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Etermax launched its hit game Trivia Crack in 2013, and now the company is celebrating its 15th anniversary, having grabbed its stake for the Buenos Aires, Argentina-based company in the global games business.
Along with Word Crack, Trivia Crack is still popular today and it has generated more than 800 million downloads, or enough for one in every 10 people in the world. The growth rate for the game has accelerated as the brand becomes stronger around the world. But Etermax is not resting on its laurels.
Maximo Cavazzani, CEO of Etermax, said in an interview with GamesBeat that he wants to solidify Etermax's position as a leader in the interactive entertainment industry, expanding its offer with immersive experiences that redefine interaction with trivia across virtual, mobile, and desktop platforms.
"We're a 15 year old company. We started Trivia Crack more than 10 years ago, and that was a revelation," Cavazzini said. "We realized that's what we wanted to do. To become the most successful trivia app in the world, which we are, and also finding ways of taking that into the new technology."
Additionally, the organization is developing new tools for content creators and influencers, as well as solutions for brands and organizations seeking to enhance their engagement, increase reach or conversion, as well as improve positioning.
With these new ventures, Etermax wants to strengthen its leadership in technological entertainment innovation, connecting people and brands through knowledge and curiosity. The company is always moving.
As an example, Etermax launched eight games in one year during the pandemic. The game has made its way into Apple Watches and BMW cars. The team has grown to 300 and most of them are in Argentina and Uruguay.
Continuous innovation and diversification
When the game took off, the questions remained. Would it last six months? Would it last a year? What was the best way to monetize it correctly?
"We had to reinvent ourselves multiple times, but in the end, it turned out to be really valuable and we're happy with 15 years of games," he said.
The multiplayer competition is what makes the game so compelling, where people play with friends and compete to be better than others, he said. It's like an esport that lasts for 10 minutes.
"We made a point of making a game that's good for you. Social networks are becoming machines that make you dumber because you just scroll through the content. We challenge you brain and make you learn things," he said. "We want you to play every day."
Cavazzini said Etermax stands out by anticipating social and technological dynamics. As a pioneer in user-generated content (UGC) with its Question Factory, an innovative crowdsourcing tool, it has generated more than 50 million trivia questions with the collaboration and moderation of Trivia Crack users.
The company has expanded its expertise from mobile to digital platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch, as well as to physical formats like books and board games, and emerging technologies such as augmented, virtual, and mixed reality, streaming services, connected TV, voice devices, and wearable technology like the Apple Watch.
This year, Etermax will launch the evolution of its virtual reality proposal, Trivia Crack World, an immersive trivia park accessible from multiple platforms, including VR, mobile, and desktop, and more to come.
The company is creating a kind of trivia theme park in VR, where you can play with friends and interact with characters.
"We are working to transform the game into more of a platform, and with that, we're working with influencers, major brands, and others," he said. "We give them technology so that they can generate tournaments. Some of the influencers are into very different parts of knowledge."
The Trivia Crack World experience will expand on the classic trivia mechanics of Trivia Crack with mini-games that challenge speed and accuracy, as well as the possibility to explore the park and interact with both other players and the beloved Trivia Crack characters in real time, with an official launch projected for the last months of the year.
"I've always wanted etermax to be a leading technology and innovation company. We are proud to have found our place in gaming through trivia and word games. Today, we develop experiences with multiple technologies and platforms that connect and foster knowledge in millions of people, communities, businesses, and institutions," Cavazzini said.
Etermax will also present Trivia Crack for Creators, a program designed to help content creators and influencers optimize their audience engagement and monetize their efforts. This program, which will first be launched in the U.S., offers tools to create more attractive and interactive content and has already been used in its pre-launch phase by educators, scientists, and other creators.
"Trivia Crack has become a synonym of curiosity, connection, and knowledge, and is continuously adapting to offer new experiences," Cavazzini said.
In addition, the company will launch Trivia Crack for Brands as a comprehensive solution that leverages Trivia Crack's appeal to boost engagement and visibility for brands and organizations through tournaments, trivia channels, sponsorships, integrations, and co-branding.
With previous collaborations with major television shows, global streaming services, and leading brands, this new platform has already ongoing projects with various companies and organizations.
Cavazzini said, "Among game developers, we are a reference in advertising, and among advertising agencies and networks, we are leaders in gaming. It is only natural for us to establish a link between these two sectors, acting as a bridge between brands and gaming."
