Gaming

Gamiana Scores $1 Mn. Funding From Indian Angel Network

by Paul Joseph February 9, 2012 Featured

Indian Angel Network (IAN) has confirmed pledging Rs. 5 Crores (US$ 1 Million) to online gaming start-up Gamiana.  Gamiana intends to utilize the funds to enhance software development, increase customer base & bid for overseas contracts revealed Vishal Golia, co-founder of Gamiana, “ We, at Gamiana, will now be able to leverage the global presence, market insights and network of IAN’s global members to fuel our growth ” As part of the deal, IAN member Chetan Shah, has joined the board of Gamiana. While gaming companies are sprouting up , Gamiana’s strategy to target emerging markets makes business sense.  Secondly, Gamaina wants to be a strong contender in the Mobile Phone Gaming arena. With 900 Million GSM connections, even a small percentage adopting their games will have a huge impact on profit margins! How does Gamiana intend to earn ? Gamiana has introduced two free games. Jamia , which is free-to-play browser-based virtual world and Vinashi , which is a real time strategy game . Both the games are targeted at the social space where players can connect and interact with thousands of others globally. Though free-to-play, additional items in the game have to be bought with real-world money! Gamiana’s games are multi-platform. This strong-point should definitely work in Gamiana’s favor, since players won’t have to buy additional hardware just to play it’s games. With an estimated  US$ 9 Billion  virtual goods market, with main competition from  Zynga , let’s see how Gamiana fares. Do you regularly play virtual games?   Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency

Tagged as: funding, gamina, Gaming, indian angel network, mobile, news, startup, startups, vishal golia, web

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UTV Indiagames Crosses 50 Million Game Downloads: Nokia Getting Stronger?

by Paul Joseph January 18, 2012 Featured

India’s game development company UTV IndiaGames has just surpassed 50 Million downloads of its games on the Nokia Store . UTV IndiaGames is riding high on the success of its recently launched game based on Bollywood film Ra.One titled Ra.One Genesis which achieved 1 million downloads for the last three months. While cricket themed games like CricketT20 Fever, DLF IPL T20 Fever have collectively crossed the 9 Million mark. It has achieved this milestone within 2 years of its launch. Bollywood & cricket are sure India’s favorites! The success of the games or rather, the companies can be attributed to the rising use of mobiles with high-speed Internet that enables lightning fast downloads. It all matters, how easily are the games available to the people. With a burgeoning mobile market touching 900 Million , the figure of 57 Million doesn’t seem so huge. There is still a lot of ground to cover. Further escalation of game adoption will depend on the availability cheaper smart-phones & innovative marketing techniques . Surprisingly, Nokia is slower in this segment than Samsung as it was recently reported . However, this milestone sure speaks reassuring words for the company.  While the companies are clamoring to cater to such audiences, what will matter, is the quality of games & the associations that they carry with them. What do you think? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Nokia And Reliance Bring Operator Billing To India’s Ovi Store Nokia and Intuit Help Small Businesses GoConnect With Clientele Indians Most Receptive To Mobile Ads : Inmobi Survey Nokia Teams Up With Hungama For “Ovi Music Shorties” After BlackBerry, BuzzCity Launches In-App Advertising For Android

Tagged as: Gaming, india, jasmeet gandhi, news, nokia, utv indiagames, web

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Social Gaming Company PlayUp Comes To India: New Avenue For Gamers?

