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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

GCC gaming market expected to hit $821 million by 2021

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Video gaming is an exciting opportunity for telecom operators who can tap into this rapidly growing market and diversify their business using their existing capabilities, according to a new study titled Skin in the Game published by Strategy& Middle East, part of the PwC network.


According to industry data, the gaming industry is now worth a whopping $129 billion-a-year. That is bigger in terms of revenue than annual worldwide box office, annual music streaming and album sales, and major sports leagues all put together. There are close to 2.5 billion gamers worldwide.


“The GCC gaming market has followed the rapid expansion and is expected to hit $821 million by 2021 from $693 million in 2017”, said Hicham Fadel, Partner with Strategy& Middle East. “Global games devised by international developers have so far dominated this regional market. This makes it a particularly attractive proposition for operators in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, where more than half the population is under 25 years of age and there is a strong opportunity to create localized gaming content”, continued Fadel.


According to the Strategy& report, GCC telecom operators who successfully enter the gaming industry would improve their brand positioning and increase the loyalty of their customers. Gaming would also increase data usage and bring the welcome extra revenue for telecom operators. Significantly, this would allow telecom operators to generate more data about their customers, which in turn will help improve customer experience and increase monetization.


Telecom operators should stay on the same path — make a rash decision, a leap into the unknown, and the result could be bad. There is an alternative, however. A wily gamer knows when to explore a new path. Video gaming represents precisely that alternative approach for telecom operators.


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