Superstar Session: The Pokerface Explosion – The App that Changed Poker PG Connects Digital #2

without further ado let's get things started so the first session in the game makers insight track today is called super our superstar session which is the pokerface explosion the app that changed poker and for this session I would love to introduce Reggie Atif from Agora IO in orb and shim ohn from communiques hi Katy how are you I'm great guys take it away thank you thank you well thank you for joining um I like to reduce myself my name is actually I'm stepping in for Reggie who couldn't make it but I am Mike Lopez the senior director of sales here at agora just give you a tip bit on agora we are the number one provider for

real-time engagement and we do this through voice video and streaming services and I'd like to quickly welcome a special guest here we have mr. Orban shamone he is a serial entrepreneur ten years of experience and is currently the co-founder and CEO communiques or are you available hi Mike how are you very well very well good to have you yeah so obviously the idea of what we want to do here is explain a little bit in terms of you know a little bit about your background but of course understand more about you know poker face and I think it'd be good to start off with kind of you know sharing how poker face came to be can you repeat the question yeah they are I wanted to take this time

to ask if you could share a little bit just kind of you know the idea of poker face and how it came to be yeah so the idea come from My partner and I we are good friends for almost 15 years now and we started to separate you know from our old school friends for years and we always played Saturday night you know poker nights two years ago we come up with the idea how we can build something that we can help us to play with our friends again and see them and talk with them you know like old times and this is poker face come out we try to do some demo for us and to see if it's something that can help us to achieve this goal and to bring the value again for us and to see that that's awesome yeah and you know I think you know poker of course you know people look at poker

as being hey this is just a in most cases if you look online that's it simply played with a few pictures and people are you know placing bets and so forth so it seems me already kind of I wouldn't say boring but at least not as engaging so I'm curious as to you know when you incorporated video how did that impact your guys yeah so when we started we say that we want to build something that will feel for us like real life right so we find the solution of okay we are in the right time video let's try that to see how it gives us the best solution as you said most of the games in the social area are you playing against avatars it's look like you're with your friends but actually there are Facebook photos right or somehow that are that they purchase so

when we started to say okay let's try video and see how it works we actually get completely different experience we started we saw that people actually liked the idea to be you know it's now it's a good time because everyone start to speak on FaceTime or agora and a lot of tools you know that can help them to see one each other so why not you put it in the your favorite game and to start to see your friends all the time your family you know absolutely yeah I think that that's super engaging I think actually what I wanted to do is you know play share the with the audience a little bit about your applications over face so I'm gonna quickly share my screen and get this up and running really quick we'll go ahead and I'll just I'll get working on this a little bit or towards the end we'll get that going up there really quickly what I wanted to touch on was obviously I

wanted to show that the application so we will get around that but in the meantime in regards to obviously you guys incorporating a video I wanted to get some feedback on what have you know the players what have they said what is it the feedback they're giving you in regards to this you know they having the video in comparison to having it without the video before yeah so we actually didn't try that without the video but we can see you know comments on other apps and see what they don't like but what we get it's something that I we never started in the gaming industry people started to meet new poker friends they started to say that it's held the video communication in that actually held them you know to improve themselves on how to speak how to approach the people a lot people you know we heard about people that meet in the app and actually get married we heard about people that start

to you know because the video they started to get strongly connection with other friends or new people that they met actually start to celebrate birthday offline we it's it's helped us to build strong communities you know all over the world and this is all the comment what we get all day every time that how cool it is how it's helped them you know and when they super far want for it from each other and you know it's it's really make us feel good because you feel that you have a lot of people with the same in the same area like yours yeah yeah I agree I mean I can only imagine that it's you know help people stay connected right so yeah this is all what is about yeah yeah now I was wondering obviously you know we touched on some of the good parts of you know the benefit of adding you know the video piece and everything but I wanted to know could you share a little bit on the metrics and what are the metrics that you're seeing in terms

of you know video anything like Noguchi yeah so basically when you have a video and you have strong connection from you know the users it's actually give you a lot of benefit engagement time Gammage time increasing minimum of twenty thirty percent on what you already have yeah because you know it's like when you're sending an email you right it's it's two seconds three seconds send an email when you're going to talk with on the phone it can be 10 minutes when you in person meeting it can be an hour video it's most of the time it's between 25 to 35 minutes so this is the ballpark that we saw on when you put people together in a video and audio experience that's awesome yeah I mean I think that's the piece to is that you find a lot of gaming companies or just applications in general they they they don't know what this technology will do

