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Tag: Lockscreen

  • Glance buys out gaming firm Gambit in NFT push

    Glance buys out gaming firm Gambit in NFT push

    Mumbai: InMobi’s consumer internet division Glance has announced the acquisition of Indian gaming firm Gambit Sports. This will accelerate Singapore-based Glance’s ambition of building the biggest platform for NFT-based live gaming experiences for gen-Z, across markets, it said.

    The acquisition brings together Glance’s scale and lock screen-centric innovation with Gambit’s expertise and understanding of the gaming ecosystem. Glance Games – Glance’s lock screen gaming platform – has over 45 million monthly active users across Asia. Close to 70 per cent are in the age group of 18 to 34, while over 40 per cent of its gamers are female, the company shared.

    Gambit has deep experience in building platforms with high engagement and monetisation. Co-founded in 2015 by Yashashvi Takallapalli, Gaurav Konar, Ranaveer Sankieneni, and Deepak Venkatramani, the company owns and operates Nostragamus (Nostra Pro) – a popular gaming platform with fantasy sports, poker, rummy, quiz, and hyper-casual games. Over 100 million games have been played on the Nostragamus platform, and it has close to 10 million registered users.   

    Glance will leverage Gambit’s expertise to launch engaging live gaming experiences including tournaments, game shows, game streaming and multi-player games on lock screen. Gambit will also enable Glance to launch multiple casual-to-midcore games that can be enjoyed by diverse sets of gamers. In the coming quarters, Glance also plans to launch NFTs in live gaming. This will potentially enable creators, streamers and developers to monetise through assets and NFT-based game creation while giving gamers unique experiences that they love.  
    “Gaming is the most exciting content category across the world today and Gen-Z spends more time on gaming than on any other activity online,” said InMobi co-founder and Glance president and COO Piyush Shah. “Giving users live, connected, interactive gaming experiences on the lock screen is key to Glance’s vision of building the world’s largest live internet platform. We also aim to launch creator-led NFTs for live gaming which will generate unique ‘play-to-earn’ and ‘play-to-own’ possibilities for the entire gaming ecosystem.”

    “We have already started seeing great traction for live gaming on Glance. For instance, over 10 million users watch live game streams on Glance every week now. With Glance and Gambit’s combined strengths and our belief that there is a game for every person, we envision doubling the number of monthly active gamers on Glance Games in the next year,” added Gambit co-founder and CEO Yashashvi Takallapalli. 

    In February 2022, Glance had signed an agreement to raise $200 million funding from Jio Platforms to accelerate its global expansion. The company also entered into a business partnership with Jio through which Glance’s lock screen platform will be integrated into JioPhone Next smartphones. This integration is expected to further boost the reach of Glance Games.

  • Glance’s active user base crosses 160 million in India

    Glance’s active user base crosses 160 million in India

    Mumbai: Lockscreen content platform Glance recorded 163 million active users as of Q3 2021, according to Counterpoint Research’s Quarterly Mobile Application Tracker. Experiencing consistent growth since its inception, its active user base which now consists of 30 per cent of India’s smartphone users, grew by eight per cent QoQ in Q3 of 2021.

    Glance’s presence is highly prominent in the $100- $250 price segment, with nearly two-thirds of the active users coming from this price band. Upper-mid-and-affordable premium ($250 and above) comprises about 20 per cent. Over the past year, the lockscreen content platform has expanded its reach beyond India, and is currently also available on devices across Southeast Asia.

    Glance enables its users to access a wide range of content, including live interactive content, on their smartphone lockscreens. This content is curated from top publishers and developers in India across categories such as sports, current affairs, fashion, travel, food, commerce and entertainment.

     

    Commenting on the development, Research Analyst Arushi Chawla said, “The lockscreen is the most visited real-estate on a smartphone. It is the first screen users see every time when unlocking their smartphone. Being present on this surface, Glance makes content discovery frictionless and improves the opt-in rate for interactive broadcasting, compared to any other in-app event features that require users to login. Glance’s recent foray into Live, interactive content has also helped it to differentiate itself as a platform and has helped boost user engagement levels.”

    “As per our estimates, about a billion smartphones will be sold in the next five years in India, which brings a huge opportunity for a content platform to expand using Hardware as a Distribution (HaaD) model. Being a multilingual, pre-installed application in many leading smartphone OEMs it serves as a gateway to the latest content for many first-time smartphone users,” she added.

    Glance continues to come up with engaging ways to create stickiness on the platform. With the launch of Glance Live, and a rise in interactive, real-time content, it is progressively bringing newness in content delivery. Content from Roposo’s top creators onto the Glance lockscreen platform has increased content uniqueness as well.

    India is a price-sensitive and highly competitive market for OEMs. In many cases, it directly affects their operating margin and ability to maintain their market position. As the market dynamics are moving from hardware-level competition to providing an overall holistic experience, most of the OEM’s strategy will concentrate on maximising the customer’s lifetime value. In such a scenario long-term loyalty and value creation will depend on providing differentiating over-the-top services. Content will certainly play a key role in developing brand stickiness.

    (The findings are based on a sponsored survey to better understand the brand’s presence in the Indian smartphone market.)