Online games worth $200m by 2010, if India follows the Chinese model

The online games market in India should exceed $200m (£113m) in 2010, according to a study by Pearl Research.

"While long dormant, the online games market in India is starting to heat up, " said Allison Luong, managing director of Pearl Research.

Luong added that the Indian market in 2006 is like the Chinese market in 2001, when China's games market started to develop and an online games culture first started to form.

"I believe the adoption of online games in India is inevitable as gamers, online publishers, telecoms firms, internet cafe owners and PC hardware manufacturers, all with a vested interest in growing the market, help nurture a games culture," she said.

Pearl Research claimed that it was being conservative in its estimates, but that India had the potential to emerge as one of the top online markets in Asia within the next decade.

"The online games market in India is being driven by the rapid adoption of the internet with 39 million current users," the company said.

Pearl also noted that there were more than 100,000 internet cafes in India in 2005, which derive 30 to 40 per cent of their revenues from users playing games.