The global pandemic brought many industries down, but online gaming is in the lead of those that mark a growth. Dr. Subi Chaturvedi analyses the factors behind the segment’s substantial growth figures and the challenges that lay ahead.
The Sector Pushes the Nation towards the One-Trillion-Dollar Digital Economy Dream
Online gaming and digital media are the only sectors of the economy that showed a considerable growth during the pandemic-struck financial year of 2019-2020, discusses Zupee’s Chief Corporate Affairs and Policy Officer Dr. Subi Chaturvedi on the occasion of Digital India’s sixth anniversary.
Online gaming is the single segment that outperformed all expectations and registered a growth of 43 per cent on a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis. According to Dr. Chaturvedi, much of this should be credited to online casino games, online roulette, fantasy sports, casual freemium and other transaction-based games and to their overall growth of 31 per cent.
Zupee’s senior corporate affairs and policy officer sees the growing penetration and affordability of smartphones and the world’s cheapest mobile data plans as the key driving forces behind the sector’s growth. The combination of 70 crores of Indians being online and the availability of content in local languages transforms the nation into a large hub for gaming.
A recent report on the Indian online casual gaming market by the global financial consultants KPMG projects the Subcontinent’s gamer user base to reach 65.7 crore people by 2025 from the current estimates of 43.3 crore gamers. In financial terms, the analysts expect the sector to generate total revenues to the amount of ₹ 29,000 crore in FY 2025, compared to FY 2021’s ₹ 13,600 crore.
Game installations have reached the staggering 7.4 billion just for the first three quarters of 2020, growing from 1.8 billion for Q1 of the year, to 2.7 and 2.9 billion for the second and third trimesters respectively. This is not to be some short-lived craze, Dr. Subi Chaturvedi argues, this is a serious industry that is attracting substantial interest by global investors.
It is exactly online gaming which is driving India towards the achievement of the one trillion digital economy dream by 2025, she continues. The second key factor after economic growth that makes online gaming so important is engagement. Games are a confirmed instrument that can act for the betterment of one’s mental wellbeing by providing interactive engagement.
The third reason why online gaming matters so much according to Dr. Subi Chaturvedi is skilling. She argues that games can offer a solution to the current skilling crisis through their affordable interactive and entertaining medium.
Challenges Await the Online Gaming Sector
The uncertain regulatory environment is seen by Dr. Chaturvedi as the biggest obstacle that hinders the growth of the nation’s gaming sector. The growing needs for skilled workers and the regressive unscientific attitudes of some portions of society are the other main challenges faced by the industry.
“A central progressive policy framework to protect investors and startups, innovation in learning and skilling to prepare for the jobs of tomorrow and further growth of new users and new territories,” is how Dr. Chaturvedi describes her vision for the gaming industry’s future and the opportunities it brings.
Zupee is a skill-based online social gaming platform that was founded by Dilsher Singh Malhi and Siddhant Saurabh in 2018. It allows iOS and Android users to play real money quiz tournaments in multiplayer mode on more than 500 different topics. The company collects a commission of 10 per cent from the money players put in, which can vary between ₹ 1 and ₹ 10,000.
Six years ago, on July 1, 2015, one of the key initiatives of the current central government – Digital India – was launched under the motto “Power to Empower” aiming to transform the nation into a digitally empowered society and an economy based on knowledge. The programme is grounded on three major pillars: the construction of a stable and secure digital infrastructure, the delivery of digital government services, and universal digital literacy.
The Digital India (DI) scheme by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is interconnected with several other initiatives by the Centre by enabling them and at the same time being their beneficiary. These programs include BharatNet, Make in India, Startup and Standup India, Sagarmala, Bharatmala.