by Paul Joseph January 5, 2012 Featured

Mobile-based Social gaming company PlayUp has just revealed it will be opening its office in India. They have further revealed that the Indian Office will act as a Global hub. While PlayUp has been functioning through it’s USA, Japan & UK offices, they too have understood the importance of India as hotbed for Social Networking & its ancillary advantages. Bollywood too , has been thriving through the Social gaming phenomenon. Many Indians are now ready to spend online & PlayUp, seems to be gearing up to offer what they need. Interestingly, Cricketing legends Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Brendon Julian and Graeme Wood,  are stakeholders in this venture. It seems Cricket will be the major attraction here! PlayUp wants to exploit the market that is well set & hence has immediate plans of launching a iOS app for iPads, iPods & iPhones. While the plans for Android/Desktop/Windows7 devices will be executed over the next few months. The platform offers real-time scoring and statists, It also allows the fans to create private-rooms and chat while the games are being played on the field. Kind of like a private box in a Stadium where friends can chat & gossip while the game is on. The PlayUp community on Facebook has already surpassed 3 Lakh followers & with the ongoing India Australia matches underway, the company hopes to rope in lot more. The company’s gamut of service include, real-time chatting, live streaming & support for SMS, WAP, Internet, Apps and Interactive Voice. With Mobile Internet growing rapidly , even large organizations like Disney have realized the importance of online & social gaming. Here to Facebook  with games by Zynga a clear leader looks like it will soon a barrage of competition. Where do you see yourself? In a stadium or at home watching the game & interacting with friends. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Ibibo Launches CricEx For World Cup As Fantasy Cricket Games Attract Players Crickem launched – Cricket social networking gets competitive! Nike Cup Kick-starts Its Digital Campaign With A Video “Facebook” Is The Top Keyword Of 2011: Social Networking The King? ComScore Shows That Google+ Is Growing Slowly And Steadily

Tagged as: cricket, Gaming, international, playup, social-networking, startups, web

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Now You Can Play Bollywood Games: New Form Of Entertainment Or Marketing Gimmick?

by Paul Joseph December 22, 2011 Featured

Bollywood too seems to be bitten by the Gaming bug with Ra.One & now Don2 to have its own movie inspired game releasing before the movie. Shahrukh Khan’s latest movie Don2 will follow the game’s release of the same name. The game is being released on multiple platforms just like its earlier brethren, Ra.One. The games will work on PS2 & PC. Releasing Game versions or even comics of movies is not new, Dhoom2 , Ghajni , Drona, SRK’s Don etc have proved to be equal or greater success than some of the movies they were based on! One might not recall, but even Malika Arora [ Agni ]! & Priyanka Chopra [ Love Story 2050 ] starred in one! Why does one decide to go to such an extent to release a game before the movie? Lets explore some theories. 1. Hooked-on: We all agree Gaming is addictive , just like Social Networking! So why not serve the audience something that they stay engaged for , a much longer period of time than, say, for 3 hours (average movie duration)? Kids & adults alike may not recall a movie’s name after about a month from its release, but, if the game is good, it will not only be played for a longer duration, it will be talked about much more. Isn’t it good publicity of the movie through the game? It’s what marketing people term as “Top of the Mind Recall”. 2. Generate Buzz A good interactive game helps generate anticipation about the movie. People get engrossed & discuss it on Twitter, FaceBook etc. This sometimes becomes viral. A cleverly supported incentives campaign may even boost visitor participation! Top a level, get 10% off on your movie ticket etc. So, is there profit to be made? Earlier, it was just generation of hype for the movie, but now-a-days even the plots are woven around the games. Remember Lara Croft! In case of Max Payne & the Hitman movies, have been purely game-inspired or even borne due to the games. In case of Bollywood, cleverly placed Brand advertisements within the game help bring down the development costs & revenue sharing can actually make the efforts to design & launch a game a very profitable venture. Some insiders reveal, game publishers can monetize anywhere between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 40 lakh in a year!  Have you played such themed games? Share you experience with us. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Indians Hooked To Social Gaming Reveals MOL SafetyPay To Ease The Woe Of Facebook Credits Social Gaming: Is it the Future of Gaming? Disney Movies Re- Released On YouTube: Spreading The Holiday Cheer? Flipkart Acquires Bollywood Content From Chakpak.com: Pursuits Of A Different Kind?

