The ADAG-promoted venture is expected to invest $100 million in Zapak’s three verticals — gaming portals, gaming cafes and content creation.
MUMBAI: Zapak.com, part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), is planning to launch gaming portals in Europe and China.
Rohit Sharma, the chief operating officer of Zapak Digital Entertainment, told DNA Money the company is also looking at investing in content developers for gaming, from countries like US and Korea, and has a kitty of $5 million to $10 million for the same.
The ADAG-promoted venture is expected to invest $100 million in Zapak’s three verticals — gaming portals, gaming cafes and content creation — over the next 3-5 years.
“We are launching a European site and a Chinese site and are looking to be a global brand very soon. We may also invest in some studios because software creation and ownership are key in gaming,” Sharma added.
Currently, Zapak has a mix of Indian and international developers with 60% of the content sourced from abroad. The Indian gaming developers that supply to the company include Saffronrage Solutions and Jump Games.
Zapak generates revenue mainly through advertising through banners and advergaming. It has brands like Cadburys, Maruti, Parle-G, Thums Up and Adidas already on board.
He declined to disclose the revenues for the company but said that the situation is “fairly decent”. The company recently forayed into gaming cafés in Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore.
The next three weeks would see them launching in eight more cities, including in Mumbai. It has set a target of 200 gaming cafés by March 2008.
The online gaming market in India is powered by the rise in internet usage especially through broadband, growth in internet cafes, and the burgeoning middle-class with rising disposable income.
An analyst report had earlier forecast that the online gaming market in India will exceed $200 million by 2010. Sharma said the biggest driver of growth in the gaming space was online gaming with China and Korea having revolutionised the market. He expects the Indian gaming story to follow a similar path.
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