Hello. Welcome to 2020 annual results presentation of Ten Square Games, today in the room.
Anna Idzikowska, Chief Growth Officer. Welcome everyone.
Wojciech Gattner, Chief of Product Strategy.
Marcin Chruszczyński, Chief Financial Officer.
Maciej Zużałek, Chief Executive Officer. Okay, so we're ready to start. We start with 2020 highlights. 2020 was a big year for Ten Square Games. I think that a lot of people have observed that situation. There's just a few reminders of how much have we managed to achieve. A very important thing is the volume of downloads. That's an illustration of how much work and how much effort went into the business. We've grown our downloads up to 63.5 million. That's more than two and a half times. The results followed the activity of players. The bookings grew by two and a half times, and our cash flow improved by three times. That's a big achievement for the company, but it's also a great fundament for the future of Ten Square Games.
That year was a year of Fishing Clash, but that's what everyone can observe reading the results. Actually, there's been a lot of activities behind the scenes. We've managed to move outside of Wrocław, so we've opened a studio in Warsaw, and we also started activity in Berlin, so we're preparing for that. We increased the production capacity. We had seven game teams, and today we have 10, so that's a 50% increase. Finally, the team has increased during the COVID time by about 50%. All that is investment in the current portfolio, but also investment in the future of the company. We'll today talk about what's going on in the portfolio, what are the plans with the currently live games, but also we'll talk about the future activities of our business. Now over to Wojciech to talk about Fishing Clash.
It was a remarkable year for Fishing Clash, especially. It was a transitional year because we grew up much more than we expected due to the situation on the marketing environment and also because we improved the game itself. We managed to almost triple the bookings for that title, and we will discuss in more detail how we achieved that further in the presentation. From the game perspective, we added a lot of new content and features, and all of them transition to the better game performance, which also boosted up our marketing spend. Not only the marketing environment was very friendly for us, but also from the game perspective, we improved the product so we could scale up the marketing. The main game features that we implemented last year was VIP tiers for our best players, the Skirmish, the Star Meter, Battle Pass, and a new booster.
Not only the bookings grew, but also the average bookings per user on monthly basis grew steadily, which is a good sign for the future. We continue to develop the game on the data-informed system. We feel that there is a lot of things that we can do in Fishing Clash in the next year. I will talk about it later.
Let me continue with more data regarding marketing spend and monetization for Fishing Clash, and then I will move smoothly to Hunting Clash. It will be the first time we will be presenting more detailed data for this title as well. Let's focus on Fishing Clash first. It was already widely discussed during the past conferences and during the year, that 2020 was a year of a big business opportunity. It was all related to COVID pandemic situation. I would like to summarize again the numbers for 2020 and compare Q4 numbers to Q4 numbers of 2019 to show how big the increase was. In 2020, we have spent PLN 145 million on marketing for Fishing Clash only. When compared to 2019, when it was PLN 60 million, it was more than 140% of increase.
In Q4 only of 2020, we generated the marketing spend on PLN 23 million compared to PLN 13 million in 2019. Even though then in Q4 2020, we decreased the marketing spend, which is again, widely discussed, and it was discussed in the past that in Q4 we are decreasing the marketing spend, but it's related to the market situation, when the competition is big and linking it to our smart growing strategy, we are decreasing the spending to make our activities more effective. It's what happened in Q4 2020 again.
To compare to all previous years in Fishing Clash in Ten Square Games, still, it was the biggest fourth quarter in our history when it comes to marketing spend. Already in 2021, in January and February, we managed to increase the marketing spend, what was related to the decrease of CPMs, so the marketing cost and increasing the efficiency of our activities. On the other hand, the bookings for 2020 were impressive as well. In 2020, we generated PLN 560 million in bookings compared to PLN 206 in 2019. It was an increase of 170%. I think the most important message here is that we maintained an increased level of bookings through the end of the year. It was driven by improved game performance and retention of a significant portion of new players acquired in Q2 2020 and in further months.
Slight decrease in bookings in the beginning of 2021 is connected to our bigger focus on technical improvements and lower numbers of features and content to be offered to players in the beginning of the year. Nevertheless, level of marketing spend has been maintained at above pre-COVID level. Let's move to Hunting Clash now. It's something new to show the data for Hunting Clash. There are two big messages coming from this slide and from Hunting Clash perspective. First of all, we have applied our smart growing strategy when it comes to marketing to Hunting Clash. What we achieved was a dynamic growth of bookings, which were supported by significant marketing budgets. We have increased the user base quickly during the first months after the global launch, which happened in late August 2020.
Since global launch, we generated a marketing spend of PLN 22 million compared to bookings generated since global launch on the level of PLN 31 million. We also generated the number of 17 million installs coming from Hunting Clash. Q1 of 2021 was much bigger in spending, even though it's only January and February we take into account, than Q4 2020. It was the same for bookings for Hunting Clash for Q1 versus Q4. One last slide regarding Hunting Clash, to show how quickly we were building a user base for that game when compared to what we did for Fishing Clash when we were starting our global launch over three years ago. The daily active users number of Hunting Clash is much bigger after 180 days than it was for Fishing Clash in the similar period of time.
It's connected to smarter marketing activities. We have tested several partners in the past. We've been testing our model, applied in Fishing Clash than in Hunting Clash. We were able to quickly collect much bigger user base, and it was coming both from marketing activities, but also from big interest and great engagement of users coming from organic traffic. The net bookings for the first 180 days for Hunting Clash are much bigger than those being generated for Fishing Clash the first 180 days after the global launch. Thank you.