Tagged as: bollywood, features, Gaming, news, shahrukh khan, social, web

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Indians Hooked To Social Gaming Reveals MOL

by Paul Joseph November 25, 2011 Featured

The preferred payment service provider for online games, virtual worlds and social networks, MOL AccessPortal Pvt. Ltd. (MOL India) has revealed an increasing quantum of Indian users getting hooked onto the Social Gaming phenomenon. Social gaming, a concept that promotes social networking via online games has steadily been increasing worldwide & as a “community” comprises over 500 Million people worldwide. A surprising revelation by Ashish Khoria, Country Manager of MOL India is that, “ 10 million or over 50% of India’s Facebook users play social games “. So what makes social gaming so engaging to the audience? It is the inclusion of local nuances or issues into the gaming environment that makes the games relevant & relatable. The realism in the games, represent the users’ daily endeavors. These games not only help to bring the communities closer, the real-time rewards further entice users’ participation, said a statement from the company. CEO of MOL Ganesh Kumar Bangah feels that user participations and revenue growth estimations are huge and this offers a great opportunity for marketers to promote their brands through social games. “ The user growth we are witnessing continues to increase beyond expectations. This is really a good time for companies to explore social gaming initiatives in India ” he says. MOL AccessPortal, a part of MOL Global Group handles over 60 million transactions annually & works through a network of more than 6,00,000 offline and online payment collection points spread across 80 countries . This company basically handles the micro-transactions that a user carries out when he buys something in the virtual world of gaming, commonly known as in-game purchases. A model of sustainable revenue generation being readily accepted by developers. While PayPal is busy coaxing customers to send money , Indians are playing games to earn virtual points & spend hard-earned money! Is Facebook listening? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency

Tagged as: features, Gaming, ganesh kumar bangah, international, mol accessportal, news, revenue, social, web

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SafetyPay To Ease The Woe Of Facebook Credits

by Paul Joseph November 24, 2011 Featured

Another online payment service provider has been roped in by Facebook to address in payment woes it faced recently. Facebook had been facing a lot of problems with it credits lately. Applications were transferring credits between each other without prior authorization. A problem commonly known as Pay-Flow , is expected to be addressed  by SafetyPay , a secure payment provider serving online shoppers, merchants and banks worldwide. SafetyPay will be a payment option for Facebook Credits in Mexico , Costa Rica , & others starting on December 9th, 2011. The methods are: ELV (Germany) MyCard Mobile (HongKong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan) Visa Electron (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand) WebBilling Online Bank Transfer (Austria, Germany, Spain, Switzerland) The entire list is HERE . Technically, the new methods adopted, will disallow applications to facilitate illegal gambling and prevent game developers from using one type of premium currency across more than one game running on different app IDs. But, we feel, if asked nicely, Facebook might just allow it. Facebook Credits is a virtual currency, which recently made its entry in India. Facebook gives its users in lieu of your real money can be used to purchase valuable elements in virtual games , downloads, movies, music or anything non-tangible. FaceBook credits offers players seamless experience where they can instantly buy something (sword, shield, extra life) in a game & continue playing undisturbed by banking transactions. By clicking the Payments Tab within users’ Facebook account settings, Facebook Credits can be purchased easily and safely with SafetyPay. FaceBook is just a beginning says Manuel Montero, CEO of SafetyPay, “ Along with Facebook, the largest and most influential social network on the Internet, we will provide a secure payment experience for the social online gaming world ”. With so many payment options no wonder employees are “ Busy ”. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency

Tagged as: credits, facebook, Gaming, international, internet, manuel montero, networking, safetypay, social, web

