Zapak to pump in $100 mln to tap 50% of gaming industry

New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd (ZDEL), a Reliance ADA Group venture, will pump in 100 million dollars for developing gaming content for its online community and aims to grab 50 per cent of the Indian gaming industry by 2009.

''The 100 million dollars to be invested by 2009 will be used for making world class content, searching talent and establishing distribution and access points through gaming cafes across India,'' ZDEL COO Rohit Sharma told reporters at the launch of its first online multiplayer cricket game here today.

Mr Sharma said in the first phase, gaming cafes will be opened in fifteen cities including non-metros like Visakhapatnam, Siliguri, Jabalpur, Ludhiana, etc.

Within the next 24 months, the company expects to provide 50,000-60,000 gaming seats through such cafes and also plans to set up developing centres for the gaming content in the next 3-4 months.

The Indian gaming industry is touted to be worth over 200 million dollars by 2009, Mr Sharma said.

By 2010 there will be 20 million broadband subscribers and 200 million internet users in the country, according to industry sources.

''We intend to make a mark for Indian games even in the international fraternity,'' Reliance Entertainment President Rajesh Sawhney said after cricket legends Kapil Dev and Navjot Singh Sidhu inaugurated the online game of the portal www.zapak.com.

Presently, the size of the Indian gaming industry is 50 million users which includes 5-10 million of online users, Mr Rajesh added.

The global gaming industry is worth 35 billion dollars which is expected to grow at 55 billion dollars by next year. The online gaming is expected to be seven billion dollars by 2008, as Asia Pacific region contributes 50 per cent to the worldwide online gaming revenues.

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