Indian gaming platform WinZO enters Brazil amid 400% GST hike

NEW DELHI: Homegrown vernacular social gaming platform WinZO on Thursday announced the launch of its app in Brazil, as gaming companies in the country feel threatened by a massive 400 per cent hike in GST.

WinZO will invest $25 million in Brazil in distribution and branding for more than 100 partner game developers.

“We have built a tech stack that caters to over 150 million young users from Bharat today and can be scaled across the world,” said Paavan Nanda, Co-founder of WinZO.

The decision to enter the Brazilian market is driven by a strategic approach to diversify and address challenges posed in India to all the companies by the 400 per cent hike in GST in India, said the company.

This move will help the platform’s partner game developers export games such as Carrom, Chess, Car Race etc, and gain free access to Brazil, the fourth-largest mobile gaming market with over 90 million users.

The partner game developers will get access to the new market and users without any cost of technology, marketing, and distribution, said WinZO.

Brazil has witnessed a significant surge in the popularity of mobile gaming with about 4.6 billion mobile game downloads in 2022.

The expansion came as companies explore ways to steer through challenges posed by a 400 per cent hike in the GST, which threatens the survival of most content/IP creators in their nascent stages which have the potential to catapult India into a leadership position within the global gaming arena.

“It is noteworthy that taxation rates globally, including countries such as the US, the UK, Australia, and Germany, are applied to the commissions for casual games of Skill that are treated differently from Fantasy Sports,” said WinZO.

Brazil levies indirect taxes such as 2-5 per cent as municipal tax, applicable to the commission earned by the company.

This month, WinZO will also launch and represent the first-ever India Pavilion at the Brazil Game Show, the largest gaming show in Latin America.