The Indian gaming ecosystem, which boasts of more than 1,100 startups and a 40 crore-strong gaming communities, is thriving like never before.  With their unique offerings such as NFT-based games, fantasy sports, real-money games and cash prizes, home-grown firms have gained popularity across the globe. Over 86 Indian firms have received $1.4 billion investment over the past five years, including two unicorns and seven soonicorns, according to a latest report of the research firm Tracxn. 

Globally, gaming firms received $20.4B funds over the past five years. Of this, India’s share is roughly 6.8%. The United States (42.2%) Chinese (18.3%) firms got the lion’s share. 

Fantasy sports platform MPL ($150 million), which is a unicorn, is among top 10 funded companies globally over the last 2 years. Games24x7, another Unicorn from India, also received $75 million. 

Soonicorns like Zupee ($72 M), WinZO ($65 M), Hike (NFT gaming, $261 M), JetSynthesys, Octro, EloElo and Games2win also bagged the jackpot. Even four early stage startups-Bombay Play, One World Nation, Studio Sirah, Awon Gamez-have also managed to win their first rounds of funding over the last year. 

Even as the cryptocurrency sector across the world tanked, Venture capitalists have shown keen interests in Indian Web3 gaming startups that offer play-to-earn (P2E) entertainment and use crypto coins and NFTs for transactions. Companies with blockchain-based offerings pocketed $620 mn in 2022. Gurugram-based Rario, Bengaluru-based Lysto.io and Delhi-based Hike are among them, Tracxn data says. Hike pivoted from instant messaging to social, gaming, and crypto in 2021 only. 

“Indian gaming companies have been building local products with capabilities to cater to mobile-gaming markets across the world. Gaming as a category has shown itself to be driven by a highly monetizable audience base: one that tends to spend a lot of time on content and online engagement, is likely to be a trend-setter, has the propensity to spend and is often the chief purchase influencer in his/her family and friend circle,” opines Piyush Kumar, Founder & CEO, Rooter - Gaming and Esports Content platform. 

He further noted, “Indian gaming startups have been quick to encash this opportunity. Gaming content platforms like ours are building scalable, tech-driven, revenue-generating models that have garnered interest from marquee global investors.”

According to Rohit Agarwal, Founder & Director, Alpha Zegus,

“Since gaming is an industry that is completely digitally led, there is an almost infinite reserve of digital content that can be converted into NFTs. Also, the gaming audience is more tech-driven and understands the concept of NFT quite easily. These two factors give the NFT-based gaming industry a big advantage.”

Karan Taurani, senior VP of Elara Capital, echoes the sentiments.  “Indian gaming companies have quickly realized the shift of casual gamers towards real-money games. Web3 gaming is a far more sustainable ecosystem for both players and gaming companies and hence there are huge growth opportunities. Investors know this fact.”

Big opportunity for brands 

Such overwhelming investment in the Indian gaming startups opens up a huge opportunity for advertisers. Most of the gamers are young and have a significant purchasing power. 

The Indian online gaming industry is estimated to grow to more than Rs 15,000 crore in 2023, representing a CAGR of nearly 22%,  as per the latest 'India Online Gaming Report' of GroupM. 

“Most of the potential of this platform is still unutilised”, an advertising executive said. He added, “Gaming platforms offer tremendous scope such as in-app advertising, brand integration, rewards and advergaming. Brands can also reach their target audience through communities, e-sport tournaments, team associations, NFTs and influencers.”

The in-game advertising market globally is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7% to reach about US$220 billion by 2027, almost two-fold compared to 2020, according to a report of Research and Markets.

Nikhil Gandhi, who stepped down as the Chief Operating Officer of MX Player on Wednesday, has the credit of leading the OTT platform for two years with a specialised business strategy.

Gandhi made a mark with his team leadership, brand management, and strategies for generating revenue through digital content.

When Gandhi joined MX Player from TikTok, he was clear on three key areas for growth. The first was to grow users in India and internationally and expand MX Player’s markets by increasing the watch time on the app. Secondly, he spoke of deploying data in creating strategies for content and the third area was to identify new business areas. Gandhi had spoken about these key focus points in an interview with e4m in May 2022.

With Gandhi at the helm, MX Player emerged as the fastest-growing OTT platform in India. As per Data.ai’s “State of Mobile Report”, released in January this year, MX Player was India’s most-downloaded OTT app and the third most-downloaded worldwide in 2022.

Industry observers shared that Gandhi had bigger plans. “He has been striving to take the AVOD model to the next level and crack the Bharat market, which largely relies on cost-free entertainment options,” an industry expert said.

