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Web3 has become a buzz word in India as many people are interested in the “decentralized web”. There has been immense development in this field as more and more companies have settled in India while tech giants like Apple and Microsoft are listing vacancies in their respective ARVR division. According to reports, Web3 is one of the fastest growing sectors worldwide. According to NASSCOM, India holds about 11 percent of the world’s Web3 talent, making India one of the world’s largest Web3 workforce and employing about 75,000 blockchain professionals. India aims to lead the Web3 space globally as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the green light to the 5G project which will result in higher data speeds and lower latency required for Web3 use cases.
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Another report from CoinTelegraph suggests that India is home to over 450 Web3 startups, four of which are unicorn companies. India’s Web3.0 ecosystem has reached US$1.3 billion in funding in April 2022. The Indian Web3 landscape has been changing at a rapid pace despite the Covid hiatus. To end the year on a high note, here are three trends the sector could see in the coming year:
The Rise of Metaverse
Metaverse has grown steadily throughout the year. Organizations like Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Huawei, and Qualcomm have all come together to form the Metaverse Standards Forum. Apple and Google are working on their own Metaverse as well as the technology to make it possible i.e. the ARVR headsets.
According to a report by Deloitte, the potential impact of Metaverse in India will be in the range of $79 billion to $148 billion per year by 2035, contributing about 1.3 to 2.4 percent of total gross domestic product (GDP).
Metaverse has found various use cases in different sectors such as entertainment (concerts, live shows), education (immersive learning), health (simulation-based operations), etc.
Gaming: A Sunrise Sector
India is one of the new and prominent gambling markets. The Indian gambling sector has grown by leaps and bounds. The gambling sector in India is worth US$2.6 billion in FY22 with a potential to grow to US$8.6 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 27 percent.
According to a report by Lumikai, there are approximately 507 million gamers in the country. The number is expected to reach $700 million by fiscal 2025, a compound annual growth rate of 12 percent. Nearly 48 percent of gamers spent money on mid-core games, while 65 percent of paying gamers reported making in-app purchases at least once.
Indian gambling companies are on track to raise $513 million for calendar year 2022. Funding for the gaming sector is up 380 percent from 2019 and 23 percent from 2020.
“We plan to offer Web3.0 gaming projects and rollout solutions in this specific area. We’re also getting into metaverse solutions. It’s still in the early stages, but we look forward to catering solutions that include Metaverse, Blockchain, NFTs and Web3.0,” said Bharat Patel, Chairman and Director of Yudiz Solutions.
Regulation of Web3 and Crypto on the maps
The regulation of Web3 companies as well as crypto has been a thorn in the side of the government. However, the establishment of the Bharat Web3 Association, as well as India’s neutral stance on Web3, has increased the chances of regulation.
“No single country can stand alone in a silo trying to regulate crypto assets,” said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her speech at an annual event hosted by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations .
Taxes have been levied on crypto transactions. However, the government stance is to regulate both the crypto assets and Web3.
“There could be other problems on the centralized side of Web3. However, it could also be more regulated,” said Swapnil Pawar, founder of Newrl.
India took over the G-20 presidency in December and, with the help of its G-20 members, has come out strongly in favor of regulating crypto assets as well as the Web3 sector.
“We truly believe that 2023 will be the year when Web3 will see increased adoption, connecting Web3 to the real world and augmenting traditional backend systems with blockchain technology. As the underlying technology is strong, the secular trend will continue to go up; eventually more customers will demand transactions and services on the blockchain as decentralized use cases have the potential to deliver 10x better experience. With the next bull run, more users will integrate Web3 apps and products; therefore, getting the core infrastructure right to ensure systems are built and ready to scale is extremely important,” said Rohit Jain, MD, CoinDCX Ventures.
