Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Dec 22: At a time when software companies located in big cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune are making a splash globally, a company established in rural set up has created a niche for itself. Everyone is sitting up and taking notice of the meteoric rise of mobile social game, Star Chef, which has earned income of over Rs 33 crore so far for the company.

'99Games Studio', a start-up company established under the umbrella of Robosoft, aims at developing and publishing mobile games. 'Star Chef' is grown tremendously through Apple App Store, with over 46 lac people downloading this game by using the iOS platform. The top officials of the company expect this game to amass over US$ 100 million in the next three to four years. The company's feat has come as a ray of hope for Indian start-up companies which plan to enter international markets.

The game targets women in the age group of 20 to 50 years. It was released in August 2014. It allows people to grow from chefs to five star chefs by completing tasks one after the other. It has 35 percent users in US and and the same number in Asia Pacific region, with the balance being accounted for by European customers. Experts say that this is the first ever gaming studio from India to have made such an impact globally.

Founder and chief executive officer of the company, Rohith Bhat, says that '99Games' has been growing at the rate of 20 to 25 percent each month. He informs that this game will soon be launched in Android in early 2016 and expanded to cover China, Japan, and Latin America, and that the company hopes to double its current revenue with this expansion.