This whitepaper is about the esports industry globally and in Indonesia.
The esports industry is growing rapidly in Indonesia. Esports has attracted a tremendous number of young audiences. It brings huge potential to engage a big audience and get monetize from it.
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GDP VENTURE
Table of
Contents
Foreword by Martin Hartono
Introduction to Indonesia Esports Industry
Why Brands Should Leverage Esports
Opportunity for Brands to Embrace Esports
GDP Venture Esports Ecosystem
Closing Statement
3
4-8
9-19
20-29
30-39
40
GDP VENTURE
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Martin Hartono
“The world of esports is rapidly becoming a world
where people can live their life from the industry.
Even as a hardcore gamer, I was quite astounded
to hear how esports players can make their living
from their streaming channels, prize money, etc.
I hope this whitepaper will give some clarity for
those who are not familiar with this space.”
3
GDP VENTURE
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Gamers in Southeast Asia
Indonesia Is Predicted to Become
the Largest Gaming Market in Asia
Gaming and esports analytics company Newzoo projected
that Indonesia’s gaming revenues will grow significantly
every year. In 2019, Indonesia generated $1.31 billion
in revenue which show Indonesia’s gaming market is
the biggest in South-east Asia.
#16
#26
#22
#19
#37
#24
World Ranking
1 Indonesia $1.31 billion
5 Vietnam $531 million
3 Malaysia $681 million
2 Thailand $785 million
6 Singapura $331 million
4 Filipina $572 million
No Country Revenue
Source : NewZoo 2019
THAILAND
MALAYSIA
VIETNAM
PHILIPPINES
Online Populations
Online Populations
Online Populations
Online Populations
Gamers
Gamers
Gamers
Gamers
41,700,000
27,200,000
52,700,000
68,900,000
30,800,000
20,200,000
45,200,000
43,300,000
SINGAPORE
INDONESIA
Online Populations
Online Populations
Gamers
Gamers
5,090,000
165,000,000
3,440,000
102,000,000
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GDP VENTURE
It is a proof that accessibility is the king at this age.
The growth revenue of esports or game industry shows us how
mobile gaming is the fastest growing market. A forecast from
statista.com shows that revenue in mobile games segment in
Indonesia will reach US$1,487 million in 2021 and the market
volume will reach US$2,149 million by 2025.
Mobile Esports Is the
Fastest-Growing Market
Source : NEWZOO, 2020
Indonesia: The Southeast Asia’s Fastest-
Growing Games Market
Revenues per device with year-on-year growth rates | 2020
Revenues generated by Indonesia’s games
market in 2020, up +32.7% year on year.
$1.74Bn of Indonesia’s gaming revenues
in 2020 came from mobile.
79.58%
Mobile PC Console
$242M
$1.38Bn
$122M
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GDP VENTURE
Indonesia is one of the most promising
Asian mobile esports markets with reason
that mobile gaming is preferred due to its
affordability of the device and easiness
to get the games.
Number of mobile phone internet users in Indonesia from 2017 to 2023 (in millions)
0
2017
72.5
79.7
85.2
90.3
94.3
97.6
100.4
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
25
50
75
100
125
Online Gaming
Active
Users
130M Active
Users
180M
2015 2019
Source : Statista, 2019 Source : e-Conomy SEA 2019
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Good to Know
Top 10 Popular Esports Games in Indonesia
53%
5.9%
Mobile Legends
Point Blank
28.7%
9.3%
PUBG Mobile
PUBG
20.4%
9%
FreeFire
Valorant
11%
8.8%
FIFA
Dota 2
10%
6%
Call of Duty
Mobile
Counter Strike
Source : Esport Survey - KINCIR 2021
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Brands are starting to actively invest in esports.
In Indonesia, playing games is one of the top reason
people go online, it is exceeded the numbers of people
who read news and seeks entertainment. The situation
triggers brand to start investing in esports.
Based on the report from Newzoo, the current total
audience of esports has reached 474 million people.
The biggest number of fans are from Asia Pacific
with an age range of 21-35 years old.
Esports Can Reach Mass Audience
#1
Top Reasons Indonesian Goes Online
Source : APJII, 2019-2020 (Q2) Source : NEWZOO, 2020
2019 2020 2021 2024
197M 215.4M
234M
285.7M
240M
291.6M
200.8M
397.8M
435.9M
474M
577.2M
220.5M
Esports Audience Growth
Global | 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024
Occasional Viewers
Esports Enthusiast
0 15 30 45 60
Social Media 51,5
32,9
5,2
2,9
1,4
1,3
1,3
Playing Games
Access Public Services
Read News
Online Shopping
Entertainment
Messaging
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Interest among traditional investors is an indication
of the industry’s maturity and its growing mainstream
appeal from an investor perspective.
With over $4.5B USD invested into the
industry in 2018 alone (Deloitte 2018).
