We continue to sum up the results of 2021 together with top managers and experts of the gaming industry (and related ones). Next up is an interview with Victoria Belyaeva, head of the AppQuantum Business Development department.
How did 2021 go for the company?
Despite everything, 2021 turned out to be very good for AppQuantum. We have grown from 20 to more than 80 people (it is difficult to name an exact figure, almost every week we have new employees); new departments, processes and tasks of a completely different level have appeared in the company.
We have opened another direction for working with partners — co-development. As part of this direction, we, together with developers, make games, starting right from the concept.
In terms of projects, the year also turned out to be successful: we launched the hit Gold and Goblins and Lumber Empire, which, starting in October 2021, confidently stay in the top 10 in terms of downloads and revenue among idle games.
This year we have also become more active in PR: we have established a permanent publication of articles, participate as speakers in conferences, podcasts and webinars. You hear about AppQuantum much more often now. See, it’s working right now!
What event or trend of 2021 do you consider central within your niche?
I would like to note the overall growth of the industry. There are many new competitors-publishers who are ready to compete with us. This forced us to dust off some decisions, reconsider approaches and processes, and find places where we can be even more flexible and efficient.
Regarding the market, the release of Merge Mansion created a whole niche. In fact, it was released in September 2020, but its main growth occurred in 2021. The game has formed an interesting trend that many publishers and developers are looking at. We are no exception.
Speaking of changes, it is impossible not to say about iOS 14, which shook up the entire industry and forced it to look for new solutions, re-learn and retrain. We could, but it wasn’t easy for us.
What will be the stake in the development of the company in 2022?
One of the biggest initiatives is a global revision of the approach to tasks, task tracking and processes. The rapid growth of the company is good, but it also entails difficulties. By the end of 2022, AppQuantum plans to grow by another 2 times, so a considerable part of our time is now devoted to the internal kitchen: setting up the work of departments, honing work processes, maintaining and developing corporate culture.
We have also signed several promising projects that we plan to launch in 2022. We place a big bet on co-development. This direction is relatively fresh, it has experienced a change of leaders and approaches, and next year it should be fully developed.