“The Indian market is very important to us and we are honing a keen interest in it,” Kim said. “The population is very huge and it is also one of the fastest growing countries in the world. And we feel the gaming industry is also growing along with that economic growth. We (Krafton) really want to contribute to that continued growth.”
He said the company has already invested up to $170 million and is planning to invest $140 million more in the coming years towards gaming and gaming adjacent industries as well as consumer industries that are based on IT and tech. It is also doubling down on its proprietary games in India like BGMI, Bullet Echo India, Road To Valor Empires amongst others. Earlier this month, Krafton also launched CookieRun India, marking its entry into the casual gaming segment.
“We want to continue this kind of growth (and) will continue to launch our own games into the Indian market,” he said. “We want to ramp up our capabilities to do live service in India and we also want to have our proprietary development capabilities in India. We are also branching out into new industries and sectors. So we plan to have a significant ramp up.”
He underpinned the need for government support in order for gaming to reach its true potential in the country. He emphasised that good games require good developers and that while India has many good engineers, there’s very little reason for them to enter the gaming industry.
“We need to change this perception with the help of government leaders and industry stakeholders,” Kim said. “It is very important that these potential game developers understand that there is potential to become very successful as a game developer. India is already in a very good place. It is a very attractive market because the domestic demand of these games is going to be huge.”
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Krafton has invested in Lumikai, 3one4 Capital and recently the IMM India Fund in India. Sean (Hyunil) Sohn, CEO of Krafton India explained that they use these funds as a ‘radar’ or ‘antenna’ to find really good companies that they might want to work with and invest in them directly.Not just funds, Krafton has also backed several companies in India. Krafton has invested in esports companies like Nodwin and game developers like Nautilus, but has also backed companies like Pratilipi, KukuFM, One Impression amongst others.
“Even though Krafton is a gaming company at the core, in India when we started looking for game publishing and investments, we found that India has a white space in digital content and entertainment sectors where we can still find good startups coming up,” Sohn said. “We have met quite a few interesting companies, in some companies we have made investments and we have seen a very good growth trajectory over the last three-four years.”
(The reporter was in South Korea at the invitation of Krafton)