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Bangla Music For NRI Bengalis Through Radiobanglanet.Com

by Paul Joseph August 17, 2011 Featured

Are you a Bengali and miss Vividh-Bharati and have no access to local FM stations? Then this news is likely to cheer you up. Bengalis across Europe, North America and Southeast Asia is reviving their relationship with with baul, adhunik, folk, Bangla band and, Rabindrasangeet through radiobanglanet.com . For over a year now, reportedly many NRI Bengalis have been logging on to tune in to a radio station that broadcasts just old and new Bengali music.Recently, live online radio called ‘Artiste Radio’ ‘ was established by In.com. Run from Kolkata by London-based IT entrepreneur Manik Dey and transmitted to 41 countries (though still not in India), the station is in 17 months, has got more than 45,000 listeners across the globe. Radiobanglane t has launched aspiring artistes from Bengal and the station plans to launch one every month. According to Dey, who runs an IT firm in Salt Lake, Kokatta, “ Non-resident Bengalis miss Bangla gaan. Previously they would listen to CDs and cassettes but with music going online, it is now the easier option. They can tune in to radiobanglanet on the move and keep track of the latest music from Kolkata ”. The reason behind this venture is simple enough as soon after he moved to the UK in 1998, Dey discovered that the Bengali community there for Bengali songs on the radio. “ FM had just come in and music was going digital. The Bengali music scene was getting hot with bands coming in and a lot of experiments being done. But those living abroad were missing out. They were caught in a time warp, being stuck with Fifties and Sixties music, which, too, was not easily accessible. I felt this vacuum needed to be addressed and joined hands with a friend to set up radiobanglanet in Kolkata. It clicked from the word go ”, explained Dey. Radiobanglanet is available in UK, Germany, Holland, USA, Singapore among others. “ We are planning to acquire an Indian license ,” said Dey. It seems like a good way to connect the Bengalis from all over the world with the common likes of music. But in a world of downloadable music, CD’s and Youtube.com, whether this project sustains in the long run, will remain to be seen. Recently, we blogged that Saregama had tied-up with Timbre Media to offer genre- based radio service into Indian market. The two companies plan to offer the radio channels on all possible platforms including the digital domains of mobile,  Internet and Direct-to-Home television services. Do you think this venture will facilitate trend of more local language radio stations? Share your thoughts with us.

Tagged as: author, facebook, Gaming, india, Indian, internet, music, radiobanglanet.com, technology, web, youtube

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Will India’s E-Commerce Boom End in a Bubble?

by Paul Joseph August 17, 2011 Featured

Unreasonable valuations of Indian e-Commerce firms are raising eyebrows among market experts, who think we might be headed towards our own desi dotcom bubble. This is after flipkart.com , the Rs 70-crore online retailer is about to be valued at $1 billion (Rs.  4,500 crore). Global investors are clamouring to grab a share of India’s growing e-Commerce ventures, and we think these high valuations might see the industry come crashing down if a sudden capital flight drains out value investments. No wonder Warren Buffet stays away from the sector! How big is the Market ? The estimated number of India’s broadband populace is 150 million once wireless broadband is rolled out. To put this figure into perspective, the whole of the UK has around 70 million people living in it. We allegedly have a huge user base that can begin to transact online, and 3G can provide substantial bandwidth for people to shop online.  Are Valuations a bit “Colourful”? Yes, they are. In Flipkart’s case, they are being valued by PE firms at a staggering Rs 4500 crore, despite being a fairly recent start-up and posting losses thus far. In 2009-10, Flipkart reported a loss of 90 lakh on sales of 11.6 crore. It has not submitted its 2010-11 annual report yet, but co-founder Sachin Bansal puts the sales figure at Rs 70 crores. So essentially, a company which does not have a precursor in an unknown market and is not profitable in the “real” sense is deemed profitable based on their growth potential, a dangerous game which has resulted in one of the biggest market crashes in the US eleven years ago. Does no one see parallels in today’s India? But what if they do succeed? Of course they can, but let’s delve deep, shall we? Their website offers discounts of up to 40% on the MRP of books, and free shipping. These discounts ultimately cost them when the Bottom-line gets thinner, and is a necessary evil to set a firm foothold. However, this only leads to a longer time to break-even, followed by a painful realization that once prices are raised, customers will shamelessly start buying from the new kid on the block, who will throw in, say, a 50% discount and a free coupon. And private investors are shown the rosy picture of “Investing in India’s Internet story .” Follow the Leader Unfortunately, “hot money” VC firms love to get entangled in this wonderful game. Everyone reads up on the Macro situation, size up bullish estimations (150 million users = x number of e-buyers = x amount of Profit) and jump in head-first, for fear of missing out on the Next Big Thing . They love to be patronizing, calling new start-ups “India’s Amazon” or “India’s Google” (does ‘Bollywood’ ring any bells?). The trick is to not get carried away, and Value Investing should be the order of the day. Indian regulations actually prohibit foreign investment in multi-brand retail in India but “Special Purpose Vehicles” can always manage to invest in the e-commerce space in India. However, changing regulations may make this a moot point in the future. E-Commerce companies take a long time to become profitable. Amazon took seven years to turn in its first profitable quarter. Investors should remain Cautious, and Regulators should safeguard our nascent industry from unregulated flows. That’s not to say we should prevent foreign investment in this budding field, but at the end of the day, it’s better to have one successful Google to ten failed Home Trades.   Do you think e-Commerce ventures will be profitable in the long run? Are you wary of too much foreign control? Talk to us!

