According to the Financial Times, given the fact that a large number of Chinese games are banned from the Indian market, Krafton, the developer of the global hot game ” Jedi for Life ” , is targeting the Indian market for large-scale expansion in the hope of taking advantage of this rapidly growing market.
According to Sean Sohn, head of Krafton India, to the Financial Times, as the US-China game market slows down, companies are seeking buy-in opportunities in India and are planning to invest at least $50 million annually in India. It is worth mentioning that Krafton ‘s Jedi Survival ‘ has been one of India ‘ s most profitable games in recent years.
“It is not easy to launch a bomb like Jedi Survival”, Sean Sohn said in his interview, “but developing another hot game is our central challenge.” India has the youngest user group in the world, 65 per cent of its 1.4 billion population under 35 years of age, but its consumers are highly sensitive to prices. It was only six years after Spotify, the top-class media servicer, entered India, that he first raised the monthly fee of a senior individual member from Rs 119 (US$136) to Rs 139 in August this year.
Sean Sohn said, “India is a difficult market, with low user acceptance of new games and a reluctance to overconsumption. But once they like the last game, they show great loyalty.” He added that the Indian market was still in its early stages and was only one fifth of the estimated 20 trillion won in Korea ($14.4 billion).
According to the market research institute Niko Partners, the number of players in India grew by 12 per cent to 444 million over the past year, nearly one third of whom had paid for the game. As Chinese games are banned in India, Krafton will gain a significant advantage. India has become one of the top five global markets, with a record value of 1.5 trillion won in Krafton in the first half of the year, with about 10 per cent of the Indian market. This is largely due to the Jedi Survival epidemic, which analysts estimate has attracted more than 200 million users in India, with a global annual sales of about 1 trillion won.
Professor Wi Jong-hyun, School of Business, Seoul Central University, stated: “Krafton has yet to demonstrate its ability to develop another explosive game after Jedi Survival”, noting that it faces intense competition abroad, “in contrast to India, the Chinese game company is strong in other emerging markets”.
To date, Krafton has invested approximately $200 million in digital content operations in India, or 9 per cent of total global investment. In March, it purchased Nautilus Mobile, an Indian cricket developer, for $14 million, and led an investment of $53 million in Cashfree Payments, a financial technology company. In addition, in July, the company announced a $96 million buy-in to the developer of Last Epoch, Eleventh Hour James, and in June agreed to buy $516 million for the Japanese advertising animation group ADK.
