tremendous year of growth. But it was growth on the back of Candy Crush. If you look at Q4 [2013], 79% of our revenue came from Candy Crush. […] As we look forward to 2014, what we wanted to do with the company was take that tremendous asset that Candy Crush built for us, which was our network of players, and give them new content and new things to play. That enables the revenue to be more diversified,” Cochran said.

She said that King Digital Entertainment PLC (NYSE:KING)’s focus for this year was to create a healthy revenue base and it is working. She noted that for the Q3 2014 period, 49% of their revenue came from their other games. That was about 167% year-over-year growth for their non-Candy Crush assets.

Cochran said that the company launched five mobile games in 2014, with four of those becoming top-grossing games, a testament to how King Digital Entertainment PLC (NYSE:KING) can successfully launch games.

“King really focuses on retention of the player and building a really healthy network of players. Our view is that if they are enjoying the game and they are retained and engaged in the game, then monetization comes along with that,” she said.