Google sensed a significant potential the indie games industry across Southeast Asia and decided to invest a lot of money in that. Accordingly, the giant Internet company has almost finished the first-ever Indie Game Accelerator program which gathers 32 indie developers from the before-mentioned region and helps them learn about game development, business development, and office management.
Google said that it chose Southeast Asia over Silicon Valley thanks to the potential of the region in the technology field, including video games development. According to the experts of the renowned Internet company, the Southeast Asian would worth about $240 billion by 2025 (rising significantly for the actual $78 billion), while the mobile gaming industry of the region would reach $19 billion.
The giant Internet company also stressed that Southeast Asian developers are scoring bigger profits year after year which is another indicator of the potential the region has for the games industry, in particular, and technology, in general.
Google Invests In The Indie Games Industry Of Southeast Asia
To assist the Southeast Asian gaming market to grow as much as possible, Google implemented some investment plans regarding local forms of payment such as carrier billing and gift cards. That means that the users in Southeast Asia who would like to pay for apps or make in-app purchases can do that via 25 partnered carriers. They also can buy gift cards at 42,000 retailers across the region.
According to Google, its strategy already paid off as more than 80% of Southeast Asia paying users are already using these methods of payment. The rest of approximately 20% are still using credit cards.
Besides, Google came up with another tactic to lower the prices below $1 to as low as 15 cents for several in-app purchases to help users in countries with reduced incomes afford buying applications and in-app upgrades.
Google announced that the first Indie Game Accelerator program would also be available for the next year, as the company is already looking for new participants.
As a passionate gamer since the 1990s, Vadim has kept his passion alive since then, and he is here to cover video games news, as well as to share with you all the novelties out there regarding gadgets or games-related tech.
