We see a huge potential in India for our games: Niantic’s Omar Tellez

“We believe that India is one of the fastest growing markets for our existing as well as upcoming games and projects. The country provides us with a strong player base for our AR games and Indian developers as well have the potential to create newer games using our Lightship platform. Keeping this in mind we have made strategic investments to strengthen our operations and expand the footprint in India,” says Omar Tellez, VP of Emerging Markets at Niantic, Inc. Niantic is a augmented reality company with an initial focus on augmented reality games.

In this interview with Adgully, Omar Tellez talks about the ‘Festival of Lights’ campaign in India coinciding with Deepawali, the company’s India plans, the potential of the Indian market, trends, future plans, etc. Excerpts:

What are the vision and missions of Niantic in India, which is its key market?

India has proven to be a significant market for Niantic and its products. In my opinion, India is one of the few countries with a high rate of expansion for our current titles as well as upcoming ones. Considering the technological advancements seen in India recently and the country's fast-growing gaming population, which is predicted to reach 450 million by 2023, we believe that it will drive a large share of our player base. Niantic has been focusing extensively on expanding its footprint in India and has made strategic investments to strengthen its operations. For instance, we currently have over 500,000 PokéStops and Gyms in Pokémon GO in India, the largest anywhere in the world. In addition, we have also launched several on-ground activations to implant our aim of inspiring people to explore the world together. A few of such events include the ‘Community Day’ monthly series where we hold events across several cities in India, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, Pune, and Thiruvananthapuram, amongst others, and Festival of Lights. All these activities are testimony to our ongoing efforts to provide new and better experiences to our trainers.

What is the inspiration and objective of the ‘Festival of Lights’ campaign? What are the activities planned by Pokémon GO and the marketing strategy for the campaign?

The ‘Festival of Lights’ campaign in Pokémon GO resonates with Deepawali, one of the most celebrated festivals in India, and showcases Niantic’s commitment towards the market. The campaign is one of our latest efforts to enhance and personalise the Pokémon GO experience for millions of trainers in India. Niantic organised ‘The Festival of Lights’ event for its Trainers from October 14 to October 17 and conducted a local event in Bengaluru for its India trainers to complement their Deepawali celebrations.

The on-ground event held in Bengaluru on October 15 witnessed around 200 trainers as they gathered as a community and played the game together. The event included various activities such as sweepstakes for catching the first shiny Pokémon, in-game bonuses and a special research story. With this, Niantic spread a message to its trainers to strengthen bonds with those around them, including Pokémon.

What are Niantic’s ongoing and upcoming marketing campaigns for the Indian market?

For Deepawali, we recently launched the ‘Festival of Lights’ campaign as our India first campaign. We started the campaign with some teaser posts and videos on social media followed by the launch announcement in the first week of October. This was followed by a special on-ground community day event in Bengaluru, and around 200 people gathered to play Pokémon GO.

What makes the Indian market so attractive for the gaming companies?

India is rising to be a hotbed for the world’s largest gaming companies thanks to its technology advancements, wide population, with the large share being youth. According to a KPMG report, India has more than 700 million internet users, 450 million smartphones, and 400 million online gamers. Over 50% of India’s population is below the age of 25, and 60% of the nation's gamers are under 25 years of age, too. As India is a mobile-first country, more than 90% of the online gamers in India play mobile games. The rise of professional gamers in India also provided a huge boost to the e-sports and gaming segment.

Additionally, access to affordable smartphones and high-speed internet with the rollout of 5G in India at world’s lowest data tariffs resolve the challenges of high latency and lower device density in the country. These factors feed into Indian youth’s appetite of being technologically literate, providing them the opportunity to explore gaming professionally.

How important is the India market for Niantic? What are the future plans/ events lined up for India?

We believe that India is one of the fastest growing markets for our existing as well as upcoming games and projects. The country provides us with a strong player base for our AR games and Indian developers as well have the potential to create newer games using our Lightship platform. Keeping this in mind we have made strategic investments to strengthen our operations and expand the footprint in India.

We aligned our ‘Festival of Lights’ campaign consciously with Deepawali, showcasing our commitment to the region. This also helps us to further understand the cultural nuances and how we can bring more such personalised and localised initiatives. As mentioned earlier, we also host community day in various locations.

We are planning something really big, new and exciting for the first quarter of 2023, which will help in expanding our user base and penetrate in more markets.

Does Niantic also host similar events elsewhere by tapping notable festivals?

Niantic’s presence globally means that we work tirelessly to provide rich gaming experience to players belonging to different cultures and countries. We have been organising events on Halloween, which is one of the most celebrated festivals in the European countries as well as the United States.

What are the expectations from the India market?

As mentioned earlier, we see a huge potential in India for our games. We hope that by conducting events like community days and Festival of Lights, trainers and gamers realise the commitment of Niantic to the Indian market. We hope to see more players take to and discover the uniqueness of playing our games.

What are the latest trends in augmented reality games?

The gap between science fiction and reality is diminishing gradually with each and every advancement in the immersive technologies all over the world. Augmented reality games are now bringing a new and realistic experience and not just entertainment for the players. Few of the latest developments in the AR space include realistic avatars created with the help of body and face tracking, spatial audio creating a 3D sound experience for the listeners, prizes in the form of NFTs which are soon expected to be converted into digital convertibles. Additionally, Artificial Intelligence, which is altogether a separate technology, will soon work well with AR to facilitate the creation of models with a precision of the human brain.

Niantic recently launched Scaniverse, a 3D scanning mobile application, pioneering a fast and user-friendly way to capture, edit and share 3D content using a smartphone camera. Scaniverse will make multi-OS scanning easier and more accessible to the Niantic Explorer community, who contribute to this effort every day.