Just a short recap what happened in our legacy portfolio. The two titles, "Wild Hunt" and "Let's Fish", reported the stable growth, which is very good news for us, as it is a proof that we have the ability to maintain long-term engagement of the users, and we know how to monetize those games over the course of five years plus. The games are improving their KPIs. There is no marketing support right now. They are a very good background for any R&D and any future development that can be transferred later to our live titles, which is, in this very moment, "Fishing Clash" and "Hunting Clash". All the news that we just mentioned are helping our, let's say, global long-term strategy of diversification of our portfolio.
If we compare February 2020, where the bookings of Fishing Clash were almost 90% of the bookings of the whole Ten Square Games games, if we look at right now, the Hunting Clash and the legacy titles are more than 23% of the overall bookings. The other important thing is that also the base is growing. It's not only the diversification, but also the base is growing, which is a very good news for us. We hope to have this pie even better diversified in the upcoming months and years.
All right, let me summarize the financial performance of TSG in a couple of slides. First of all, although we've already seen the revenues per titles, I think it's worth to summarize how we did on the consolidated level. As you can see in the slide, 2020 is the year where we entered completely different level of revenues.
We see it as a permanent change in our way to grow our business. What is important, if we analyze the quarterly results in 2020, we see the significant decrease of reported revenues in Q4, which was impacted by the accounting adjustment relating to the durable virtual goods in our flagship Fishing Clash title. The left slide is presenting the impact of this correction. It's important to say that this adjustment, although it was processed in Q4, it actually covers the history of the game. What is also important to say is that we do not expect the magnitude of such adjustment in the future to occur again. The right slide is like a sort of bridge of getting from the bookings to revenues.
What is also important from the perspective of how we will be analyzing our performance in the future is that the bookings, instead of revenues, will be used as a basis for reference in terms of, for example, profitability ratios, as is actually common in the free-to-play industry in which we are in. As for the cost, what is the most important for us is that the expenses as a % of bookings are stable. Despite the fact that we have invested very heavily in growing our team, in growing our platform, the costs are definitely under control, as can be seen when measured against our bookings.
What is also important from analyzing our performance in 2020 is that in Q4 we posted an additional cost of approximately PLN 2 million relating to bonus paid or accrued for on our employees, for the excellent performance of the team in 2020. Apologies. With regards to selling costs, the marketing expenditure in Q4 is down. That was the case as well in prior periods. That relates to higher marketing costs in Q4, in general. What is also important to note is the commissions, as reported in our IFRS financials. In Q4, they are down by some PLN 13 million comparing to the prior period. This is actually also impact of the IFRS adjustment that I referred to in the previous slide. I mentioned that as a company, we are growing our team, and here you can see how our team evolved in the course of 2020.
What is important and vital from the growth perspective is that, as you can see in the slide, the majority of the growth in terms of our headcount goes to what is most important in this company. That is the game development teams, as well as those teams that are vital to the success of our games. These are game support, business intelligence, and growth teams. Growth meaning the user acquisition teams. The increase in the number of headcount in the back office is by far lower than in those product-related teams. Getting a bit from income statements to cash flow perspective. The 2020 is the record year in terms of cash flows as well. Our operating cash flows are up by 3-fold, while the adjusted EBITDA is up by 2.5-fold.
Here we can see that also the EBITDA that we are generating translates directly into the cash that comes from operations. As for the net result, of course, the adjustment to revenues that I mentioned before translates into a lower net profit in Q4 comparing to the prior period, prior quarter. As we can see here, the effect of durable adjustment when added to net profit actually shows that our Q4 results were higher than which means that at the end of the year, we have PLN 236 million in cash, and that is three-fourth of our total assets. Regarding the financial and investment cash flows, in Q2 2019, we were paying dividend of approximately PLN 27 million.
Also for this year, we assume that we will be paying dividend. However, the exact number has not been determined yet as we are aiming at growth, also through mergers and acquisitions. Therefore, we need the cash and cash equivalents in order to invest our future growth.
Yes. All this data presented by Marcin leads us to the Q4 2020 summary from product perspective. First of all, Q4 2020 and the whole 2020 was the year of Fishing Clash, definitely. We elevated the bookings level, and it was maintained despite the significant reduction of marketing costs in Q4 2020. The game was poised for years for further development and monetization, and currently biggest focus in our development, what was already mentioned before, is work to improve the performance and streamline the game engine. It was a year of a very successful launch of Hunting Clash and subsequent investment in marketing that will be continued in future. It's a fundament for our product portfolio diversification in future.
The other games and development teams that will have an impact on diversification of our portfolio is related to the number of teams we have in Ten Square Games right now. We have 10 development teams, from which four are live projects and six are in production. The technical launch of Golf Royale was performed in February of 2021. That summary leads us to short discussion about the future of Ten Square Games and where we are right now and where we want to be in a moment. 2021 is a year of building a TSG platform and investing into this platform. This platform is basically people. The plan is to have 400+ people on board, and the target is to have a flexible growth platform for future in-house productions and also acquired companies and studios.
It will be an organic growth of Ten Square Games, but also an external growth of companies and studios joining TSG family. The main directions of our future team expansion is definitely game development. That is something that has been already mentioned by Marcin and my colleagues before. Also our R&D team, the whole division of R&D, growth, business intelligence, and business development. We believe that being stronger in these directions, in these areas, will make creating TSG platform and investing effectively in this platform possible.