Esports Investments Are
Growing on a Global Scale
Notable transactions in the esports industry over the last decade
BITKRAFT Logitech,VENN, Epics.gg $165 million Multi Category
Better
Collection
HLTV $42.1 million News
Website
Training Platform
for Gamers
Esports
Organization
SIG Mobile Premier League $90 million Game
Publisher
Summit
Partners
London Stock
Exchange
ReKTGlobal
Guild Esports
$35 million
$27 million
Tencent VSPN $100 million Esports
Organizer
Esports
Organizer
Esports
Organization
Esports
Team
Esports
Team
NTWRK FaZe Clan $40 million
SEK G-Loot $56 million
Khosla
Ventures
Rocket
Software
Statespace
Blast
$29 million
$15.3 million
investor Target Amount Category
Source : Dexerto.com
Top Investor in Esports Industry
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The current trend in Global and Indonesia are that so many non-endemic companies (companies which are not directly
involved in esports) are allocating more of their budget to esport. This happens because of the esport uniqueness
ability to attract young and loyal audience.
The Trend of Non-Endemic Brands
Get Into Esports
• Tech • e-Commerce
• Financial • Telco
• F&B
Local
#2
Source : hybrid.co.id
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of new major esports sponsor in Europe
were non-endemic brands
Good to Know
69%
Global
Source : esportsobserver.com 2020 Source : An overview of Esports in Europe, Newzoo 2018
• Tech
• e-Commerce
• Financial
• FMCG • Automotive • Government
• Fashion • Health
• F&B
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BCA participated in bringing together gamers
across Indonesia by holding an offline event in
several cities called Sakuku Mabar Kuy.
Rendy Alimudin, Assistant Vice President of
Digital Marketing BCA explained that there was
a significant increase of engagement on BCA’s
social media during the event.
During Sakuku Mabar Kuy, they added
educative sharing sessions from experts and
pro players on how to master the games.
Rendy is certain that the event will strengthen
BCA’s position as a hype brand among youths.
Sakuku Mabar Kuy
Viewers
>300,000
Live streaming on
Facebook
Source : Study Case BCA - Sakuku Mabar Kuy
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Kaskus, as Indonesia’s biggest online community,
has its own esports tournament titled
Kaskus Battleground which is sponsored by AXIS.
Kaskus routinely hold live stream of matches
over YouTube, Facebook Live and Kaskus Live.
In Addition, Kaskus also reports, make predictions
and covers match results on its website.
According to Hilda Hendrio, Head of Marketing
Kaskus, AXIS enjoyed the exposure of up to
3 million views during Kaskus Battleground Mobile
Games Festival throughout all 4 seasons.
These are the details :
Views
110,000+
Season 1:April-May 2018
Season 2:July-Sept 2018
VainGlory
Rules of Survival
PUBG Mobile
Views
400,000+
Views
2,000,000+
Season 3:Oct-Dec 2018
Arena of Valor Views
700,000+
Season 4:Jan-Feb 2019
Kaskus Battleground
Source : Study Case AXIS - Kaskus Battleground
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Esports Provide Diverse Channel to
Reach and Engage Audience
The esports ecosystem is
a complete set of many
different parties including
teams, tournament organisers,
streaming platforms, game
developers, fans, publishers
and brands. PLAYERS
ANALYTICS
MANAGEMENT
& SCHEDULE
FRANCHISES
& TEAMS
VIDEO GAMES
BRANDS
& INVESTORS
FANS
DEVELOPERS
& PUBLISHERS
OPERATORS
TOURNAMENTS
& LEAGUES
BROADCAST
& MEDIA
WATCH
&
DONATE
REPRESENT ORGANIZED IN DISTRIBUTED ON
PLAY
PLAY
IN
GAME
SALES
BUY
TICKETS
ORGANIZE
ORGANIZE
OWN
BUY
MERCHANDISING
WATCH
&
SUBSCRIBE
Source : Esportobserver.com
#3
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GDP VENTURE
The Ecosystem Offers
a Variety of Different
Opportunities
Brands have preference to choose the
best investment that fit to their objectives.
It could be through esports games or
other parties such esports team, players,
publishers and many more.
#4
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Esports Is a Promising Platform
to Build High Quality Engagement
Esports fan are loyal and willing to pay for their
passion. They would like to spend their time and
money to watch, play and follow esports updates
anytime and anywhere. You can name it from
subscribing to streaming platform to buying
tournaments tickets and
merchandise, not to mention
of buying games characters
and vouchers.
#5
Source : Esport Market Trend - DSResearch & Hybrid 2019
Where the Money Goes?
Per Month
US $4.99-$24.99
Twitch
Subscriptions
US $103.7 M
Merchandise
(Offline & In App-Purchase)
US $121.7 M
Tournament
Tickets
Donating to streamers in addition to
subscribing to Twitch
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However, There Is a Slight
Difference of Streaming
Behaviour in Indonesia
According to DSResearch, 84.6% of respondents
claimed that they watched esports contents on
YouTube over Twitch.
