Low broadband penetration in India is impeding the growth of the online gaming industry according to industry sources.

India apparently only had five million online gamers in April, according to market research firm Comscore, compared to some 79.6 million online gamers in the Asia Pacific region.

Rohit Sharma, COO of Zapak Digital Entertainment, noted that “the potential for growth is there', but that gaming companies were biding their time until India’s broadband network grows dramatically and are having to simply make do with collecting content and beefing up distribution channels in the hope that the market will eventually take off.

Zapak is optimistic and predicts that India's online gaming industry should see growth of about $1 billion by 2013, but other companies, like Indiagames, are being more conservative in their estimates, with Indiagames predicting market growth of only $250 million by 2011.

IDC’s most recent numbers predict that India should have about 14.9 million online gamers by 2011, which Zapak sees as good enough justification to invest about $100 million in development costs over the next three to five years. Indiagames, again being more conservative, has said that it will probably only stretch to about $15-20 million in investments, according to the firm’s director, Vishal Gondal.

With statistics pointing to the fact that India has around 46 million Internet users, 60% of whom are under the age of 35, online gaming numbers should be much higher. In attempts to boost numbers, companies are even resorting to deals with Internet cafes, who generally have faster connection speeds and who are trying to keep prices low enough to make online gaming attractive.

But as Indiagames’ director points out, “All our assumptions basically assume that India will have 'x' million broadband users. If that doesn't happen, all our plans will be in limbo'. X

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