Okay, I will talk a little bit about the plans for our production for 2021. Fishing Clash, we are still in the phase of smart growing. We still believe that the product can grow significantly. However, we want to also invest in the technical improvements, in the engine, in the stability of the game, to be able to sustain constant growth, and to have more players satisfied with the game stability. We also have a very vast roadmap, that we estimate that will take us five years to deliver. Due to that reason, we want to build up the production capacity for Fishing Clash. We want to deliver the content faster, the features faster, as we see that there is still room of the improvement. We'll continue with the smart growing approach regarding the marketing.
We are also having the dedicated team that is ready for the news from China, when the license would be available. This team is still developing the Chinese version of the game. If the license comes to us, if we get the license, we are ready on full steam with the game there. Regarding Hunting Clash, as was mentioned before, we are super happy with the, let's say, successful global launch. We are also trying to build up the production capacity in the team. We know that there's a lot of features that are still missing and that will improve significantly the product. We want to deliver everything faster, better, and also with the benefit for the players. We also want to build the know-how in the hunting genre.
One of the interesting facts is that already the Hunting Clash is giving the nice feedback of the know-how to other titles. It gives us some nice solutions. For example, to the Fishing Clash. Initially, it was the Fishing Clash ideas and Fishing Clash know-how was transferred to the Hunting Clash. Right now, it also gives this feedback loop to the mother title, which is very satisfying, because we feel stronger and stronger in this Clash genre. Regarding the legacy titles, we merged the teams together under one leader, and we want to optimize the cost. We want to also have some talented people from those projects also to build up in other areas. We want to still continue on improving the game, and there are a lot of ideas in Let's Fish and in Wild Hunt that are yet to be implemented.
I think we are ready right now to talk about the new Clash title. Before, we said there is a new Clash title. Right now, we conducted a lot of research. We conducted tests on target groups, and we decided to do Undead Clash, which will be a zombie-themed shooter with a smooth and exciting gameplay, with the Clash meta game. We are very excited with this project. There will be some twists to the mini-game. The game will be super fun, and we are entering the full-steam production of this title. Just to sum up what's currently being produced under Ten Square Games' hood. It's Golf Royale, which is in the technical launch right now, and we are planning to soft launch the title in Q2 or Q3 of 2021. I believe it will be more like Q3.
There is a lot of content that is missing there, and there is a lot of features that we need to add before even testing it on the wider audience. The Undead Clash, as I said before, the zombie shooter, is in the production cycle in an early stage and should be ready for the soft launch early Q1 2022. There is another project that we started developing beginning of this year. It doesn't have a title yet. It's a social-based competitive game, and we plan to soft launch this title this year. It's something new that appeared on the horizon. We are also experimenting with the new simulation game with Clash meta game.
There is a separate team right now creating the prototypes for that title, and if we will have a positive feedback from the initial research, we will set up the full team that will work on this title for the upcoming years. In Warsaw, the production of their first game, the hybrid game with a strong social element, is underway. We expect the soft launch later this year. There is another title, another game that we are looking forward to. We need to do a wider research about this title, but we are already in the capacity of creating the second game in Warsaw, and it's also going to be a hybrid game with a strong social element, but it will be also completely different to their first project.
I think that in this very moment closes the current production pipeline that we have planned for the upcoming quarters.
Thank you, Wojciech. As you can see, there's lots going on in the production in Ten Square Games on Organic end. I want to talk a little bit about what has happened with our M&A activity. As you may remember, we started really working on M&As in the late first half of 2020. What has happened since then, we've established a network and all the connections that are necessary to do transactions. We've managed to review about 50 companies in the period up until now. We've conducted about 18 due diligence, different level of depth of different companies. We've been in with five offers in the market, and we negotiated on three transactions. We haven't closed any of these, and that's the byproduct of how we want to move forward with M&A. We are being focused. We are being selective.
We got to a point where we understand what kind of companies are good for us to join. I think we know We really understand how we want to invest, and one thing I can promise is, we will have a strategic focus on M&A. We'll buy the companies that really fit well into the future of Ten Square rather than just buy companies available in the market. The objective is clear for us, is to have a long-term diversification of the group of Ten Square, so have more titles and more production capacity and more teams working together with us. The final thing to say is, I think we are pretty excited about the opportunities that are going to come up to the market in 2021. We're looking into this. We think there will be quite a few interesting transactions up to our taste.
That's on M&A. Just to maybe wrap up the presentation. We keep on talking to this slide for the last few quarters because that's how we think about the company. Wrocław was a hub with a history of building Clash games. 2020 is not just a year of success of Fishing Clash. It's actually a year where we got to a point where we have a lot of confidence in the Clash meta game, and we think it can be deployed in the different themes. We're taking Clashes to the masses with the Undead Clash. We're very proud about it. There's lots of work that has to go into it, but that's the testimony to the know-how of Ten Square Games and what's been built in Wrocław. We're building on that fundament. I want to say a few words on Fishing Clash.
There's been a lot of discussion about the performance. Please do remember that with the growth we had in 2020, we actually accelerated the business by about a year. What we achieved in 2020, we'd normally achieve probably by the end of 2021. We had a game, which we are very confident of, and we decided to take the opportunity, on the marketing side in Q2. We invested in that, and we've built a three times higher user base of that game. There's lots to do to go for in this game, but we need some time to work on the technical aspects of Fishing Clash and also build additional features for the players to enjoy it for years. That's a game built for years. We have a history of building games that are working very well for years.
