Winzo expects to generate over 1 lakh jobs from gaming biz in year

New Delhi: Gaming start-up Winzo expects its ecosystem to create more than 1 lakh direct and indirect jobs over the next one year, a top official of the company said.

Winzo co-founder Saumya Singh Rathore told PTI that with growth in the number of games, the company is engaging housewives, teachers and influencers for various assignments paid on a work basis and the number is expected to grow in coming years.

"Two years ago, Winzo was working with 25,000 micro influencers who were earning approximately Rs 30,000-40,000 a month.

As of date that number has grown to 1 lakh influencers who are earning Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh on an average per month. We expect the numbers to double, that is to become 2 lakh within the next one year and their payout is also expected to increase 2-2.5 times," Rathore said.

She said that some of the influencers who grew with Winzo and have now garnered over 10 lakh subscribers earn anywhere between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh a month.

Winzo provides games in over 12 languages, including English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, and Bhojpuri claims to have over 8 crore registered users.

Rathore said that the platform has roped in translators who work with it on a project basis.

She said that with growth in the number of games, the demand for translators is also growing on its platforms.

"Two years ago Winzo was engaging with 300-400 translators. The number has now grown to be 7,000 translators across the country with Winzo adding 5 more languages and taking the number of languages to 12. We are expecting the number of translators to go up by at least 1.5 to 2 times in the next year or so. The translators earn Rs 35,000-50,000 on an average every month," Rathore said.

The government has recognised the animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics (AVGC) sector as one of the potential segments for job creation.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has set up AVGC promotion task force to realise the potential of the segment which is proposed to submit the first action plan in three months.

Rathore said that Winzo plans to double direct headcount in the company to 300 in the next one-and-a-half years as the platform is venturing into Web 3.0 which will be based on blockchain technology.

"We want to collaborate with society to build something for the world instead of directly hiring people. India has become the epicentre of gaming on the global grid by virtue of the quantum of time that is being spent on the games," Rathore said.

Winzo has exited from Google's Play Store and now provides its own platform where third-party game developers host their games. The platform charges commission from gaming entities in single-digit percentages.

"We are building a platform for the masses and engaging masses to build it. There is no single employee of the company who does the translation. We went out and collaborated with school teachers, housewives etc who have access to the internet and do the translation for us," Rathore said.