know the metrics so to put actually you know some perspective on what the pros are in regards to adding something like this is is huge so that's great so thank you for sharing that I think we are kind of short on time but I wanted to quickly ask you know with the recent unfortunate Cove in nineteen how is this impacted the whole gaming space what are you guys seeing and you know what what's your thoughts on it in terms of as it progressed isn't going forward yeah so the gaming space actually most of them most of the game get a lot of traction in this period of time because no people stay home for us it was opportunity to help a lot of people to stay connect through you know and most of the people start to connect to video chat apps but with us it's actually bring them a lot of value they can still you know entertain with them friends while

they're talking while they see what each other they separate all the time we saw a lot of increase in Italy France us actually in New York was the the most exploding that we had a lot of players say that it's actually I'm saying you know like that saved them from not to get you know their mind going to explode in one minutes at home it's helped him to stay connect with their family in their friend so for us it was amazing time to help the users all the time to be there for them on the communities and I think all the gaming industry they feel the same way but when you have the video it's it's something else yeah yeah I mean I think it's the the video thing is you know I hadn't seen it before but as I'm starting to see more and more that you know I think with kovat it's only kind of put video in in the

spotlight they're saying you know if if you're gonna be stuck at home how do you stay connected how do you yeah enable yourself to not feel you know and we're seeing that the more and more a lot of these different companies are seeing the value in the video and how that allows people to stay connected so that's a big piece now actually the one thing I didn't get a touch on I would love to hear kind of how you got acquainted with Agora so you know in regards to before all this yeah come to be that you know we were able to connect yeah so at the beginning when we start myself I been in the industry for a long time when I started we started the company i stoled to my partner listen we have to do two things we have to build it right and fast and it's two things that most of the startups it's not it's not matching you know it's hard to build quick things and running up and it's

really a hard decision to do when we start to understand that most of the companies video companies actually focus on a lot of other stuff like banking health care and we find you guys it was amazing because we've been in the same set of mind that the gaming industry need to change and this is the next step of this industry the multiplayer game need to change any more communication and actually it's the right time to say thank you guys for helped us to kick us out as fast as I never imagined it's gonna be that fast I think this is the right choice to do when you have something that it's good quality and you want to see an MVP on the market and to see that if it's just working you don't know the impact I just say most of the companies afraid to do something like that because in don't understand the impact they they need to hear someone else doing that but when it's easy plug in try that make an a/b test see how it

works if it's worth good push it more if it's not try a different way to do that you have tons of way maybe just a video maybe video with it with an audio maybe just and how do you know some games me just the audio on the side like RPG games and stuff like that not everyone made both of them there but definitely have to try it absolutely well said well thank you or really quickly I'm gonna try to go ahead I want to give the audience a show of you know what poker face is so let me try one more time to get this set up I think I can do it or can you see the screen alright so yeah I just I'm gonna leave it on this before we start the video obviously I want to give the

audience a quick overview of the poker face I've had the pleasure playing it myself I love it I've actually had family members mentioned hey have you tried this new poker game and you can actually stay connected with the family and I you know stumbled upon it it was funny how I was like well actually this is the customer bar so you know it is engaging the ability for it to allow people to come together laugh together play and share these virtual gifts really does add an element of humanization to it you know and this especially during a time like this we find that people need something like this this allows us to catch up and have a good times you know with these things that are within the game such as the filters masks virtual gifting it really is an experience and it is fun and I highly recommend that everyone test it out with friends family and so forth rather than having to use multiple

displays one on a TV and and one using a laptop this is it this is the answer it's all in one put together so please you know definitely check out poker face and you know share your thoughts but first performance I want to go ahead and play the video there might be a little audio something I try to mute the audio wise but this should give you a quick overview on poker face so I hope you guys enjoy here galio is a muting oh well then I got a quick or let's start all over five artists I have to say that what's something that's super important the gap is social you know it's not real gambling so this is what is all-white so fun you can actually play all day if you want just you know with your friends

yeah and I agree I think that that's something important to point out too is that it this is not just a game it's a social that's its games become I believe mundane when after a certain set of minutes it's you're just like okay like is this is all we're gonna do but having the video and something like this allows people to not only play the game but catch up on you know topics or talk about how things are doing or you know how people are doing and so forth so it like I said it's a whole nother experience I think everyone should get a chance to see or at least to play so oh yeah so this was the so yeah I think with that being said you know I think those are the questions I have or it's been amazing you know in terms of just seeing your the growth lies in terms of

you guys expanding out not just you know regionally but globally you guys are expanding I can't tell you how many times I see your guys game on Instagram and so forth so it's I'm really excited for you guys and they give him it so with that being said I think I wanted to take this take this time to you know open up to the audience if there's any questions comments it's open okay let's see oh there's a question here there's so many channels now from twitch and YouTube 10-story have to take on as a developer how do you work out where to focus I'm not sure if or this