Tagged as: acquisitions, flipkart.com, funding, Gaming, Indian, internet, sales, venture capital india, youtube

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Top 10 Brands on Facebook in India

by Paul Joseph August 16, 2011 Featured

India is number one country in terms of social media website users with more than 32 million users and growing at a rate of 7.36% per month . Considering the mammoth rise, it is grabbing all the attention it should in the world of Social Media Marketing.  Facebook is used by more than 40% of India’s online population with majority of them being in the age group of 18-24 years. With such huge numbers to back Facebook, there is no doubt that brands are considering this network as the most preferred when it comes to marketing communications on Social Media. Infact, there are more than 150 pages on Facebook that have more than 100,000 Fans on their page. This is a direct correlation of how important Facebook has become for brands. Now that its a known fact that Fan pages are the best tool for brand marketing via Facebook, we decided to create a list of top brands which have leveraged Facebook for their marketing efforts. To facilitate the search, we stumbled upon a lot of links and ended up on a list of top brands created by Media2Win. This is a pretty exhaustive  list with the only drawback that it has listed brands with rankings taking into consideration the number of likes each page has and nothing else. Thus, we did what that list could not and  selected the top 10 brands on Facebook. Brands which have done some brilliant work on the basis of various parameters like the interactions rate, brand communication, no. of likes, etc. Here is the list: 1)  MTV India Total No. of Likes:  2,898,899 Daily New Likes:  1,048 Average Interactions Per Day:  48,267 Interaction Rate:  0.4164% Communication Strategy:  Youth, Youth & Only Youth. 2)  Tata Docomo Total No. of Likes:  3,418,629 Daily New Likes:  33,945 Average Interactions Per Day: 13,160 Interaction Rate:  0.2011% Communication Strategy: Youth Centric, Topical & Brand Oriented. 3)  Pepsi India Total No. of Likes:  1,478,311 Daily New Likes: 2,122 Average Interactions Per Day: 4791 Interaction Rate:  0.0811% Communication Strategy: Cricket, Topical & YOU.   4)  Cadbury Celebrations Total No. of Likes:  1,058,096 Daily New Likes:  1,394 Average Interactions Per Day: 1680 Interaction Rate:  0.0530% Communication Strategy: Families, Cultures,  Relationships, Festivals,  etc.   5)  Star Movies India Total No. of Likes:  291,140 Daily New Likes:  423 Average Interactions Per Day:  966 Interaction Rate:  0.1108% Communication Strategy:  Programming Content & Hollywood   6)  Shoppers Stop Total No. of Likes:  1,342,226 Daily New Likes:  6,703 Average Interactions Per Day: 1856 Interaction Rate:  0.1390% Communication Strategy: Clothes & Offers!   7)  Close Up Total No. of Likes:  592,668 Daily New Likes:  850 Average Interactions Per Day: 1379 Interaction Rate:  0.2336% Communication Strategy: Close & Fresh   8)  The Times of India Total No. of Likes:  1,373,218 Daily New Likes:  1,955 Average Interactions Per Day: 9549 Interaction Rate:  0.0870% Communication Strategy: Lightening Fast News   9)  Pizza Hut Celebrations Total No. of Likes:  1,292,796 Daily New Likes:  1284 Average Interactions Per Day:  540 Interaction Rate:  0.0418% Communication Strategy:  Everything Pizza.   10)  Axe Angels Club Total No. of Likes:  1,808,298 Daily New Likes:  587 Average Interactions Per Day:  6976 Interaction Rate:  0.0772% Communication Strategy:  (Only) Sex Sells on this Page. So that was the list which we have derived through a complex analysis of various factors and not just the number of likes. Feel free to let us know if you come across an interesting brand page on Facebook in the comments section below.