He was also instrumental in acquiring the Lionsgate library for international content, industry sources said.

MX Player has over 650 advertisers on its platform, Gandhi had said last December, explaining how his “team goes into smaller markets and gets new advertisers”.

Under his leadership, the platform was able to launch several new initiatives in the last one and a half years. Among them was MX Advantage, the self-serve ad platform targeted at Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It allows new advertisers to log in and place ads on the platform. MX Player also helps brands design their ads.

Another feature, launched in October 2022, was MX Live. It helped creators monetise content. MX Live works on a D2C model that allows content creators to interact with fans through live sessions. Users can even buy MX coins and MX tokens.

Marketing agency Sociapa will now be taking care of the digital mandate of Pansari Epicure which comes from the house of Pansari Foods. The mandate will include services like the brand’s social media management, product launches, and campaign and strategy planning.  

Founder of Sociapa, Dheeraj Raj, says, “As an expert in the realm of brand communication and image building, we are delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with Pansari Epicure, a brand that effectively captures the burgeoning hospitality industry through their customer-centric solutions.”

“We are well-versed in addressing the communication objectives and image-building expectations of such brands and are thrilled to extend our specialized knowledge to a trusted Indian entity like Pansari Foods. Our enthusiasm for this partnership is further fueled by the prospect of enhancing our proficiency in this segment.”

Rakhee Yadav, Senior Marketing Manager - Pansari Group says, “With Sociapa we are sure we will take our new launches to a great height on our social media to our end consumers. The team is dedicated and clear in their thoughts and approach towards work. We look forward to achieving new milestones with them.”

WPP today announces the acquisition of Goat, an influencer marketing agency.   

Goat specialises in data-led end-to-end influencer marketing campaigns grounded in performance and measurement and was founded by Arron Shepherd, Nick Cooke, and Harry Hugo in 2015. Goat drives authentic brand engagement while integrating targeted paid media to reach the right audience and achieve industry-leading results. The company’s 150+ staff across three global offices have helped to grow some of the biggest brands in the world, including Dell, Beiersdorf, Meta, Tesco, Uber, EA, Natura and Augustinus Bader, delivering best-in-class social and influencer campaigns. Since its founding, Goat has tracked the performance of over 50,000 influencer channels and over 250,000 pieces of content. 

In recent years, Adweek recognised Goat as Europe’s fastest-growing agency while The Drum awarded it Social Media Agency of the Year and LinkedIn named it one of its top companies.  

Goat will join GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, and merge with its influencer marketing solution INCA to create the industry’s first truly global influencer marketing agency with more than 300 employees in over 30 markets around the world. The combined entity – which will go to market as Goat – will operate as part of GroupM Nexus, the world’s leading media performance organisation with more than 9,000 expert practitioners.   

As part of GroupM Nexus, Goat will support GroupM’s strategy to help clients drive growth through performance with the scale and expertise to help global brands activate campaigns anywhere in the world. Enhanced by GroupM’s partnerships with the world’s largest social and commerce platforms, proprietary technology, and deep global expertise, Goat will provide GroupM and WPP clients with industry-leading global, cross-channel, and data-driven influencer marketing capabilities.      

Christian Juhl, Global CEO, GroupM, said: “Influencer marketing is an exciting growth area for our business and one in which our clients are looking for globally scaled and outcomes-driven capabilities. The addition of Goat to GroupM as part of GroupM Nexus gives us the ability to deliver accountable, cross-channel, and data-driven influencer solutions for clients anywhere in the world. Combined with the exceptional talent at INCA, we expect Goat to play a critical role in helping us define the next era of media at GroupM.”  

Arron Shepherd, Founder and CEO, Goat, said: “We couldn't be happier to be joining WPP and GroupM to bring our leading global influencer marketing and digital solutions to some of the best brands in the world. We are delighted to combine forces with the amazing talent at INCA to deliver even better value for our clients all over the world.”  

Mark Read, CEO, WPP, said: “Influencer marketing is a key growth priority for the industry and for WPP. Our clients are increasingly planning budgets at a global scale and require partners that have the global reach to help deliver, whilst driving engagement and impact at a local level. Goat’s proven track record in the influencer marketing space paired with GroupM’s record of excellence will continue to build on our unparalleled expertise in this area.”  

Goat becomes the latest in a series of acquisitions that form part of WPP’s accelerated growth strategy and focused M&A approach. These include 3K Communications, Fēnom Digital, Diff, Passport, JeffreyGroup and Newcraft in the last six months alone, in addition to the acquisition of influencer marketing agency Village Marketing in February 2022.

