Will Free Gaming Monetize? Zapak Aims 100% YOY Growth!
Online gaming is not an easy sector to be in, especially in countries like India where pay-to-use monetization models do not work . On that premise, it is heartening to note a recent projection by Zapak.com, the online gaming division of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group that their businesses would grow 100% YOY next fiscal.
One of the core aspect of Zapak’s business model has been partnerships with other brands that target online gamers for exposure to their brands. They have partnered with over 250 brands till date. Recently, Zapak also announced their partnership with NDTV Convergence to offer a gaming platform for NDTV. Located at NDTVGames.Zapak.com, this gaming section shall be promoted via NDTV.com and also through other online properties of NDTV Convergence.
Zapak has also announced its foray into the growing Brazil and Russia markets. The portal is already available for World Markets and Pakistan. Growing into these newer markets can help Zapak secure partnerships with these local businesses that will look at marketing their brands using the ‘advergaming’ model.
This multi-pronged business strategy seems to be paying off with Zapak aiming at a 100% growth in revenue for the year 2009-2010. Elaborating on their strategies, Mr. Rohit Sharma, COO Zapak said, “In 2009-10, we expect to see our traffic grow even further; we also expect to do a lot of innovations in the advertising space, which we plan to be the largest advergaming platform in the country. We intend to do a lot more innovative advertising through our creative. We will have more than 300 gaming cafes in the country where one can walk in and play games. Our revenue growth target for 2009-10 is 100 per cent year-on-year”
Rajiv Dingra Adds: Recently the merchandising arm of Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd Zapak Games announced that their business has sold over 2, 25,000 that is 0.25 million gaming cd’s last quarter. Zapak got into aggresssive mode on the PC gaming scene after it tied up with Pop Cap games in may 2009 to launch a series of PC games in India. Zapak bacame the official the Marketing and Distribution partner for Pop Cap games in India. Physical distribution of games is very important in India given the nascent online penetration and the even more nascent online advertising industry. Given the huge investments made by Zapak into the gaming scene with cafe chains and brand promotion it meant that they had to build a stop gap revenue model till the pureplay online gaming scene in India matured. PC gaming and being a game marketing and merchandising company suited them well and this is the route they are taking for their 100% year on year growth.
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