Ban on Chinese apps a bonus for Indian developers, says 99Games chief

The recent ban on Chinese apps is an unexpected bonus for the Indian companies to make their mark felt, according to Rohith Bhat, Chief Executive Officer of the Udupi-based gaming company 99Games.

However, he said, growth in this space requires large investments to back local entrepreneurs and innovators.

Bhat told BusinessLine that the Chinese companies were the most prolific investors in this space backing Indian entrepreneurs till six months ago. Since that capital flow will now stop, investors from other markets need to step in for the area to see growth beyond a stage, he said.

To a query on the Chinese app ecosystem in India, he said it is pretty massive in India. “Chinese companies were able to use their know-how of growth in the Chinese market as well as deep pockets to quickly make inroads in India,” he said, adding that more than half of the top downloaded apps in top 100 list of Google Play were of Chinese origin.

Though India had the apps comparable to the banned Chinese ones such as TikTok, the investment that ByteDance made in India to push Tik Tok to the levels it ultimately reached helped it.

Asked if the time is ripe for Indian developers to highlight the Indian-themed games on the lines of hugely popular apps like PubG (which was banned on September 2), he said building games of PubG quality requires experienced teams as well as large investments. Both are in short supply at the moment, but demand seems to be high. “It will be interesting to see how this plays out. 99Games will be focussing on this in the coming days, months and years,” he said.

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