INDIA: Games market set for boom

With a booming internet market that currently includes approximately 42 million users, the hunger for online gaming is set to rapidly grow in India this year, according to

BusinessWeek

.

Currently only five per cent of India’s web users are active gamers, according to information from ICube, but an increasing number of teenagers are flocking to cyber cafs to indulge in free-to-play online games – and the sector’s current market value of $30 million is expected to double this year.

Sites such as Games2win.com have enjoyed great success with titles such as Bombay Taxi and Raju Driver – both of which are free to play but entice gamers to purchase in-game upgrades such as bigger cars or virtual cash.

And with the rise in job opportunities offered by the likes of call centres providing India’s youth with the sort of income previous generations could only have dreamed of, the gaming demographic is currently enjoying more spare cash than ever before.