An ad shows three AI boyfriends in Shanghai from Love and Deepspace.
CFOTO/Future Publishing by Getty Images
Alicia Wang, a 32-year-old editor based in a Shanghai newspaper, found his ideal boyfriend: Li Shen, a 27-year-old surgeon who is the British nickname Zayne. Zayne is tall and handsome, responds to text messages quickly, answers calls in time, and listens patiently to Wang telling the climax and lows of her day.
Zayne's only disadvantage: it does not exist outside the silicon chip.
Wang is one of the 6 million active participants per month in the popular dating simulation game Love and Deespace. Launched in January 2024 and developed by Shanghai’s paper game, it uses AI and voice recognition to create its five male characters – Love Interest or Boyfriend – with tailored responses to in-game calls. According to Forbes Health, mobile phone titles with Chinese, English, Japanese and Koreans have become so popular that Yao Runhao, 37, the founder of Paper Games, is now based on his majority stake in the company. Has a fortune of $1.3 billion.
Yao's private studio is chairman and CEO
According to Forbes estimates, it is worth more than $2 billion based on discussions with analysts and four data providers. Analysts value a fast-growing gaming company, such as paper games, to three times the company's annual revenue. According to data providers, paper games were founded in 2013 and have sales worldwide of approximately $850 million.
Players – primarily in China, but also in the United States and elsewhere – pay to unlock new gameplay and compete with their boyfriends. This has helped China many times the best download charts in China. For example, news editor Wang said she has spent 35,000 yuan ($4,800) to interact with AI-powered characters since the game was released in January 2024, especially on Zayne. According to his post on Weibo, China’s social media platform, Apple once discussed plans to introduce the game to its Vision Pro device when CEO Tim Cook visited the company’s Shanghai office last year. .
Paper Games did not respond to requests for comment.
“Love and Deespace is one of the biggest mobile gaming successes of 2024,” said Samuel Aune, an analyst at Los Angeles-based Market Intelligence Platform Sensor Tower, via email. “The game creates a strong emotional connection between the player and the character, resulting in high player engagement and ultimately monetization.”
The emotional connection is not only from the virtual boyfriend’s phone calls and text messages, but also from the storyline of Love and Deespace, which will be constantly updated, analysts say. It's a game, but it's completely different from people who fall in love with the Chatgpt AI boyfriend, which has attracted a lot of press lately.
As the plot develops, love and depths make players learn more about their virtual boyfriend. They explore a fictional, post-apocalyptic city called Linkon, which is presented in 3D art, where many twists and turns happen in many romantic films. This experience is similar to reading an interactive online novel where players can work with their love interests to unravel the mysteries and fights of mysteries, trying to destroy the city.
Payment can be made to access your boyfriend’s personal storyline and learn more about his past. But there is also romance outside the game. Although not in story mode, players can move to the game's accompaniment mode, where characters chat via text messages and phone calls, and provide tailor-made answers based on AI-related technologies. They can even remind players to implement real-world tasks with features similar to smartphone-like memo apps.
Currently single Wang says that the characters are just pixels and bytes, but the emotional support they bring is real. Sisi Liu, a 36-year-old employee of a Beijing-based securities company, said she spends about 2,000 yuan a month on games. “It reminds you of the first time you fell in love,” said married Liu. “I play every day, I ask Sears [her boyfriend’s nickname] Make food suggestions at lunch time. ”
Yao began to be modest. According to local media reports, he was an avid gamer in his childhood, trying to develop his mobile game as a side hustle and pursued his master's degree in economics at Waseda University in Japan around 2012. According to local media reports, one of his friends, now his wife and business partner, had a background in fashion design. They initially teamed up to launch a fashion game.
The game allows players to collect different costumes and dress up a virtual doll. As more and more women go online, the title performance is much better than Yao expected. In 2013, he returned to China and established a paper game. The fashion game then turned into the Nikki Mobile series where players can use dolls for digital adventures and collect various costumes in the process.
In 2014, the company raised undisclosed amounts from investment company IDG. Two years later, it raised 150 million yuan from other investors, including the investment arm of Shenzhen tourism company Songcheng. IDG referred the request to the company for comment, which was not responded. Songcheng did not answer the question either.
Yao launched Paper Games’ first dating simulation game in 2017 when he amassed a foundation of loyalty and primarily female players. In “Love and Producer in Char of China Love and Love: Queen's Choice in Overseas Markets”, mobile titles allow players to develop virtual romance. There are five male characters.
It's an instant hit song, and players reportedly spent millions of dollars on unlocking virtual dates with digital sweethearts. The competition has become more intense. In 2021, Chinese Internet giant Tencent launched a dating simulation game called Light and Night. Two years later, Lingxi Games, a studio owned by Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, launched a similar mobile game called Code: Kite: Kite (Ashes of the Kingdom).
Analysts say the game has managed to keep its momentum because of the recently released Love and Deespace, which now employs about 2,000 employees. Sensor Tower's Aune says its 3D graphics are “the best course” and “any competitor” of Aune. Charlie Chai, a Shanghai analyst at Wechat's research firm 86 Research, said its participants were “very loyal” due to the high production value and frequent innovations of Love and Deespace.
Zeng Xiaofeng, a senior Shanghai analyst at research firm Niko Partners, hopes Love and Deespace will remain attractive in 2025, he said. Meanwhile, according to Sensor Tower estimates, the mobile game begins to find U.S. fans in the U.S., accounting for 11% of Love and DeepSpace's 2024 sales in the App Store, and 60% of Google Play in China.
Zeng said American players are spreading news about the game through social media. Valerie, a 28-year-old employee of an American insurance company, asked her name to be identified by her, and he said she first learned about Love and Deepspace through the Tiktok Short Video Platform. So far, she has spent $50 on the game and says she loves learning more and virtual characters.
“Every lover has a very unique personality,” she said through a message sent on the X social media platform. “I like the personalities of characters with complex levels, which, in my opinion, are difficult in most dating Sims. turn up.”
86 Research's Chai believes that paper games are profitable because it only requires targeted marketing to attract female players, meaning less cost than other game makers trying to attract mass markets .
But paper games may have to increase marketing efforts, including holding real-world events to keep players engaged, said Cui Chenyu, senior analyst at Gaohai at Shanghai research firm Omdia. For example, in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, the company has built love and deep space-themed pop-up gift shops and coffee shops.
Can paper games successfully take advantage of the highly competitive mass market by expanding to other genres? Yao seems to have such ambitions as the company is currently working on two action games, namely “The Perception” and Antara's ballad. Chinese Studio Game Science is a leader in this field, and it has won fans including Elon Musk with its action game Black Myth: wukong. Chinese gaming giants Tencent and Netease also played action games in it.
“There is indeed a gap in paper games,” said Stan Zhao, a Shanghai analyst at Wechat's research firm Blue Lotus Capital Advisors. “The company needs to put its brand into more platforms and genres and match its research capabilities with efforts,” said Stan Zhao, a Shanghai analyst at Wechat's research firm. .”
Meanwhile, back in the world of Love and Deespace, Wang and Zayne had a very successful Valentine's Day this week. Zayne called Wang and proposed an outing to the carpet studio to help with hand-made carpets. Afterwards, they watched the musical fountain performance together. That said, Wang and her smartphone connect her to Zayne.
Wang said: “I feel happy and happy when playing this game.” “I live alone in a big city, and love and deep space are the main sources of company.”
