Introduction gamification is the application of game-design elements

IntroductionDigitalRevolution is the move from mechanical and simple electronicinnovation to advanced software & hardware which started from the late1950s with the appropriation and multiplication of computerized PCs andcomputerized record keeping. Digital world alludes to the far reachingdevelopments achieved by advanced figuring and correspondence innovation amidthe latter half of 20th century. Gamification is theapplication of game-design elements and diversion standards in non-gamecontexts. A gathering of research on gamification demonstrates that it haspositive effects on individuals. Gamification is the use of game elements andgame thinking in non-game environments to increase target behavior andengagement.              The market growth of gamification is expectedto reach 5, 500 billion in 2018.

The biggest market is expected to be the NorthAmerica, followed by Europe. According to TalentLMS survey, almost 80%of the learners say that they would be more productive if theiruniversity/institution or work was more game-like. Theincreasing popularity of games and the use of it in a business context isn’t atall surprising. It’s been long since video games were only played by kids.

Formany adults, gaming is an important leisure activity. The global games markethas grown to an astonishing 70 billion USD where console games still make upthe biggest part of the games market (43%). About GamificationApplyingthe mechanics of gaming to non-game activities to change people’s behavior. Gamificationis an important and powerful new strategy for influencing and motivating groupsof people.

The business community just started to realize the power it has toimprove cus­tomer engagement, build loyalty, and incent employees and partnersto perform at high levels. And the concept has the potential to solve a varietyof problems outside the business world as well, in areas such as:•Health & Wellness: healthcare cost containment, obesity programs, smokingcessation.•Education & Training: e-learning, corporate and vocational training, onlinetesting.•Public Policy & Government: education reform, climate change, welfarereform. Participation and EngagementTheobjective of gamification is to draw in individuals to take an interest them to participate, share and interact in some activity or community byoffering a compelling, dynamic, and sustained gamification experience which canbe utilized to accomplish a variety of business goals. Game Mechanics & Game DynamicsGamemechanics are the different activities, practices, and control components thatare utilized to ‘ gamify’ an activity.

Game dynamics are the emergent behavior that arisesfrom gameplay, when the mechanics are put into use. Table1 states the intrinsic and extrinsic factors of gamification. Broadly speaking, people divide motivation into two components – intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsicmotivation is an innate drive to do something which encourages individual toengage in an activity. Extrinsic motivation pushes you to do something becauseof an external reward, status or competition. Game mechanics include Game dynamics include Points Reward Levels Status Challenges Achievement Virtual Goods Self-expression Leaderboards Competition Gifts & charity Altruism Table1: Intrinsic & Extrinsic factors of Gamification Use of Game Dynamics & GameMechanics to Influence Behavior: Challenges, Trophies, Badges andAchievements- Challenges give individuals missions tofinish and after that reward them for doing so. Challenges give individualsobjectives and the having a feeling that they’re moving in the direction ofsomething.

The general approach is to design challenges in view of activitiesthat you’re following, and reward your clients for achieving turning pointswith trophies, badges and accomplishments. Trophies, badges, ribbons, etc. arethe visible recognition of having reached new levels or completed challenges. One of the keys to making levels and difficulties viable is giving a discussionto them to flaunt their accomplishments, like a trophy case or client profilepage that shows their badges. Leaderboards-Most of the successful games ever created have wisely implemented a “ high-scoretable”. They bring yearning, “ notoriety,” and your name in lights. They also indicate individuals ranking as compared with other competitors.

Competitions-Rivalries empower your clients to move each other to get the high score at someaction. Once everybody has done the action, the client with the most elevatedscore wins a reward while every one of the failures get a consolation award.  Rewards-Human beings are motivated by receiving rewards. A reward, substantial orelusive, is exhibited after the event of an activity with the aim to make theconduct happen once more. Getting virtual merchandise, leveling up, andcompleting achievements also satisfy this desire. Status-People generally have a need for the esteem and respect of others, for status, recognition, fame, prestige, popularity and attention.         Achievement-A few people are motivated by a need to accomplish, to fulfill somethingtroublesome through delayed and rehashed endeavors, to work towards objectives, and to win. The most satisfying reward is the recognition of their achieve­ments.

Self-Expression-Many individuals want and need opportunities to express their self-rule andcreativity, to stamp themselves as having interesting identities from everyonearound them. Utilizing virtual products is a typical path for players to maketheir own particular personality, regardless of whether they are earned throughprizes, received as gifts, or purchased straightforwardly with genuine money. Apersons avatar can frequently fill in as a rich point of convergence forexpression, and a few people update their Facebook profile picture more thanonce a day. Competition-People can also be motivated by competition.

It has been demonstrated thathigher levels of performance can be achieved when a competitive environment isset up and the winner is rewarded. User Engagement on YouTubeYouTubeis an American video sharing website, the service was created by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in February 2005.  Google boughtthe site in November 2006 for US$1. 65 billion, YouTube now operates as oneof Google’s subsidiaries. YouTube offers a wide variety of usergenerated and corporate media videos.

YouTube allows its users to view, upload, rate, share, add to favorites, report and comment and subscribe to other users. It offers a rich collection of videos. The content available is TV shows, mediaclips, music videos, user created videos and many more. Registered users haveaccess to all content and properties whereas unregistered visitors can onlyview the video content. Registeredusers can upload videos and share it on various social media platforms. When aregistered user uploads a video, other users are free to view it.