is a question for you I'm not that much yeah I'm just wondering maybe Kate are you available yes I am here hi Kate I'm just curious um I'm looking at the question and I'm just I would definitely want to make sure that we answer it but I'm just curious to know if this would be just saying that there are there are so many channels now from twitch and YouTube to Instagram the tick tock house the developer how do you work out where to focus you know what actually I think what we're saying here or at least what's being asked here or is you know in terms of because there's so many different channels they might be asking how do you maybe position this from a getting it out there I don't know if that's maybe the question I apologize when I answer incorrectly or positioning wise but let's just say I did mention that you guys are on Instagram so you

know why I was did it why was it your your your choice to go ahead and and choose Instagram as the marketing funnel rather than let's say Twitter or YouTube or maybe you are doing those other ones I don't know yeah so basically we're doing most of the but as you say Instagram is one of our main channels because are we trying to get you know younger audience most of the social poker industry and actually most of the poker industry in general real gambling social gambling there are all their audience older player around 40 50 60 years old the video help us to get to younger audience around 21 to 45 25 to 45 this the type that we want to target first we think that actually now with the Kobe 19 that video start to be familiar to most

of their they are you know the ages it's actually helped us a lot to target more players around the world but for us it was the the best channels to start with got it yeah yeah I agree I mean you have it's it's so crazy to see how many different outlets there are for marketing right like you see Instagram Facebook you know they've probably been the most established but yet you do see that you know tick tock it has come up and you know the ends like thriller and so forth there's just different avenues that are expanding so I'm sure you know as especially as you guys grow you guys will take the time to look at the different avenues definitely I know if you don't mind because we only have that one question the moment when one little thing I'll add to that is I think from what my understand is they're asking a kind of higher level general question is kind of what you just said I would

recommend to this person who asked that you know you have to look at who your potential demographic is for your game and then you know there's a lot of data out there on who uses twitch YouTube tik-tok Instagram you know we we kind of instinct instinctively know that tick tock and Instagram are definitely a younger demographic then than some of the other platforms so if you go out there and hunt for some of that data that might help guide you on what you may want to focus on depending what your game is about that would be my advice my advice is well it's you have a lot of place to research this listen statistics yeah and then like we touched on it it's it's crazy to see just how diverse all these different things are like in terms of how we would have to pay for the certain marketing and to get the exposure now there's so many of these social media channels that really it's just a matter of you know how can you place yourself or

the hashtags or things that are going to be appealing to be able to make them say hey look I keep see this pokerface what is this let's learn more about it so so yeah it's amazing so yeah I think that's all the questions we were we saw in there but again like I said or it's been amazing you know in terms of working with you knowing you and I only expect to see comedies can continue to grow thank you very much thank you thank you very me oh wait hold on on as being a social nowadays is key so there's another question with a quick or as being a social map as being social nowadays is key how is pokerface helping deal with the loads of lockdown I can't even so I think you know I think with we touched on this a little bit earlier but in in regards to us all being on lockdown and Cova 19 the

question is how is this impacting impact in your business and you know again I think touching on what your your customers are telling you about how this is helping them you know maybe you can share a little bit again a little bit on how this is impacting that so how is in fact on us it's we we saw super-high gurus we our user base multiplied almost by 10 and this time because we understand that people staying at home and they need something you know that can help him to meet their friends online because they can't you know offline it's an impossible when everyone lockdown so when we started to push more marketing on this time we wanted to bring people the opportunity to do that and we got a lot of feedback of that that people say that it was an amazing area to start to engage with the friends

again and their families again and they start to freak out that they not gonna see their friends in the next two months and now they can see them they can actually people's been in the app four hours a day just you know have find a little bit with their friends now we see this customer still playing in the app you know from this time most of the Europe and on these countries start to go a bit too normal but we saw that in u.s. still everyone is still in lockdown but people send us amazing comments and the communities that how it's helped them you know during the pandemic on on everything that connecting to their friends and family thank you for any other questions

all right Kate yeah it's like we may be about done so yeah thank you guys very much that was fantastic and so yeah we can either you know if you have anything else you want to add is all kind of a parting word feel free we've got a couple minutes left before the next scheduled otherwise we can move on yeah absolutely I think I would just say that you know anyone who is all the participants thank you all for joining and please please go check out poker face as I said before it's a very addicting game it's fun it's engaging and steadily a different experience so please check it out and like I said provide feedback anything or is always open to suggestions and improvements absolutely check it out there's nothing Thank You Larry yeah thanks very much

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