{"id":477,"date":"2021-05-16T13:49:28","date_gmt":"2021-05-16T13:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockezy.com\/?p=477"},"modified":"2021-05-23T07:49:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T07:49:58","slug":"understanding-the-rise-of-nazara-technologies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stockezy.com\/understanding-the-rise-of-nazara-technologies\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the rise of Nazara Technologies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you know which is the first Indian gaming company to go public?<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you know which company had the third-largest IPO with an issue size of more than Rs 200 crore?<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you know which company\u2019s IPO was subscribed a whopping 175.5 times?<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you know the one company which has the IP (Intellectual Property) rights for a range of domestic and international eSports?<\/em><\/p>\n

The answer to all these questions is \u201cNazara Technologies Ltd.\u201d<\/strong>. India\u2019s first and leading diversified gaming and esports media platform company.<\/p>\n

The company recently launched its IPO in March. It was one of the most awaited IPOs of 2021 due to two reasons. Firstly, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, a renowned investor, had bought a major stake in the company. Secondly, this was India\u2019s first online gaming company going public. Amazing! Isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

But, how did a gaming company reach this stage? Let\u2019s dive deep into the backstory of the company. Don\u2019t worry! This won\u2019t be boring.<\/p>\n

\"Understanding<\/p>\n

Understanding the Rise of Nazara Technologies<\/h2>\n

The year was 1995. 16-year-old Nitish Mittersain would bunk college and listen to Shammi Kapoor, who, at that time, happened to be the chairman of the Internet Users Association of India. They used to talk about how the internet could revolutionize the entertainment industry (a true prediction, right?).<\/p>\n

Nitish acted on this discussion, not until 1999, when the internet users in India grew vast and internet games by Nintendo and Sony had pierced into it. He dreamed of and decided to set up a digital entertainment and gaming venture in India, years ahead of its time. Nitish Mittersain went to set up Nazara.com<\/a>, new-age gaming, and entertainment website.<\/p>\n

The tough times and roping in a legendary cricketer<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Initially, he faced a setback due to the dot-com crash and found himself in a gigantic debt of Rs 3 crore. But, he did not let this crush his spirits to fulfill his dream and in 2004 he saw a remarkable opportunity to get back in business. He observed that feature phones were developing a trend in India, and came up with an idea to launch pay-per-download Java games in alliance with large telecom companies like BPL and Hutch. Nazara Technologies, being a versatile company and futuristic, decided to launch its first mobile games through Value Added Services (VAS) offering. Nazara hit a masterstroke when it roped in legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador for 3 years for just $ 10,000 when the latter demanded $ 1 million.<\/p>\n

Funding that followed<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In 2005, the company raised a seed round of $1.5 million, bringing in much-needed cash in its kitty. When feature phones became a necessity, the company decided to shift its focus to value-added services offering. In other words, Nazara partnered with mobile operators, which then billed their users for games consumed. The icing on the cake for telcos was that margins in gaming VAS were as high as 40% compared to other emerging spaces like music, ringtones, where it was around 5%. In 2006, the company signed M.S. Dhoni for an exclusive contract to represent their brand.<\/p>\n

In 2008, EA Mobile, a subsidiary of the world\u2019s largest game developer, Electronic Arts, wanted to launch mobile games in India. Nazara had existing tie-ups with telcos along with tech stack design to support game marketing, distribution, and reproduction, and thus, the two ended up signing an exclusive wireless content distribution agreement.<\/p>\n

Soon, in 2009, it launched India\u2019s first-ever subscription-based model \u2018Games Club\u2019 with RCom and Airtel. Games club started initially with 26 games and it was registered under Gclub.in. This allowed a large number of telecom users to play N number of games and to monetize their games.<\/p>\n\t\t

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