Potential market in India -- Gaming and E-Commerce

"We have seen big uptake in digital entertainment and people spend more time now playing online Games. Gaming market is growing at 20 percent," said Patrick McGovern, Founder and Chairman of IDG at annual Global review meeting of IDG ventures family of funds from across five countries - China, India, Vietnam, South Korea and U.S. IDG has already invested in 3D solid compression, a mobile gaming company and Kreeda Games India, an online gaming company.

Apart from gaming, e-marketing, healthcare, telecom, are few of the possible ventures that IDG is planning to invest in. "With the launch of 3G technology in India telecom industry will have many opportunities," said McGovern.

But can E-commerce be really a potential market in India? "We do realize that the market is not the same here as compared to U.S. but people can still shop with the debit card or shopping cards. The reluctance to use cards for online transactions is disappearing slowly. People used to think that online travelling won't work but look how successful it is in India right now," says Manik Arora, Founder and Managing Director, IDG ventures India.

IDG has already invested in nine companies in India and all these companies come from different sectors like mobile applications, security services, media electronics, online games and advertising. Aujas Networks, ConnectM Technology Solutions, Perfint Healthcare, Ozone Media and Myntra.com, are few of the nine companies which have all been successful so far and few have even managed to open offices outside India. IDG has been investing in such small companies because they believe that small companies will create much better products and opportunities. "People should have more choices in technology related products so we invested in small companies. We thought they can come up with breakthrough products and make an impact in global technology market," said McGovern

India is not only an attracting outsourcing destination but also has a large domestic market and a faster GDP growth rate than majority of the world. This is the reason why IDG feels that the technology sector in India has a great potential. "Now with the markets improving and stable political environment we feel it's a very good time to invest in India. We have already committed Rs 300 crore to our existing investments across software, telecom, mobile, security and digital consumer markets. We intend to commit our Balance Rs 300 crore over the next 24 months" says Sudhir Sethi, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, IDG Ventures India.

SiliconIndia