Users canview to particular video as well as can subscribe the creator-channel. Throughthis study we will look into how gamification is used as a tool by YouTubeleading to user engagement and revenue generation. YouTubehas various rewards based on subscription count 1.     Thesilver play button2.     Thegold play button3.

Thediamond play button Whena particular creator-channel surpasses 100, 000 subscribers that creator isrewarded with ‘ The Silver Play Button’. This reward is a flat trophy in a metalcasing with a YouTube play button symbol. Trophies are of different sizes andeventually gets bigger with the number of subscribers. When a particularcreator-channel surpasses 1, 000, 000 subscribers then they are rewarded with’The Gold Play Button’. Similarly, when a particular creator-channel surpasses10, 000, 000 subscribers then they are rewarded with ‘ The Diamond Play Button’. This tiers of trophies are dependent on the subscriptions the particularchannel has.

Thisactivity of gamification creates interest among users to achieve the upperlevel awards. Users are encouraged to generate more videos and are attracted toachieve more rewards. This is the gamification tool used by YouTube to attractmore registered users and developing more video content. Research shows thatthere are more than 400 hours of content uploaded to YouTube each minute, and 1billion hours of content are watched on YouTube every day. This shows theincreasing interest of users towards YouTube where gamification is used as atool for engagement. YouTubeearns revenue from Google AdSense, a software which tracks ads according tosite content and visitors.

YouTube makes money through sponsoredadvertisements. Advertisements are played before videos as well as in-betweenvideos such that the revenues are generated according to the advertise viewersand clicks. Whenever any user views any video, several ads appear on screen, clicking to it generates revenues. This is how YouTube generates revenues andbusiness development.

Part of the revenues are paid to video creator and restis for YouTube. For registered users it’s an engagement to create content andupload on YouTube whereas for YouTube it’s a business to keep users viewingvarious videos. This is how gamification keep engaging users on website and asa tool helps in business development.  Useof Gamification as a Tool for Achieving Business Goal by ZomatoZomato started in2008 as restaurant search and discovery service and hasnow entered into online delivery and booking management segments as well. Initializedand launched in India at first, it currently operates in 23 countries, including Australia and United States. It acts as platform for users to find information andreviews about restaurants, including images of menus which are generally notavailable elsewhere.

Though Zomato was started with objective ofproviding restaurant search service, its main object is to generate revenue anddeliver profit to its stakeholders. Zomato uses gamification on its website andapp as a tool for user engagement. And this has helped it generate profit inmost of the countries it operates in. Through this study we will look into howwhat procedure Zomato follows to generate revenue and how gamification hashelped it in these regards.

To start with Zomato uses Leaderboard concepton its App and Website. Once a user registers themselves on Zomato throughwebsite or app they assigned a rank which indicates their position on theleaderboard and also a badge. To improve their ranking user has to write reviewand upload photos of the restaurant they visited. The users get 25 points foreach review. There are total 5 badges and 13 levels which a user can achievebased on the points they have accumulated. The details of the same arementioned below in the table.   Level Points Foodie 1 0 2 25 3 100 Big Foodie 4 250 5 500 6 800 7 1200 Super Foodie 8 1600 9 2400 10 3200 11 4500 Connoisseur 12 6000 13 8000  In addition, this level there is also a badgenamed expert.

An expert is regarded as a person who knows area in their cityinside out. In order to get expert tag, user has to write 10 reviews and upload50 photos for restaurants in a single neighborhood to become an expert. Zomato also gives verified badges where in thecompany manually verifies the reviewer and if the criteria are met, gives thereviewer a verified badge. Zomato also arrange meetups generally referred as’Zomato Meetups’. These help user to have a social visibility, recognition, popularity etc.

In short it helps user to attain some status in society. As a token of appreciation Zomato gives some ofthe reviewers on its platform gift voucher which mostly restaurant discountcoupons. It can be clearly seen that Zomato usesgamification concepts like Leaderboards, Rewards, Achievement & Status foruser engagement. User engagement in turn helps Zomato to achieveits ultimate goal of revenue generation and earn profits.

With ever increasingnumber of users trying look out for places to dine in, order online and book inadvance, restaurant feel the need to get into some kind of partnership Zomato. Zomato offers paid promotion service for the restaurant whose rates are decidedas per the negotiation between the parties. In addition to this, with healthynumber of users on its platform Zomato has also entered into food deliverysegment, wherein a restaurant partners with Zomato to get orders. Zomatocharges a commission on the order placed on pay per basis or percentage oforder value whichever is mentioned in the contract. Zomato Book is a CRMsoftware offered by Zomato which enables restaurant to have an online bookingservice through Zomato website or mobile application. Zomato charges monthlysubscription rentals from partnered restaurant.

All in all, gamification used as a tool foruser engagement helps Zomato to generate revenue and earn profit throughselling advertisement, commissions on delivery order and service subscriptioncharges. Conclusion: In this research case we applied themechanics of gaming to non-game activities to change people’s behavior. Gamification is further divided into intrinsic and extrinsic factors whereintrinsic factor is an innate driver which encourages to engage oneself andextrinsic factor pushes one to engage in an activity. A research study is madeon YouTube where gamification is used to engage registered users to upload morevideos and attract subscribers. The reward is based on the number ofsubscribers for a particular channel.

Secondly, another research study is madeon Zomato where users are given badges and features like leaderboard are used. Users are encouraged to review restaurants, upload photos where points aregiven to every activity. More number of points leading to more rewards.