15 years of transformation
From its early days as a fintech initiative with the creation of the first app for buying and selling shares on the iPhone, Etermax has evolved into a global leader in the video game industry, offering experiences that promote knowledge.
With fifteen years of independent history, Etermax has positioned Argentina and Latin America on the global gaming scene and left a significant mark with worldwide successes like Trivia Crack and Word Crack. When Trivia Crack debuted in 2013, it topped the U.S. app store for 66 days and had 20 million daily active users.
Now it's available in more than 30 languages and it still leads the trivia category in 125 countries. It was preceded by Word Crack, which came out in 2011. Word Crack is now the longest-lasting word game created in Latin America. It has been the favorite one in every two smartphones in Spain and is especially valued by those over 55 years old.
With a reach of over 180 countries and more than 150 million active users annually, Etermax stands out in edutainment, focusing on games that entertain, connect, and foster knowledge. The company has also set trends in brand gamification from Latin America and in the application of artificial intelligence in business, collaborating with more than 200 brands and organizations in 16 countries.
"We are having to change the way we get users. The traditional way is getting less and less returns, and that's why we feel that in order to survive in this new world, we have to go where the audience is, and we feel that the audience is with the content creators. It's with the brands. And we have a very big opportunity there, because not every game can be mixed into any content," he said.
He said that transformation is always difficult, but it is always necessary when it comes to adopting new technologies.
Argentine pride
Cavazzini said he was proud to put Argentina on the map of gaming.
"We are proud that the Latin American game industry can make games that are successful in the world," he said. "We have the responsibility of building a brand doing games that are actually good for you."
Most of the company's people are in Buenos Aires, but there are offices in various locations.
"A company like us is a mixture between a game and a social network. So we had to build all that, and we also had to learn from our competition," he said. "Our case proves that it is possible to compete in the video game industry from Argentina and undertake technology projects from Latin America."
The future
On its 15th anniversary, Etermax reaffirms its commitment to innovation in interactive experiences that connect people and communities and create value for users and business partners. The company will continue to promote curiosity as a driver of human development, fostering meaningful interactions through technology.
"We are happy to celebrate 15 years of driving moments of discovery. From a curious question or a word you didn't know to discovering unexpected solutions to achieve business goals, we will continue to promote knowledge through interactive experiences," Cavazzini said.
Diversification
The team tried different kinds of games. Many categories did not work. But what really worked was trivia and different versions of it. The company made a trivia TV show and an animated series and physical games.
The physical copies of Trivia Crack have also sold more than 100,000 copies. And there are 50 million questions generated so far by fans.
"We are happy right now as an entertainment company," he said.
Using AI
Asked if the company can generate a bunch of the game through AI, Cavazzini said it is a good question.
"We've been working with AI for a long time, and actually we have a division of our company that's not in gaming. We help banks and big companies to apply AI to their to their companies. And that's because we doing we're doing it a lot in our game. For example, we've solved some problems like replicated questions, grammar errors and more. And with the first wave of AI, we also have this ability of generating questions for a certain subject, or generating a lot of questions for people to see if they like it or not."
The idea is to mix AI with real intelligence or with human intelligence.
"With that, we get a very good combination. But also we apply that to, for example, the VR park where you can talk to the characters and you can talk to them about anything. You can play against the AI as well."
There are challenges that AI can solve. Sometimes someone has to search for a question that may already be in the database. If it's not precisely there, there is a kind of variant to duplicate problem. The company will fix that problem with AI. Sometimes the AI can be used to generate questions about a certain subject, like karate. Then humans will decide if the questions are too difficult or boring or repetitive.
"We basically feel AI is not a one solution for all things, but it is finding those places where the humans had a limit," he said. "The other thing we use it for is translation. We work in 34 languages."
In the future, he said, "You should expect us to have the best trivia experience possible, and that's what we try to do. We're working on different ways of making this experience better by making the best physical game, by making the best experience with brands. Some of these ideas will work, and some will not, but we will be there on every opportunity."
He added, "A lot of new technologies will allow people to play differently. And we will be there. And some of them, I think there will be a very good fit for us. I feel that with VR. I feel that with voice. And also I feel that the upcoming generation of computers with text or voice will work. And we will be there with our brand and with our engineers to make it happen."