Tagged as: author, brands, demographics, digital-media, facebook, gambling, Gaming, hollywood

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Online Gaming Driven by Mobile, Missing out on Gambling

by Paul Joseph August 16, 2011 Featured

The Indian gaming industry is growing exponentially every year into one of the key growth segments in India. It has been resilient despite the current economic downturn, and is supported by increasing disposable income, increased awareness among youngsters and console gamer’s. We are also seen as a leading destination for high end, skill-based activities. International gaming companies are now outsourcing their projects to India due to the quality of game developers.   Mobile Gaming is the Next Big Thing The launch of mobile 3G services will drive the future growth in the Country’s gaming sector. With mobile penetration reaching almost 70 per cent, most of the mobile operators are capitalizing on the growing popularity of mobile gaming by offering games for download to their respective subscribers. Multi Player Games will allow people from different parts of country compete against each other. India lives in villages and our rural population is crazy about Movies, Cricket and Mobile Phones, a sure-shot winning formula. Himanshu Pant, Co-founder of Mactabilis Arts , says it all started with ‘Sholay’, with the game “crossing the 150,000 downloads mark on GSM operators and 800,000 on CDMA phones. From ‘Rang De Basanti’ to ‘Sarkar’ and even ‘Home Delivery’, 60-odd movies have been converted into mobile games. Bollywood constitutes nearly Rs 10 crore, and is expected to touch Rs 30 crore in next two years. Downloading costs anything from Rs 50 to Rs 150 per download. On average, a Bollywood game sells 7K to 10K copies with more popular movies even going up to 25K downloads.” Zapak.com’s Social Gaming Initiative Zapak.com has now introduced its first Facebook-based game called “Zapak Tambola“. The game allows users to invite their friends, chat with them, send virtual gifts and earn virtual money and experience points. As described previously , the player is gifted with virtual money which can be spent buying tickets for tambola or simply to buy gifts, dresses, etc. With Facebook credit , users can make use of their credit cards, net-banking account and Zong when they eventually run out of cash. Missing Out on Online Gambling The recently published Information Technology Rules 2011 has imposed a blanket ban on anything “relating to” or “encouraging” gambling. Gambling is generally considered “immoral” and hence, setting up legal gambling outlets is impossible in the current climate. Poker has been around for ages but it never captured the limelight of the public eyes. It was basically an underground scene, while most of our card games fans have kept a low profile in order to avoid any public scrutiny. Considering how much society has evolved since the original act was passed, we are being a bit archaic about the whole “morality” issue. Only time will tell whether this too shall pass, and the Government sees the scope of raising taxes on customer winnings. In India, the gaming industry is likely to witness a CAGR of 53 per cent and valuation going up to $1.3 billion by 2013 from $239 million at present. With 70 per cent of the Country’s population below the age of 35 years, the trend and acceptance of Gaming together is rapidly growing among youth as it provides them with an opportunity to expand their friend circle by getting engaged in casual interactions and social games. Looking at the quality of developers we have in our own backyard, the only way is up!   Do you plug and play on the go? Are you in favour of Online Gambling? Tell us now!

Tagged as: author, cricket, friends, gambling, game, Gaming, government, hackers, international, news, web

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