Planetcast Media Services has announced that it has strategically invested in Desynova, a cloud-native content life cycle platform.

Desynova’s solutions and services enable Planetcast to strengthen and expand its cloud-based content management capabilities for the global marketplace. Planetcast International will showcase Desynova’s Contido Platform as part of its portfolio of solutions and services on its 2023 NAB Show booth (W1467- West Hall) in Las Vegas, April 15-19.

“Desynova is a perfect addition for Planetcast through providing us with an agile, collaborative, cloud-native technology married to an intuitive UI that makes managing post-production and playout workflows smooth and seamless. While the Contido platform from Desynova broadens our solutions and services portfolio, it also brings marquee new customers and adds a significant boost to our global expansion plans,” says Sanjay Duda, CEO of Planetcast Media Services.

“We welcome all of Desynova’s 120 employees to the Planetcast family and look forward to collaborating with them to provide the most powerful and flexible portfolio of Content Management solutions on the global market today.”

“The Desynova addition enables us to provide solutions and services that perfectly meet customer needs, both now and moving forward,” says Sanjay Duda. “Clearly, almost every media and entertainment company on the planet is moving to a cloud or hybrid-cloud architecture for their media distribution and management infrastructure. Media Asset Management is the pumping heart of media infrastructure; Desynova enables us to meet this evolution by integrating the Contido cloud-based content life cycle platform with other Planetcast solutions, such as playout and OTT delivery, to provide the best ‘full-stack’ solution for all our customers – while also furthering the continued development of AI-driven post-production capabilities, such as AI-assisted editing.”

“It’s been a fabulous journey from incorporation in the year 2017 to developing and providing a next-generation cloud content life cycle platform for customers, including Asia’s largest broadcast network and the world’s largest OTT platform,” says Balu Ramamurthy, CEO & Founder of Desynova. “Our ultimate goal has always been to see as many as possible of the world’s leading media and entertainment brands deploying our solutions and services. Desynova’s Contido enables its customers to reach any screen, at any time, with any content from any location in the world — and to maximise consumer value and return on their valuable video assets.

“Our new Planetcast relationship will help position Contido as a high-value addition to Planetcast’s existing suite of products and services, thus opening new markets and customers for us and helping accelerate our development roadmap. Through working with Planetcast on a joint customer, our Contido platform is already integrated with Planetcast’s broader solutions portfolio — and most importantly, this experience has convinced us that in Planetcast we have found the perfect partner.”

Utsav Baijal, Partner & Head of India Private Equity at Planetcast Media Services’ owner Apollo Global Management notes: “We support the exciting strategic investment in Desynova, which broadens Planetcast’s already extensive services and solutions portfolio to further accelerate the company’s global expansion plans.”

Integral Ad Science has launched Viewability and Invalid Traffic verification for Netflix. It will benefit those who have subscribed to the streaming platform's ad-supported plan.

The tool will ensure that ad campaigns on Netflix will be free of fraud, and are seen by actual viewers.  

The verification programme has gone live in 12 countries and across connected TV, computer and mobile platforms. 

This is part of Netflix’s agreement with IAS, which was announced in 2022.

Ever since Disney+ Hotstar decided not to renew its licencing agreement with Warner Bros Discovery, the latter has been looking for a home for HBO content. According to sources in the industry, HBO has been in talks with several OTT platforms in India. However, Jio Cinema and Amazon Prime Video are believed to be the front runners in the race.

"Initially, the content team of HBO was in talks with several OTT platforms, including Netflix, SonyLiv, Amazon Prime Video and Jio Cinema. But it is believed that Jio Cinema and Amazon Prime Video are ahead in the race. Whoever offers the best price, will seal the deal,” said a source close to the development. 

exchange4media reached out to HBO, Amazon Prime Video and Jio Cinema for an official comment, but is yet to receive a response.

It's important to note that Warner Bros. Discovery collaborated with Amazon Prime Video last year to offer a slate of 11 popular HBO Max Original series and 10 HBO Max original features exclusively for Prime members in India.

Disney+ Hotstar announced the end of its association with HBO through a tweet last week. “Starting 31st March, HBO content will be unavailable on Disney+Hotstar. You can continue enjoying Disney+ Hotstar’s vast library of content spanning over 100,000 hours of TV shows and movies in 10 languages and coverage of major global sporting events,” it stated.

As previously reported by exchange4media, the agreement between Disney+ Hotstar and Warner Bros Discovery got over after HBO demanded a fee of Rs 80 crore per year for its shows, say sources.