“ONMO is a social esports platform that can be accessed on any mobile phone’s browser” – Mr. Krish Seshadri, Chief Executive Officer, ONMO
ONMO has been available globally for some time now. What were the reasons for entering the Indian market now? What are the expectations you have from the market?
India is one of the fastest growing online gaming markets globally and this creates a lot of opportunities for platforms like ONMO. Mobile gaming has over 300 million users in India and Esports has hit an inflection point as tens of millions of Indians watch and play esports today. The growth of casual gaming and esports is emerging as a viable business model for gaming platforms in India as eSports will continue driving gaming adoption, higher engagement and increased revenue. Given this backdrop, ONMO is aiming to grow its player base to over 50 million users in India. The company launched its Beat It tournaments supported by the Just Beat it campaign in May 2022 This is expected to bring in casual gamers and non-gamers, hence, helping the company to build a new audience within the space.
How has the pandemic affected the online gaming space?
Mobile games market proved resilient, with users, revenue and engagement increasing over the last two years. During the pandemic, the Indian online gaming sector has only grown in lockstep. COVID-19-related restrictions and being stuck indoors had a huge impact on people’s lives. More free time and accessibility to internet resulted in the online gaming community experiencing a large influx of players and viewers. In many cases, gaming replaced in-person socializing for players. The pandemic also further accelerated the adoption of esports as well as online gaming, especially, in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. There was also clear connection between age and increased time spent playing games – the younger age group spent more time playing, with socialising and improving skills being key reasons for gameplay.
In the last two years, several mobile gaming platforms/apps have been launched in India. How does ONMO differentiate itself from its competition?
ONMO is a social esports platform that can be accessed on any mobile phone’s browser. It’s as simple as going to the url and playing your favorite esports games. Any casual gamer can play a range of games on the platform and compete on thousands of tournaments and battles. All this without having to download and install any app on your phone.
Secondly, ONMO hosts only short format challenges. The gaming experience is designed in such a way that the user need not spend more than 2-3 minutes competing on gameplay. With users desiring short burst of fun and entertainment, ONMO’s short form challenges caters to this growing need amongst players.
Our cloud gaming experience is directly optimised for the mobile phone and lets users play games on the ago without the requirement of consoles, hardware or controllers.
Finally, we have built a proprietary content management system that ingests content, helps us identify and host the best short gaming moments on the platform.
What are the key milestones that ONMO has been able to achieve till now? What are the future plans / growth plans for ONMO in India and globally?
We launched cash battles in a beta format in January-February 2022. Users are growing more than 30% month-on-month and the number of gameplays this quarter vs last quarter is 3X. ONMO launched its Beat It tournaments supported by the Just Beat it campaign in April 2022. The platform is aiming to grow its player base to over 50 million users.
