[Orange Farm] "Coresight," understanding users with Big Data 2020-05-27



In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, everyone is talking about the importance of Big Data, but not many people know what kind of value Big Data can actually create. When people begin to understand the domain (area the connects an organization to the outside) more than just the data they want to analyze, Big Data will have a strong impact. I met with "Coresight," an Orange Farm graduate and the only company in Korea analyzing Big Data from games to predict user exit and extend the life cycle of games.  

[Interview] "Coresight" CEO Jooil Kim, Director Mingi Jeon

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<(From the left) Coresight CEO Jooil Kim, Director Mingi Jeon> 

|  "Coresight," a Big Data-based game analysis solution created by gaming professionals

Q. Please briefly introduce your company and tell us about the service it provides.  

CEO Jooil Kim (hereinafter "Kim"): Coresight collects and analyzes game logs, and provides the analyzed data to game service companies. Currently, we are the only company in Korea providing this service.  

Q. What inspired you to start this business?   

Kim: I've been developing this idea for 20 years. This year will be my 10th year in the gaming industry. I worked in a game publisher/developer and a startup before starting this company. While analyzing game data in my previous jobs, I understood the shortcomings of the existing system and gradually became more confident in the game data analysis business. After many twists and turns, I've been able to build a team with people I can connect with, like Director Mingi Jeon. Right now, we have a total of 10 team members that have a deep understanding of the gaming industry. 

<Jooil Kim, CEO of Coresight> 

 

Q. In the past, game development was important. But recently, game services and operation have become much more important. With Coresight's game data analysis solution, what kind of effects can gaming companies expect? 

Kim: Games are about content. Users play games to enjoy their content. Therefore, we can say user exits are caused by the content. But most companies tend to analyze external factors rather than the actual content itself. 

What's important is to analyze what the users do in the games and what kind of rewards they got, and also what the users are having trouble with and how much inflation there is for goods in the games. With Coresight's data analysis solution, companies can decided to hold events that users might want or create new content to restore balance in their games.

<Footage of real-time index analysis provided by Coresight> 

<Footage of a comprehensive resource chart provided by Coresight> 

Q. Can you tell us more about it with a specific example? 

Kim: For example, if there are 1 to 100 stages, and stage 50 is so hard that many users exit the game, they can adjust the difficulty level. If there are a lot of users stuck in a certain area, maybe leveling up is too difficult. Users are more likely to exit in areas where their levels are stuck, so they can prevent this from occurring. 

Also, one of our core technologies is the "user exit prediction function" that analyzes the reason for user exit. If people who don't log in very often are more likely to exit, they can hold an event that coaxes them to log in more often. If people want to exit because there aren't enough items, they can improve their reward system.

<Footage of the deep data analysis system provided by Coresight> 

<Footage of the exit prediction system provided by Coresight> 

Q. Compared to other analysis solutions, what is Coresight's advantage?  

Kim: The biggest advantage is our applicability to any game genre because logs are standardized. Because we don't have to consult and analyze separately for each game, all we have to do is save the standardized log sets and see the analyzed data the next day. 

If the logs weren't standardized, we would have had to develop a tool for that. And not only would we need skilled analyzers to do so, but a lot of time as well. If we used the traditional RDB (relational database) to develop, the bigger the data, the more time we would need to analyze it. As the mobile game market grows, the life cycle of the contents gets shorter, and change is happening very rapidly. But if we spend a long time analyzing data in the traditional way, the users would have already exited, and it would be much harder to respond. If the companies use our tool, they won't have to waste any resources. With the data, they'll find the problem in less than 10 minutes and be able to respond right away. 

Q. I'm curious about how you can standardize different game data that were developed with different tools.  

Kim: SDKs (software development kit, source and package that software developers can use to make applications for specific operating systems) are provided for each engine, each language. They provide SDKs for the Unity engine that many people use these days, the Java engine, and the SDK they use for iOS. If you just put in the right variables for the right engine, the data comes right out. Then, you can see the analysis in real time or see daily/weekly/monthly batches whenever you want.

 

| Synergizing accelerator, "Orange Farm" 

<Mingi Jeon, Coresight Director> 

Q. How did you get your start at Orange Farm?   

Director Mingi Jeon (hereinafter, "Jeon"): While I was establishing a corporation and looking into support enterprises, I came across an Orange Farm post and decided to apply. First, I applied for a support enterprise that funded companies entering the Chinese market and suffered some setbacks. I got accepted at the second place I applied for, and I began working at their Sinchon Center. 

