UCWeb, a Chinese mobile internet company announced a $20 million funding program for Indian startups producing games and apps. The development was announced by the company at the PocketGamer Connects conference in Bangalore. ‘9Apps In Dev’, will act like an accelerator and UCWeb plans to back 100 Indian gaming startups providing each game developer upto $500,000.
Announcing the program, UCweb India, general manager, Robert Bu said, “According to our research, there are lots of challenges faced by independent and startup developers. It is not easy for them to get as much brand exposure for their apps as the big players can. UCWeb and 9Apps are committed to building a healthy ecosystem where local users can download quality app and games they like, and developers are able to enjoy fruitful financial return for providing excellent apps and games.”
Besides providing funding, 9Apps will also help these companies gain more users, monetise their platforms, publish games and promote their products. Robert said that through this program they want to encourage developers to focus on building the apps and the games while 9Apps will take care of other aspects that follow it.
“We welcome all Indian independent developers to work together with us, to provide better apps and games for users, and also gain cash rewards for their efforts,” he added.
According to 9Apps, country manager, Ebrahim Popat, “Our market insights show that India without doubt is poised to be the next big destination for developers as Indian users have 32 apps on an average, lower than the world average of 42 apps. There is still room to grow. We recently launched 9Apps Trends, India’s first comprehensive local app market analytic service that provides app trends, data analysis and in-depth market reports with an aim to build a platform where Indian developers can catch up with the trends in the app world. The InDev Program aims to further address some of the critical challenges faced by Indian developers.”
Some of the highlights of the InDev Program include zero cost promotion support for developers, 100 percent revenue sharing with qualified developers for a certain period of time, professional support and consultancy in testing, localisation etc. InDev Program also sets up a Diamond Awards for qualified game and apps.
Currently UCWeb’s 9Apps has 160 million monthly active users worldwide and Indian game developers could leverage that. And with almost no monetisation happening for the games in the Indian market, this could be a very good alternative for the Indian game developers to explore.
