Indian game streaming companies eyeing a bigger play abroad
Loco and Rooter, are expanding operations beyond the domestic market as they prepare to take on the likes of YouTube and Amazon’s Twitch in foreign territories, people aware of the developments said.
Loco, which is backed by investors like South Korean gaming giant Krafton and Indian gaming-focused venture firm Lumikai, quietly started testing its Arabic app in multiple West Asian countries a few months ago and, according to its cofounder Anirudh Pandita, plans to expand into Latin American countries next.
Elevate Your Tech Prowess with High-Value Skill Courses
Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessISB Product ManagementVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Digital TransformationVisitMITMIT Technology Leadership and InnovationVisitRooter, which counts venture firms Lightbox and Trifecta Capital among its funders, is in talks to expand its presence in multiple countries starting with the West Asia region, people cited above told ET.
A spokesperson for Rooter declined to comment.
Pandita said the Arabic version of Loco app is running in beta version in countries like Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia.
The firm has not begun test runs for Latin American countries yet, he told ET.
“There is a lot of work to be done, right from getting the basic UI/UX right, given that the text is read in the opposite direction in Arabic, to problems like figuring out local payment systems and local tax and compliance laws,” Pandita said.
While some countries like Saudi Arabia are expected to see much higher average revenue per user (ARPU), with a lot of that income coming from direct transactions instead of ads, other regions like Egypt might see ARPU figures closer to India’s,
