Niantic aims to increase Pokemon Go monthly active users tenfold in 3-5 years

Pokemon Go maker Niantic aims to increase the number of monthly active users for the game in India by tenfold in the next three to five years, a top executive said.

“That’s going to take a significant investment, but it’s one that we’re committed to,” Omar Tellez, vice president for emerging markets at the company, told ET, highlighting the importance of the India market.

The San Francisco-headquartered augmented reality (AR) gaming firm, in collaboration with The Pokemon Company, launched Pokemon Go in Hindi Friday as part of its localisation efforts. The game is set to be made available in the six most widely spoken Indian languages within the next two years, Tellez said.

At least 800 of the over 1,000 Pokemon creatures have been given Hindi names. The naming and translation were done by humans, rather than digital translation tools, to ensure local cultural expectations are met.

The country is at present not among the top 10 in terms of monthly active users for the company, Tellez said, but Niantic expects it to enter the top five in the next 3-5 years as a result of its current efforts.

In previous localisation efforts, Niantic had introduced the celebration of Holi and Diwali festivals within the game three years ago. While user engagement in the country naturally saw a dip during the pandemic, it has recovered with a 45% increase in monthly active users in the past year, Tellez said.

To ramp up engagement, Niantic had added around 1 million real-world points of interest – better known by gamers as “Pokestops” – in India in the past year, and now plans to add another 4 million in the next 12 months.

“We want to make sure that everybody goes out and has an experience that at least has five Pokestops within a 1-mile radius,” Tellez said.

Niantic has created special pricing bundles for India of as low as Rs 29 for in-app purchases, in a bid to increase affordability in this market.

Beyond Apple and Android app stores, these will also be available on a web store which would include non-credit card payment options. “The Indian market is not that well-penetrated in terms of credit cards,” Tellez said.