Entertainment
Will promote India as shooting destination: NFDC chairman-designate
Thiruvananthapuram: Malayalam film actor and chairman-designate of the National Film Development Corporation ( NFDC) Suresh Gopi says his main focus after taking over would be to sell India as a shooting destination.
The actor, who has been nominated by the Narendra Modi government to head NFDC, shared his views while talking to reporters here on Saturday.
He also noted that union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has set aside a budget of Rs.30 crore for it.
“It’s with this money that we have to take care of films from 20 regional languages. My first task would be to see that NFDC raises its own funds and for that promoting India as a shooting location for world cinema industry is the best bet,” said Gopi.
The actor has already chalked out a plan for it. He said that he would “get in touch with the Indian embassies in countries where the film industry is popular to promote India as the one-stop shop for film shooting.”
“Our embassies would act as a single window clearance point for those who want to shoot their films in India,” he said.
This is the first time that NFDC will have a chairman from Kerala. And Gopi denies any political angle in his selection.
“Before the last Lok Sabha elections, I had a long talk with the then Gujarat chief minister (Narendra Modi) and I shared my views on how Doordarshan should be revamped and we talked on various aspects including films. It was Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who offered me this post and after speaking to a few people, I agreed,” he said.
Another point in Gopi’s mind is to reach the regional film industry.
“My aim is to spread NFDC’s tentacles across the country and to ensure that there is a wide regional spread when it comes to supporting regional films,” the actor said.
Talking about balancing his acting career with the new role, Gopi said that since there is an administrative machinery in Mumbai that takes care of NFDC he will have time to pursue his acting career.
“See these days, I have become selective when it comes to signing films. It’s the quiz (‘Ningelukum Akam Kodieshweran’, the Malayalam version of ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’), that I am putting everything into,” he said.
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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