Paytm First suffers 224% net loss in FY20 despite 55% increase in YoY revenue

The 2020 Fiscal Year saw a great boom in the fantasy sports sector, so much so that Mobile Premier League and Dream 11 take a step closer towards becoming an unicorn. Paytm First Games, which was launched in 2018, was no exception, recording a revenue of INR 19.4 Cr, an increase of 55% year-on-year (YoY) from INR 12.5 Cr in FY19.

However, that profit came with a caveat, albeit independently. According to Inc42, Paytm First Games’ total expenses rose by 205%, from INR 39.14 Cr in FY19 to INR 119.34 Cr in FY20. That figure resulted in the company’s net loss rising by 224%, from INR 29.87 Cr in FY19 to INR 97 Cr in FY20.

With the pandemic helping the gaming sector grow massively, with people staying at home and looking for options to kill time, filings have grown substantially. As a matter of fact, Paytm First Games claimed it acquired over 75,000 new users every day during the lockdown in 2020 and the users spending anywhere between 32 to 45 minutes playing more than 100 games on the platform.

Paytm First Games, which is subsidiary of One97 Communications, which owns and operates digital payments giant Paytm, and a joint venture with AGTech Holdings Limited, has approved plans for the incorporation of a wholly-owned subsidiary company in China. The plans are to avail technical support services and exploring business opportunities in the country.

In 2020, Paytm suffered a mini setback when it was removed from the Google Play Store for violating Google’s anti-gambling policies. Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), headed by Dream11, had alerted Google that Paytm was running a daily fantasy sports competition under the garb of a cashback scheme on its core payments application.

That, however, has been solved since then but Paytm had later accused Google of abusing its monopoly and of arm-twisting app makers. Paytm though is back on Google’s App Store and Paytm Games is available to download online.