That's something we're going to do with Fishing Clash, and there will be a lot of focus on that. Great story of Hunting Clash. That's something that goes without saying. We know what we're doing here, and we'll continue to do that. Important things about Wrocław as well. It's not just about the Clash games. We have golf under development, and we have two other games that are ongoing. One is drawing on our competence of Clash, but actually going into something completely new in the place where we think we can build interesting games, just like we did in fishing or in hunting. There's another very new idea, which is very fresh, but it's also built on the know-how of Ten Square. We've been working on that idea for quite a while in the background.
There's a strategic decision to go outside Wrocław organically. Warsaw's working, Berlin is getting ready, and I think that's a great achievement in just several months since we've taken the decision to go out. Finally, M&A. One comment I want to make, I think when I was asked during the last presentation, we talked about Q1 transaction. That didn't come through, but that's part of the play, and I will continue to focus on other opportunities. There are very good companies which we are very fond of, and we're very happy to welcome them joining Ten Square Games. I think 2020 was a big year that's behind us. We are very much a forward-looking organization. For us, it's history. We took a moment to celebrate, but actually we are very excited about what's going to happen next, and hopefully, you'll stay with us.
Thank you for the trust to all the investors who have faith in the company. We started just three years ago. We had four games, five maybe, with the development capacity. We doubled that capacity in three years. The business has grown very well over the last three years, and the objective is really to have a diversified and growing platform for many years to come, and that's what we're working on. On that note, thank you very much, and I think we can move to questions.
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I think that's an interesting question. I don't think I can give you much of a guidance on short-term performance. I think we said we have been always playing the smart growth strategy. If we see a market opportunity to continue to grow the Fishing Clash users base, we will do that. We're working very extensively with looking at the performance of the game, and we know how much we can invest, so we continue to invest. If you asked me this question a year ago, this time a year ago, I would probably not be able to answer that in a positive way. I guess we should keep with that. We will continue to invest as the market allows us and as the game is ready.
Please bear in mind the two things. We are working. We've accelerated the business of Fishing Clash very much in 2020, and we are catching up on technology to accommodate more players, and we're building new features. That is going to take some time for the team to develop it.
Okay. What is your marketing strategy for Fishing Clash for the next few months? Do you plan to speed up marketing expenses?
I think I will repeat partly what Maciej just said. In general, we still apply our smart growing strategy, the strategy that has been working for us for years, actually, and it has worked for Fishing Clash both, and now it works for Hunting Clash. We will definitely continue working with this strategy. That means that we are observing what's going on in the product, new features, new content we are adding to the game, new improvements to the technological part of the business. We are also observing the business opportunity coming from the market. Again, last year, we would never be able to say that we would increase our marketing spend that significantly. What actually is super optimistic coming from last year is that the user base of Fishing Clash can be increased.
That's what we confirmed last year, and that's what we will try to deliver this year as well. We have already started increasing our marketing spend in January and February when compared to previous months. You know that normally Q4 is not a good moment to increase our marketing spend. Definitely this is something we are keeping an eye on, and we will definitely be testing new marketing possibilities, and we will try to increase our budgets. We need to remember that Fishing Clash, not only Fishing Clash, but here we are discussing and answering the question regarding Fishing Clash, is a title that also has a big organic user base. We have good cooperation with App Store, with Google Play, with new platforms. We are looking for new opportunities to increase the user base coming from marketing activities, but also coming from organics.
We see a constant increase in interest in Fishing Clash coming from these kind of users. I think we proved that last year, and we will continue proving that this year, definitely. Long story short, we will continue our smart growing strategy, and we will try to search for new business opportunities for the title.
Okay. When will technical improvements in Fishing Clash be finished? Can we expect lower monetization of the game in the transition period?
The technical improvements are happening right now, and it's going to be an ongoing process, and we want to put a lot of pressure on that. On the other hand, we don't want to also cut the capacity of the production of the new content and features. To answer the question, I don't think it will have any impact on the performance of the game itself. It's just a thing that it's going to happen in the upcoming months. In the midterm, it should boost up not only the performance, like stability, technological performance of the game, but also will boost up the KPIs of the game itself. It's going to be one part of the constant improvement of the title. One side is the feature, second side is the technological side.
Okay. Thank you. You mentioned that you already scanned M&A market. What are the conclusions? Do you plan to place an acquisition bid in short term?
Okay. Just maybe to wrap up on M&A. The scan of the market is telling us that one-third of opportunities will be opportunities that we are well aware of. One-third will be the opportunities where we thought maybe these companies or studios are not so great, but once we start talking to them, we'll find out that they're great, so we're doing that as well. The one-third are things that we couldn't even think about. That's what's happening. It's not untypical allocation of findings in M&A if you do it in a structured way, just like we do. I think we will be very focused on investing in M&A. Our ambition isn't to invest in five, six, 10 companies a year. We'd rather buy the companies that in the long-term horizon will help to build a group of Ten Square for the long-term diversified future.
I've said that already. In the short-term plan, I think for as long as we continue with the M&A strategy, you should expect that we will be active in conversations. There is a pipeline of discussions. Yes, we are actively in discussions. We have been active in discussions since June last year. Those discussions take time, sometimes take months and years. We'll keep on discussing. The answer to that question every quarter for as long as we are moving in with that strategy will be, yes, we are in discussions.
