Entertainment
Is Garena Free Fire making a comeback in India? Find out here
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has recently informed that it had banned the operations of 54 Chinese apps in India, including the popular gaming title Garena Free Fire. Several other apps that had connections with Chinese companies such as Tencent and Alibaba were also banned.
Singapore has now raised concerns about the ban of technology group Sea Ltd, according to a report by Reuters. The development comes after the market cap of the New York-listed Southeast Asian company plummeted by about $16 billion in a single day.
Investors are reportedly also worried that India might extend the ban to Sea’s e-commerce platform Shopee. The app was recently launched in the country by the Singaporean company.
Reuters reported that Singapore had asked officials in India why the app was banned in a move that was largely focused to target Chinese apps, despite the fact that Sea is based out of Singapore.
India is the largest market for Free Fire and one its premium versions, Free Fire MAX, according to the number of downloads. However, in terms of sales, India made up just 2.6% of Sea`s mobile-game net sales in 2021.
Free Fire had emerged as the most downloaded mobile game worldwide for December 2021 with close to 24 million installs, which represented a 28.2 per cent increase from December 2020.
Recently, China had also responded to the latest crackdown on Chinese apps. Beijing had expressed its concerns, saying it affected the interests of the Chinese companies, according to a report by Sputnik.
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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