Introduction
  Research relevance  This work is an applied project carried out for the My.games company in order to develop strategic recommendations for the promotion and monetization of products (mobile games) in the Japanese market. This work aims to re-emphasize the importance of marketing in the virtual entertainment industry. It will be devoted to relevant promotion tools, both digital and outdoors. As well as the most effective monetization models for mobile games that allow not only to make a profit, but also to satisfy the desires of users by providing them with what they are looking for in the game. To do this, an analysis of customer behavior and paying habits of mobile gamers will be carried out. Our modern life is unimaginable without smartphones. They have become an integral part of not only work, study and life, but also entertainment. Every day, more than a quarter (26%) of users spend 7 hours or more on their "electronic friend", that is, more than half of the time that they are awake. Another 21% spend 5-7 hours on a smartphone. Speaking about Japan about 16% of users spend from 4 to 5 hours a day in their smartphones. At the same time the percentage of people spending 10 hours and more holding their phone is almost 6%.  Of course, active smartphone users spend part of this time on entertainment activities. According to a 2021 research of “statista”, more than half of Japanese spend more than half an hour a day on mobile games on weekdays, with this figure exceeding 60% on weekends. However, consumer behavior in the Land of the Rising Sun differs in many ways from what we are used to. The mobile gaming market provides a huge opportunity for growth: Japan's population is less than half (40%) of the US population, but the mobile gaming market is not inferior to the US. The mobile gaming industry is simply completely different. Users there play much more actively and spend a lot of time in the virtual space, so the game must have a lot of content and (or) levels, to keep players attention. In addition, customer service in Japan is built with a high level of interaction, with many companies organizing online communities and phone support, which is rare in western market. Some of the world's highest-grossing games are from Japan (like Puzzle & Dragons and Monster Strike), and most of their revenue comes from the market of origin. Japanese players are distinguished by high solvency. In the first half of 2022, the Japanese mobile player spent over $308 per game on average, which is huge above the huge Chinese market index of $29, two to three times more than the Chinese and Korean markets, and five times more than in the US market, ranking fifth. Nowadays ARPU (average revenue per user) reaches $177 with average time spent per week amounting to 6,7 hours. Due to high expected spending mobile game developers are willing to pay an insane amount for each install (sometimes up to $10-20) and for traditional advertising outside of mobile platforms (for example, on TV and on billboards). The launch of new mobile games is often preceded by various advertising and is accompanied by promotion on TV. However, it is worth noticing that approximate lifespan of a game is around 1-15 weeks for casual and around 12 month for mid-core. Due to the high degree of saturation and the constant replenishment of the video game market with new products, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep the attention of players. All these factors make the Japanese market not only promising, but also dangerous. In particular, it can be difficult to adapt for a company from a radically different culture. Despite the fact that My.games has been on the market since 2018, it has not been actively promoting its games, which has led to poor brand recognition and low popularity of mobile games. This may be due to the lack of a regulatory department directly in Japan and the lack of investment in advertisement. The relevance of the work lies in the practical need to solve the problem of the company. In addition, in the constantly changing and developing mobile games market, the need for modern tools for promoting and withdrawing funds from applications is acute. This, combined with the high growth potential of the company in Japan, is pushing data-driven analytics and using them to effectively expand audiences and brand awareness.  Research goal is to develop strategic recommendations for promotion and monetization of MY.GAMES mobile games in the Japanese market.  Research objectives To achieve research goal the following objectives are stated: Describe the company and analyze its activities globally and on the Japanese market. Identify major existing promotion methods, mobile games monetization models and their peculiarities. Conduct an analysis of Japanese market of mobile games and look at the dynamics of its development. Conduct a segmentation of mobile game users based on the motivation to play and on the paying capacity and identify patterns of behavior. Identify the major challenges that are faced by the company on the Japanese market. Develop strategic recommendations for mobile games promotion and monetization  Research object and subject The object of this research is a mobile game developing company MY.GAMES. The subject of this research is My.Games’ mobile games promotion and monetization strategies.  Research methodology   Given that the company operates in the B2C segment, it is necessary to firstly pay  attention to company's current position in the market. For this reason, it was decided to conduct an interview with a representative of My.games in order to obtain information not only about the company's activities, but also analytical data regarding gamers' preferences in genres, purchases and promotions. In order to better understand the behavior of modern users of mobile games in Japan, it was previously decided to conduct a survey of respondents in the city of Nagoya, however, since at the moment it is not possible to conduct surveys with a sufficient number of respondents due to the impossibility of using some international social networks, for the basis was taken a survey conducted by a Japanese analytical company at the end of 2022. The next step after researching the market and buyers is the development of strategic recommendations regarding promotion channels and monetization models for mobile games. As for the structure of work, CHAPTER 1 will cover basic information regarding the company itself, its activities in Japan, as well as difficulties in the market CHAPTER 2 describes the main aspects of the theoretical part of the study. Based on them, further development of recommendations is based. CHAPTER 3 is dedicated to various analyzes of the external and internal environment of the company. As well as a description of the state and trends in the development of the market and analysis of consumers. The last CHAPTER 4 describes direct recommendations for promoting and monetizing the company's products. Moreover, an algorithm for choosing or adjusting methods for withdrawing funds is considered.                             
В статье рассматривается актуальность маркетинговых исследований в индустрии виртуального развлечения, а также необходимость разработки рекомендаций по продвижению и монетизации продуктов (мобильных игр) в Японии. Особое внимание уделяется специфике поведения потребителей и особенностям японского рынка.