Thank you. This question keeps coming back. Could you update on China certification? Having in mind very long period of waiting, do you think China launch is possible in 2021?
I was waiting for that question. Let me summarize some numbers in this situation for not only Fishing Clash in China, but in general, the situation of foreign games being imported to Chinese market. In 2021, there were only three batches of imported games being approved and granted with ISBN number. Out of which, 97 games, 97 imported foreign games were granted with ISBN. Out of which, seven games were coming from our partner, from NetEase. Fishing Clash has been added to the list of games awaiting its license in late 2019, late December 2019. While we are still waiting for the certification, we can already say that we had a call, actually yesterday, with our partners, with NetEase, with our publisher in China, a publisher that had seven foreign games approved last year. We know that we are in top five of NetEase lists.
We are expecting to get certified and to get approved soon, but we cannot say anything for sure. I think we can just discuss these numbers, compare the numbers being granted to NetEase last year and the position we have in NetEase group for this year. I think what's also optimistic regarding China and its certification process is that both publishers and independent consultants in China say that 2021 should be bigger in terms of numbers of games being approved, both domestic and imported. We've seen it already. The first batch of imported games has been approved in February, and actually, 20% more games than in Q1 2020 were approved in 2021. Also 10% more of domestic games have been approved this year in Q1 2021 than in Q1 2020.
I think this all is a promising data, and we are expecting to know more detailed information soon. Thank you.
Thank you. Another question that keeps coming back. Do you plan to pay out dividend for 2020? How much?
The decision will be taken at the time we will decide. I think we will pay some dividend, as Marcin mentioned. The amount of the dividend paid will depend primarily on our view at the time we'll decide or we'll recommend.
On the pipeline of M&A and the potential to invest in the future of Ten Square Games. That will be the byproduct of a judgment made on how much value can be created in the foreseeable future out of M&A. I will also add that we were in situations where we look at transactions, they came out of the sudden, they were fairly large, and we had to count the money to make sure we can afford it. Having a buffer of cash with the pipeline we're seeing is something that we see as a sensible strategy for us and for the company and to the benefit of all investors.
Thank you. Questions about durables. What is the reason for durables' virtual currency adjustment according to IFRS 15? Is it possible for the users to return the durables and receive real cash back? Therefore, the sales are recognized over time instead of a point in time. Is there another explanation for such presentation?
No, definitely, there is no possibility for the users to return the durables. Actually, this adjustment has nothing to do with, let's say, gaming reality. Once the users pay for a specific feature, then there is no obligation, there's no possibility that the cash is returned to them anyhow. The fact that we book this adjustment is just a result of how IFRS 15 has been, let's say, constructed. When the goods can be used over a prolonged period of time, then IFRS 15 requires that such revenue should be recognized over the expected lifetime of a specific paying user in the game. That's the reason for posting this adjustment.
Thank you. What is the general outlook expectation for the further development of Fishing Clash, having in mind question mentioned above? The question above was: What do you expect of Fishing Clash bookings in the near future? Do you expect them to stabilize and on what level? Based on Sensor Tower, March doesn't look very optimistic.
I think March looks pretty optimistic when compared to what was achieved in January and February. As I said, in Q4, we traditionally go down with our user acquisition cost. Obviously, it has an impact in shorter term and then in long term on our bookings. What we did already in January and February is we started increasing the budgets. It was linked to the fact that CPMs went down and the efficiency of our campaigns went up. We need to remember that February was, first of all, a shorter month. The second thing is that, as we already mentioned, we were also focusing a lot on technical improvements. We are a responsible title. We have a growing user base, and we need to do things like that.
Obviously, that has an impact on the number of events, on number of features, of number of content being delivered. I think we are in much better place right now, and we are focusing more and more on delivering this content and features to Fishing Clash. We expect actually March to be bigger in terms of both bookings and marketing spend than February. Definitely, we'll continue this way, and we are pretty optimistic. As you know, it's a long-term investment, and each time we are investing into new user acquisition wave, we are thinking of months to come. I think what happened in Q2 2020 is only confirming that. Increasing the numbers will have an impact in shorter and longer period of time, but I think already we can expect good numbers in March to come, definitely.
Thank you. Question about M&As. Many companies are diversifying their model with acquisitions in other segments. In terms of possible acquisitions, does diversification of production monetization model come into play? I understand that it's a question about going out of free-to-play model.
No, I think our strategy in general is very much focused on the free-to-play model in mobile games. That's what we're looking for. There might be situations where there's companies doing different things. That's possible. Generally, we are looking at the wider pipeline as well. We're reviewing every opportunity that is around gaming, but our focus is really on free-to-play.
Thank you. When do you expect to finish upgrading Fishing Clash engine? When should we expect Fishing Clash user acquisition costs to go up?
Maybe I'll answer the first part of the question. As I said, it's an ongoing process, and it's happening right now. It's going to happen in a few months' time. There are small bits here and there that need improvement. Overall, we will see the improvement of the game efficiency, I would say every month, constantly for the upcoming months. It's nothing critical. It's something that is basically we should do to satisfy our players.
The second part of the question, I believe it's been answered already. Smart growing is not just pace. It's just our policy. We are working with our marketing costs, with our campaigns, with optimizations on weekly basis. We are discussing everything on monthly basis. It's not that our strategy is now prepared for whole 2021 or something like that. It's more that our strategy is to be flexible, is to search for business opportunities. It's to observe what happens with our products and with our marketing capabilities and opportunities. That's what we are doing, and we expect to increase the marketing budgets and to make them more and more effective. Every single penny spent on marketing has to be effective, and that's our goal, to be honest, and I hope it answers the questions.
