After disrupting the online space in India by offering data packs at dirt cheap prices, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has hinted at what would be the next million dollar opportunity in the sub-continent. According to Ambani, gaming will be the next big gamechanger and will be bigger than music, movies and TV shows all put together. "Gaming is really doesn't exist in India... With cloud and broadband connectivity, there is huge potential," he told Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during a fireside chat at the Future Decoded Mumbai CEO Summit in Mumbai.
"For many of us who don't know what gaming is, it is very hard to imagine but gaming will be bigger than music, movies and TV shows put together... It is only a matter of time," Ambani said. However, the richest Indian was categorical that he has no plans of becoming a gamer anytime in the next decade. He said technology presents an opportunity to transform India. He went on to say that Reliance Jio with the Jio Fiber broadband service, they are geared up to change that.
Ambani is spot on in his observation. The online gaming industry in India has grown significantly over the past couple of years, and is witnessing an evolutionary change, thanks to the mobile and data revolution. The number of game development companies has also grown 11 times since 2010 to reach 275 today, according to YourStory.
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With nearly three billion gaming app downloads annually, ndia is already the largest emerging market, according to KPMG.
Online gaming, as a segment, is estimated to be a $1.1 billion opportunity by 2021, according to Google-KPMG. India is expected to have more than 628 million gamers.
"We in India have the opportunity to become the premier digital society... The next generation will see a very different India than what you (Nadella) and I have grown up in," he told Nadella during the conversation. "I can easily say that the mobile networks in India now are better or at par with anywhere else in the world," Ambani said. "The opportunity that we have for India, really, is the opportunity to become the premier digital society in the world."