Q. When you were getting started at Orange Farm, what areas were the most helpful to you?  

Jeon: Because Orange Farm has a lot of game development companies, we could attract customers easily with such a wide network. In fact, we are working with four fellow Orange Farm companies right now. Also, they helped us tremendously by providing us a large office for 10 people, paying for the electricity, and providing all the other things a business might need. 

 

Kim: More than anything else, Orange Farm is a startup accelerator for gaming companies, so all the staff at Orange Farm are very knowledgeable about the gaming industry. They are great at explaining our business to outside VCs, and they raise our chances of meeting potential client companies at networking events.

Q. What kind of cooperative projects are you doing with the fellow Orange Farm companies? 

Jeon: The fellow Orange Farm companies are using our service. Among our main clients are Team Tapas, creator of the new RPG game "Bistro Heroes," Mast Games, creator of the battle fleet simulation game "Warship Fleet Command," Tikitaka Studio, creator of the strategy defense RPG "Arcana Tactics," and Ttukttak Studio, specializing in mobile running games.

Q. What are some trials and errors you went through while you were starting your business? I'm curious about how Orange Farm's support and network helped you.  

Kim: Orange Farm's service mentoring was a huge help. I was a regular worker at a company, but suddenly I found myself as the employer. There were a lot of things I struggled with, but they helped me a lot by answering my questions and giving me information I needed. 

Jeon: Because we're a B2B company, we need to sign a lot of contracts. The contracts we sign are looked at by the group of attorneys at Orange Farm. They comb through it and make sure we don't have any harmful clauses in them. Even for the recently signed re-selling contract, we got a lot of advice.

Q. Since starting your business, what was your proudest or most memorable achievement?  

Kim: I feel proudest when a client company gives us feedback saying they're using our service well. Especially Team Tapas' CEO Taehee Lim, he tells so many people about us, we call him the "Coresight missionary." They're one of the most notable indie game companies out there, and I'm very thankful that they're using our service well and introducing us to the others around them.  

Q. What is the significance of the major achievement of this years, the re-sale contract with Latis Global, Metanet Mplatform, and GTR (Global Top Round)?  

Kim: GTR is a game test platform and a gaming platform. Because they're a game accelerator company, they release a lot of games in a year and have a lot of opportunities for cooperation. In Meta Mplatform's case, they have game operation and QA response departments. Cooperating with us means they will soon be recognized for their skills in the industry. 

Jeon: Not too long ago, we got rated T4. Usually if your technical level is T3, your thought of a tech company with a potential for special listing in KOSDAQ, and we're right below that. If we re-apply after we see some more sales growth, I think we might be able to get a higher rating. 

Q. Do you have any plans to expand your data analysis solution to other fields besides games?  

Kim: When you're analyzing data, I think you have to know a lot about domains. Because we had a depth of knowledge about the gaming domain, we started with games. In the future, we have plans to expand into e-commerce or health. We're actually having active discussions with companies in these fields.

Q. Do you have any advice for new entrepreneurs?  

Jeon: I just want to say, choose startup when it is your best choice. If you're trying to force a startup because it's hard to find a job right now, I want to stop you at all cost. You have to experience corporate life and learn about its systems. 

Kim: You have to check and double-check, prepare and prepare again. When you have nothing else to prepare, that's the right time to do a startup. We started this company because we were sure about the business, but we had to spend more money than we thought and development took a long time. Our current company plan is the 100th version. (Laughs) We didn't count minor changes in this number, so maybe you'll be able to tell how many trials and errors we went through over a long period of time. Like this, you need to pour in a lot of effort over a long period of time, so you have to be fully prepared before you make that decision. 

Especially if you're thinking about a data-related startup, I want to emphasize that you need a clear understanding of the field you want to enter. Whether it be games, health, or e-commerce, you have to know them in detail for data analysis to be useful. You need experience digging deeply and diversely into your interests.  

Q. What kind of company do you want to position Coresight as? What are your specific goals? 

Kim: Just like the name, "Coresight," we want to be a company that talks about and analyzes the core of games. Our goal is to analyze games and help game companies give life to their games.