Thank you. Two questions now on the same subject. Could you give us an update about iOS 14 IDFA changes? The other one is, what would be the expected influence of IDFA changes on revenues?
Okay. Let me start with the first part of the question. The last official statement from Apple, coming in the beginning of 2021, was that IDFA changes and iOS 14 privacy policy will be enforced in early spring. We already have an early spring, so it may happen really soon. We are ready on three different levels to the changes that it will introduce to the gaming ecosystem because it's not a change that is affecting Ten Square Games or Fishing Clash or Hunting Clash only, but actually it affects everyone in the gaming industry. Not only game developers and publishers, but also ad networks and all the partners that are actually creating this ecosystem. According to knowledge and according to our discussions coming from the industry, we expect and we believe that the changes will be enforced in April.
I expect it's going to be early April. It looks like the industry is getting more and more ready, so it also means that probably the change will come sooner than later. Again, the last statement from Apple was from the beginning of 2021, and the only thing said was that it's early spring. The second thing is that we have already started preparing for all these changes coming from iOS 14 privacy policy already six months ago. We've been testing, we've been experimenting, we've been discussing with the partners on three different levels. We've been testing pop-ups and consent solutions in our games, not only in Fishing Clash, but also in other games in our portfolio. That's the first thing we've been doing for the last six months, and we are pretty successful with the results.
Obviously, we need to wait for the situation to change and the policy to be enforced, to be absolutely sure what impact it has on our business. The second thing is that we've been discussing with our partners, with our marketing partners, because it's not that we only have to prepare for these changes. They have to prepare as well. Again, we've been updating the plugins, updating SDKs, and making our marketing ecosystem ready for changes. That's something we've been doing for the last six months with a big focus on that during the last three months. The last change is to be able to have a model, that our model works. We've been discussing it widely. This is the model that has been adjusted as well.
Regarding the optimization that will coming from IDFA changes, again, we have a model ready, and we are just awaiting to start using it more widely once changes are enforced. We can already say that we have started testing it. Yes, that's the place where we are right now. Bartek, can you remind me the second part of the question?
I think you've answered all the parts of the question.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Now we have two interconnected questions. Percentage spending on user acquisition in January and February dropped significantly year-over-year. Does this mean that the commerce industry maintains high marketing budgets after Q4? Are ROICs in current campaigns close to historical above industry averages? Maybe you are considering lowering the ROICs to market average.
Long question. Can you repeat the beginning of the question, please?
Yes. Percent spending on UA in January, February was significantly lower year-over-year. Does this mean that it's...
I'm not sure.
-more effective?
I'm actually not sure if I understand the question well, because when we compare what happened both in Q4 and now in Q1 2021, actually, the spendings increased. We are still spending more than we were spending in the past. I cannot agree here.
Yes, the question is about percentage of bookings spent on user acquisition, and that one is lower year-over-year.
Yes, that one is lower, but again, it's strictly connected to our policy. We are not comparing that much. We are more working with current situation. We try to be flexible. The situation changes. Everyone knows that the price of user acquisition, the cost of user acquisition is growing with time, but I can say that the numbers are not much higher in terms of CPI, for example, than they were in the beginning of last year. I think a very promising information is that the cost of user acquisition actually went down in Q1 versus Q4 2020. I think we are ready to increase the numbers and to make this percentage, let's say, more optimistic to those asking these questions.
Thank you. Another question about China. Assuming that China license is granted, what are your expectations, hopes for the market? Could it become bigger than the U.S.?
Basically, we don't have big experience with Chinese market, so we would like to see what's coming from this launch. Obviously we have an experience with the soft launch we had on Chinese market in the past, and that time actually, we managed to grow in terms of user base quickly. It all depends on features we get from our partners. We know we have a good, let's say, relation with App Store here, basically. We know already that our partner, NetEase, one of the biggest partners in China, also has great both ecosystem, channels of user acquisition, and also relation with App Store and with local Android store. I think that's the one promising information coming from that. The second thing is that we have plan agreed between the parties.
The plan actually has been adjusted last year, so it's much bigger and it's much more promising also from our partner's perspective. I think we can expect a lot, but I cannot say what exactly can be expected. I think we will have to wait a bit and see how it's going. We can definitely say that with time, seeing what happened to Fishing Clash on global markets, we have also adjusted the plan and our partners agreed. I think it's an optimistic information. We should expect a lot.
Thank you. Another question about China, but more from financial point of view. How does the contract with NetEase work from a financial point of view?
We're not going to talk about financial terms of the contract of NetEase at this stage.
We cannot disclose the financial details of the contract because it's very confidential. Sorry about that. Okay. This one is interesting. What is the management's guidance for net profit for 2021 by quarters? We don't give any guidance, so I will answer these questions. The company has never given guidance for profits for the following years, and we still don't. Should we expect further drops of revenue from Fishing Clash in the following months?
