Garena is relaunching Free Fire in India, a year and a half after the popular mobile title was banned in the South Asian market over national security concerns.
The firm, owned by South Asian giant Sea, said it has partnered with Yotta, controlled by local giant Hiranandani, for cloud and other storage needs of local users’ data in the country.
The company said it has further localized Free Fire for the Indian market.
Prior to its ban, Free Fire was a popular title in India and had about 40 million monthly active users in the country and competed closely with Krafton, whose PUBG and BGMI titles are also sleeper hit titles in India.
Garena’s move follows Krafton securing a re-entry of BGMI in India on a trial basis. Last year, Sea also quietly attempted to launch its e-commerce platform Shopee in India but ceased the initiative weeks after the ban on Free Fire.
Industry executives say that Garena still needs to change its tack in the country and should attempt to mirror Krafton strategy by investing in local firms.
“We still believe that Sea needs to present a more vocal identity for its India business, and for that, it needs to hire an established CEO,” AllianceBernstein analysts wrote last year. “This is required to bring an identity to its Indian business, rather than being operated from the region.”
Sea didn’t respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
More to follow.
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