Enough Opportunities In India, No Plans For Overseas Expansion: Dream11’s Harsh Jain

Gaming unicorn Dream11’s cofounder and CEO Harsh Jain said that the startup’s focus continues to be on the Indian market as there are enough opportunities and it has no plans to expand globally.

Speaking during the ‘Startup Mahakumbh’ in New Delhi, Jain urged startup founders to explore the homegrown market first before expanding internationally.

“A lot of people have asked why we don’t go global. My answer has always been why? We have a very unique advantage. We have a domestic market which is one-sixth of the world’s population. As an Indian, you have a huge advantage,” he said. 

Making a pitch for the domestic market, Jain said Dream11 has a user base of 22 Cr despite it not allowing non-Indians to participate in the fantasy games on its platform.

He said that while the startup took 15 years to reach a user base of 15 Cr, it added 5.5 Cr customers just last year. 

He also acknowledged the government’s role in enabling the growth of startups like Dream11 by pushing tech innovations.

To further capitalise on the opportunity in the esports market, Jain said Dream11 is also utilising artificial intelligence (AI) to ramp up offerings and bolster its operations.

“I think sports can use a lot of AI in team selections, stats, among other things. We are using AI very deeply at Dream11. We have set up an innovation centre in partnership with Columbia University in the US where we are working on machine learning, reinforcement learning, and I think we have a lot to do in AI and sports,” he added.

The comments come at a time when the union government has actively pushed homegrown startups via schemes such as Startup India, Fund of Funds, among others. Addressing the Startup Mahakumbh earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said startups will play an important role in making the country the third-largest economy in the world.

Earlier on Tuesday, Infosys cofounder and Axilor Ventures’ chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan also said that India’s “unique” digital public infrastructure (DPI) presents an opportunity for homegrown startups to leverage it for business.

It is pertinent to note that the homegrown gaming ecosystem has been grappling with the 28% GST mandate imposed by the GST Council last year. While the move was opposed tooth and nail by the gaming stakeholders, the Centre went ahead and promulgated a law for the same. 

Since then, many gaming startups have shut shop or fired employees in droves. Not just this, enforcement agencies have slapped notices to the tune of crores on gaming companies to recover pending GST dues. 

In December 2023, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed the Rajya Sabha that 71 show cause notices involving GST to the tune of INR 1.12 Lakh Cr were issued to online gaming companies.

Notwithstanding this, the homegrown online gaming landscape continues to grow in size. As per a report, the Indian fantasy sports industry is projected to reach a market size of INR 25,240 Cr by 2026-27.