Yeah, I think we talked about Fishing Clash a lot. I would just say one more time, just maybe try to understand the nature of how we work, and I'll take everyone back to what happened in April and March last year, March, April, May, how we scaled up the investment. This is really looking through the perspective of the performance of the game and the marketing cost to acquire users. We're looking at this, Anna mentioned this, we're trying to repeat this. We're looking at this on daily basis, weekly basis, and monthly basis. Whenever there's an opportunity to grow profitably, we will do. The answer to the question, what is that we expect? Obviously, we have our models, so we can see forward and we can have certain view on how the revenue bookings of each of our games are going to look like.
The thing is, things are changing. What we saw in 2020, we couldn't foresee through our models. We know what the bottom is, but the way we're thinking about the product is we keep on investing in the product. We keep on investing in the games to drive it forward, to make it more attractive. Whenever we do it, and there's a marketing opportunity to scale up, we will do that. That actually says it's not that easy to focus and predict. We know it's frustrating, but this is the reality of the company. This is who we are. Trying to answer this in a different way would be unfair to everyone around the table. Yes? That's why we're answering this way, and please have a patience for the business model we are in. That's who we are.
I think this attitude also helps us being flexible and working as well as it's possible and being as effective as possible. I think it's also important, this part.
Yeah, and that's why we had 2020 like we had, because we're one of several companies who took that decision. Not everyone did that. I think that goes back to smart growing. What you saw in 2020 is the byproduct of that strategy, and we're very happy with it. We'll continue to run the business this way.
Thank you. A question for Wojciech. How many games can go soft launch this year?
We estimate that it will be around three games that will go for the soft launch this year. There might be one extra, but to be on the safe side, it's three games. Yes, it's going to be Golf Royale, and it's going to be a Warsaw title, and it's going to be a new unnamed title that is being produced in Wrocław.
Thank you. Marcin, why were deferred revenues for consumables significantly higher in Q4 than in previous quarters? May this boosted level be maintained in the following quarters?
Okay, that's a good question. There were some events or contests in the game itself that resulted at the end of the year of increase of the virtual currency spendings. I think it's a difficult question. If it can remain on this high level, I assume it will not be on this high level, but I think it's difficult to predict. The mechanics of posting this adjustment were the same as previously. It was just some facts in the game that happened at the end of December, some contests that resulted in increased deferral. Sorry.
Okay, thank you. When will you announce targets for your new motivation program?
That will happen in April.
Thank you. Short answer. Precise. When will the PLN 40 million of deferred revenue be recognized as revenues? Yes, that's the question.
Well, it actually will be recognized in majority in Q1. There will be new deferral that will be set up at the end of March. This will have a netting effect. It's difficult at this moment to predict whether the deferral that we have, so let's say this provision of PLN 41 million, whether it will be sufficient to stay on this level at the end of March. If yes, there will be actually no additional deferral at the end of March, at least. What is important is that this adjustment had a significant effect in Q4. It will definitely not have such a significant negative effect in the coming quarters of 2021. The number itself can only be calculated after the end of the quarter when we know the figures. Yeah.
Thank you. What are your expectations regarding Golf Royale, basing on the data you possess?
I would say right now it's very early to say. The game was just technically launched. We are checking a few technical stuff with this game. We have some initial KPIs, but so far they're satisfying, that we know that we want to work on this project. To have a better forecast and a better outlook for the future of this title, we need some time, and we need a lot of hard work.
Thank you. I think we've already answered this one. Maybe you want to add something. Almost one year ago, you mentioned about 70 potential M&A targets. When can we expect completing the first one?
Yes. We expected 70. That was the mapping of the market, and this is roughly the number that we're seeing ongoing, which is good news. There's not less targets, and we are in discussions with different companies. Expectations when to close, I don't think we should put pressure on ourselves to close something unless we're happy with all the deal terms, the perspective of the company, and also with the price. We're in discussions with several potential partners. That's what we do, and we'll continue to do so. I said it before. Our expectation is we'll be in open conversations with potential investment companies. We should expect that happening all the time.
Thank you. What are your goals regarding performance of Hunting Clash in 2021?
Well, let me take this question since I'm on the mic. I think you've seen the performance. We can talk about the first 180 days of that game versus our champ, Fishing Clash. That's looking pretty well. There's lots to go for with the game. There's a big production pipeline in terms of number of features. We have a lot of hope in that product. Again, I'm sorry to answer this way, but how far we can get with Hunting Clash? We don't know. The great news about Hunting Clash is we have a next Clash that is working well. It's attractive to players, and we'll continue to build that game forward. That's the commitment we have. We'll try to develop it as far as we can and consequently, to make it as big as is possible. That's the objective for the team.
That's where we focus. Fishing Clash, Hunting Clash, the live portfolio, core games. That's where a lot of focus is going to go of Ten Square Games over the next 12 months. There's the rest of stuff. The beauty of the company is we can actually diversify our efforts and be focused on several things at the same time.
I would like to add something here. I think we have already shown that we have started increasing the marketing budgets for Hunting Clash. We've been more aware of what we are doing thanks to all the experience we have from Fishing Clash, and I have already mentioned that we have a model that worked and was tested both in Fishing Clash and Hunting Clash, and we are happy to say that it works. It works for Hunting Clash as well, so we will be only following a similar path. The slides we were showing during the presentation also shows that the pace of improvement, the pace of increase of both bookings and user base and marketing spend is much faster and bigger than it was for Fishing Clash first 180 days after the launch.
We expect to keep on growing and to bringing more valuable users to Hunting Clash in near future.
Thank you. We have more questions about dividend, about the size and date of dividend, but would you like to add something more, or is that already answered?
