User spends below Rs 100 on online gaming, Rs 200-400 on OTT: Survey

An average user spends less than Rs 100 on online gaming and Rs 200-400 on over-the-top (OTT) platforms, according to a report by technology and policy think tank Esya Centre.

Published in a working paper of IIM Ahmedabad, the survey outlines that users spend the maximum time about 194 minutes a day on social media, compared to 46 minutes on online gaming and 44 minutes on OTT.

Also, 28 per cent of the surveyed population consider online gaming important for their employment prospects.

The report assesses market forces and user behaviours across social media, OTT and online gaming, including real money gaming, e-sports and casual gaming, among 2,000 respondents from Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Patna, Mysuru, Lucknow, Jaipur, and Bhopal and in-app data from over 20.6 lakh users across 143 mobile applications.

As per the report, "Policymakers' concerns around online gaming are unsupported by user time-spend and money-spend data."

The report comes after the GST Council's meeting that changed the GST levied on the online gaming industry from 18 per cent on Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) to 28 per cent on deposits, leading to a 350 per cent to 400 per cent jump in the industry's GST outgo.

User addiction and loss of money were cited as key reasons behind this steep hike in tax rate.

A 30 per cent increase in participation fee for online games may lead to a 71 per cent dip in engagement, which indicates higher price sensitivity in contrast to 17 per cent population affected by price hike on OTT platforms, according to the survey.

While all users are active on social media once a month, the corresponding number for OTT and online gaming stood at 60 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively.

The survey also found that 89 per cent of the users remain active every day on social media, while just 22 per cent of surveyed users access online gaming on a daily basis. Daily active population on OTT from the survey universe stood at 12 per cent.