Esports is projected to reach Rs 1,100 crore by 2025: Sagar Nair, Qlan

Many people in the gaming community choose to participate in games that provide opportunities for online competition and cooperation. Players can virtually connect to spar and collaborate for specific missions and rewards thanks to titles like Destiny, Madden, Halo, and others. Therefore, it only seems natural that social media platforms would cater to the game industry, creating a dedicated space where accomplishments can be celebrated and new team members can be found.

In conversation with Adgully, Sagar Nair, Co-Founder & CEO, Qlan, speaks about how Qlan is emerging as the gamers’ social network, being a first-of-its-kind gamers network which aims to provide a clearing house for gamers, esports enthusiasts and gaming organisations to build a diverse widespread community and facilitate value exchange between different entities – endemic and non-endemic brands.

What are the contributions made by Qlan towards the growth of gaming and esports independence in India?

Qlan contributes to the gaming market by its unique design to build a robust set of features that bring together various aspects that contribute majorly to the gaming community like tournament operators, content creators, gaming professionals, esports organisations, and gamers, both professional and casual. The app resolves the major issue that is a dedicated application just for the gamers and for them to discover various opportunities within the gaming ecosystem.

What is the role of AI and ML in building a platform like Qlan?  How does Qlan function?

Qlan makes use of AI to match players with each other on the basis of various data points of their profile. Factors such as common games, same language, In-game roles, In-game stats, and more to find a perfect match for a player to game with and contribute to the creation of an esports squad. ML is leveraged to understand and gather data on user behavior on points such as content consumption, searches, saved data, games selected, etc, and then use the data to enhance the experience of Qlan for the users.

What are your observations on the growth of the esports business in India?

Esports is one of the top industries in India and is projected to reach Rs 1,100 crore by 2025. We see new gamers emerging every single day, creating amazing content which, in turn, leads to new viewers tuning in to consume such content. Esports in India currently has over 17 million viewers and that number is set to cross 25 million in the next few years. With increasing numbers of tournaments in India prize pools are likely to contribute towards 10% of of the global Esports economy as well.

What is Qlan’s strategy against big social giants like Discord, and Instagram while being dedicated to gamers?

Instagram and Discord, if compared to what they were when they first came out, had a very limited amount of features and things to explore. Qlan as a platform, on the other hand, is very clear and fixated on the market niche it intends to cater to and jointly, with feedback of its users develop features and make a system that makes that platform develop its own specific identity amongst other social media platforms.

What are the differentiated offerings that make Qlan stand out in its arena?

Qlan unlike other platforms, aims to build a sustainable ecosystem that has features for every element of the gaming space in India. The platform is very clear and fixated on the market niche it intends to cater to and jointly, with feedback of its users develop features and make a system that makes that platform develop its own specific identity amongst other social media platforms.

Where does Qlan stand in the Indian esports market?

Qlan has 30K+ downloads with more registering every day. Currently being our launch market, Indians form the largest percentage of the user base. Qlan contributes to the esports market by its unique design to build a robust set of features that bring together various aspects that contribute majorly to the gaming community like tournament operators, content creators, gaming professionals, esports organisations and gamers, both professional and casual.