No, I think we said what we can say. We'll have in mind the dividend, but decision will be taken at the time when the decision will be made on dividends. It's too early to say. We need time because we're progressing the pipeline of M&A. There's other initiatives. We'll review that when the time comes.
Thank you. We have a slightly different take on the question about marketing. What is the reason that on the start of 2021, marketing for Fishing Clash is only slightly higher than for Hunting Clash?
I think it's all connected to the stage of development of the project. We need to remember that Hunting Clash is a super fresh product. We just started marketing it, so there is definitely a bigger user base waiting for us already. We have these three more years we had for Fishing Clash, and we need to remember that last year we were increasing budgets, and we are collecting a lot of users to Fishing Clash, and that's what now is happening for Hunting Clash as well. I think also, all these things I said about the model that works, I think it's a great moment to focus on Hunting Clash and just deliver more users to this title while still working with Fishing Clash and bringing value and bringing users to that title as well.
I think it's important that we are working on parallel with two titles with pretty similar user base. On one side, we are working with them separately. We are focusing on both. It's not that we are focusing on one while we are not focusing on the other. On the other hand, Wojtek was discussing already the feedback, the feedback that is coming from one title to another, and also some insights and findings we have in Fishing Clash that are now being used in Hunting Clash, but it's also working the other way around. Now, that's what we are doing now. That's what we are focusing on, and that's what we would like to continue with in near future.
Thank you. What is the reason that MAU, Monthly Average Users, of Fishing Clash is decreasing so fast? How are you going to reverse this trend?
Well, I don't want to get into specific details of the retention curves and stuff like that. I think it's more of the technical thing. The most important thing that the engaged players are building up, and there is this constant growth. It's not always seen on the DAU charts. It's something that is underneath. There are a lot of different segments of the players, and the segments of the best players are staying with us, and they are growing.
I would like to add to MAU discussion, the one thing to remember, the way the business works, and that's again, great news, is to look at MAU from a perspective of where we were 12 months ago and where are we now. Having MAU twice as big is something that we achieved, and that's a great base for the future development of Fishing Clash. That's newly acquired users. A lot of them will stay in the game with us for quite a few years. That was a step change for us. We're very happy with this. Tracking MAU on regular basis is not actually the most important KPI for us to track.
Thank you. We have a question now about the recent ABB, Accelerated Book Building, and what entities bought the shares. Let me stress that the company wasn't part of this process, of this transaction, so not much we can comment. Maybe you would like to add something.
No, nothing to add to this. That was a transaction outside of scope of management.
Thank you. Would you rather spend more money on charity in the future or withdraw more money to shareholders and let them decide how to spend it?
Yeah, it would be great to have a context to that question. Maybe we can wait, so I'll be very happy to understand what the context is. I think, if you look from a perspective, because yes, in the difficult situation during the COVID time, we decided to allocate some money to charity, and that was to support the situation of many people that were affected by COVID more than we were. The decision of management at the time was to share some of the profits with those in need. That's what we've done. I think this is amount of around PLN 1 million versus, PLN 200+ million of cash flow of the company. We thought, or people who decided at the time thought that that's the right thing to do. That was welcome by the employees, and I think that was a good thing to do.
To comment on the distribution of profits to shareholders, I think the way the company is built, is built for years. That's what we're trying to achieve, and we're trying to use the cash flows the best way we can for the benefit of all shareholders.
Thank you. Are you going to act as the publisher of games developed by other companies?
We had this question before. I don't think we look at this as a business opportunity for Ten Square Games. There's a long and short answer to that question. It's the choice of a business model. We're very focused on game production. We want to have the know-how inside. We want to be able to help with the production know-how, our user acquisition, our systems, to the partners joining us. That is backed with the capital model. Doing a publishing deal is not what we're looking for. We want to build something that's long-lasting within the Ten Square Games fully.
Thank you. As of now, this is the last question. We still have some time, so we can ask more questions, please. As of now, this is the last one. How do cohorts of users acquired 12 months ago, how are they performing in financial metrics?
I think we have never been answering-
Yes.
the question this way.
We have never commented on that. Yes. We will not comment on the performance of cohorts.
Okay. Thank you. At the moment, we don't have. Oh, there is one more. How much Hunting Clash revenues is fueled by cannibalization of Fishing Clash, in your view?
Our plan is to keep players engaged and interested in both games coming from TSG portfolio. As I mentioned, obviously, the user base is similar in both games, but it doesn't mean that the core audience is absolutely the same. We don't see much of cannibalization. That's the first thing. The second thing is that also, having same users in both games not necessarily has to be a bug, but a feature. Actually, it's important to rotate. It's important to cross-promote. It's important to keep users interested in both games. We don't see much of cannibalization in each of the titles. I don't know if, Wojciech, you would like to add something or.
Well, yes. Of course, for example, we are in the contact with our most engaged players, via our VIP support. We heard about the cases where the players started to play the different game. The good thing, as Anna said, is that they stay in the same ecosystem. They stay in the Ten Square Games family. We don't see any big effect on the large scale. Yes. There are particular single cases, which is very good because the players like both games.
Yes
Apparently.
We are definitely observing the situation. We are keeping an eye on things, so it's not that we are, let's say, surprised with something. We are in constant touch with our players, not only with our VIP-.
We've answered everything that has arrived.
Thank you.
Until this moment.
Yes. Thank you very much for your attention and, hopefully, we answered a lot of questions you had, and we'll see you in not so faraway future talking about Q1 results. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.