Platform to Watch Esports in Indonesia
Youtube
84.2%
Facebook
23.8%
Nimo TV
19%
Twitch
10%
TV
4.7%
Tik Tok
4.2%
Twitter
1.5%
Platform to Watch Esports in Global
Mixer*
Facebook Gaming
Youtube
Twitch
3%
5.3%
19.5%
72.2%
Source : TechCrunch & bbc.co.uk Source : Esport Survey Kincir-2021
* As for 22nd of July 2020, Mixer shut down their
service and all their users were redirected to facebook gaming.
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Four Major Area of Opportunities
Around Esports Which Brand Could Embrace:
Team or player
sponsorships
1
Tournament
or event
sponsorships
2
Streamer
or influencers
marketing
3
Advertising
and media
placement
4
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GDP VENTURE
Go Beyond From Just
Putting Your Logo on the
Team Jersey, Spark Your
Creativity for Authentic
Campaign
Team/Player Sponsorship
Esports sponsorship offers countless
opportunities for a brand to deliver the
message through a variety of experiences.
Have a brand presence in an event or team
jersey is mandatory, but you can go further
by sparking the creativity
BMW signed global
partnership with 5 TOP
Esports team and launch
#UnitedinRivalry campaign
Bumble dating apps
sponsoring the first all-women
esports team
Redbull creates documentary
film about Team OG journey to
be the world champion
Source : venturebeat.com
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Top 10 Esports Athletes
in the World
No
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
Name
Johan Sundstein
Jesse Vainikka
Anathan Pham
Sébastien Debs
Topias Taavitsainen
Kuro Takhasomi
Amer Al-Barkawi
Ivan Ivanov
Maroun Merhej
Lasse Urpalainen
Total Earning
$6,974,737.80
$6,470,548.78
$6,000,411.96
$5,564,712.41
$5,481,317.57
$5,204,004.15
$4,806,941.68
$4,588,016.16
$4,202,310.69
$3,771,369.04
Kyle “Bugha”
Giershof
Johan “N0tail”
Sundstein
Liquid
a 16 year old teenager,
won $3 million
when he became
the champion of
Fortnite World
Cup 2019
this OG team member is the richest
athlete with an income of $6.9 million
after winning The International 2018
and 2019
an esports team with the highest
income of around $33.8 million has
a massive number of fans; with more
than 300,000 subscribers on YouTube,
540,000 followers on Twitter, 760,000
followers on Instagram and 800,000
fans on Facebook
the most prestigious tournament
which broke the record as the esports
tournament with the highest prize of
$34.3 million.
The International 2019
Dota 2 Tournament
Source : esportsearning.com
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GDP VENTURE
It Is an Opportunity
to Create All-Around
Branded Experience
Tournament/Event Sponsorship
In 2018, Mastercard became Riot Games’ first
global sponsorship partner which successfully
provides unforgettable fan experiences.
Mastercard activates across three annual global
League of Legends tournaments; 3 global
events in 10 countries with unique promotional
and on-ground experience.
Mastercard Nexus’ located in Gangnam Gu,
was a three-day experiential pop-up featuring
amongst other interactive experiences,
customized Augmented Reality, player meet and
greets, workshops, media events, viewing party,
streaming booths and back to back tailored stage
programming.
Source : wearefrukt.com
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Good to Know
Most Popular Esports
Tournament by Hours
Watched
65.91M 62.92M
41.06M
37.33M
Worlds 2020 LCK Spring LCK Summer LCK Summer PUBG Mobile
World League 2020
East
139.86M
Source : escharts.com
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GDP VENTURE
Embrace Collaboration With
the Esports Player or Team to
Represent Your Brand
Streamer/Influencer Sponsorship
The streaming superstar Tyler “Ninja” Blevins
signs multi-year deal with Adidas in august 2019.
The partnership might lead to products in either the
physical or virtual world. Adidas has a bigger reason,
besides producing limited Ninja “TIME IN” Nite Jogger
shoes that sold out within 40 minutes of its launching;
Adidas want to show its commitment to gaming culture
and help athletes make a difference in their game --
no matter what games they are playing.
Source : sneakernews.com
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Good to Know
2020 is YouTube Gaming’s
Biggest Year!
Source : blog.youtube, statista.com
In 2020, YouTube gained a total gaming content watch
time of 100B hours globally (doubled its performance in
2018) and beat Twitch which only gained 5.44B hours.
This growth is a good sign, because Indonesian gamers
do prefer YouTube over Twitch for gaming content.
0
Twitch
5.44B
100B
YouTube
25
50
75
100
Total Hours of Gaming
Content Watch Time
in 2020
10M+ Active gaming channels in 2020
40M+ Active gaming channels in 2020
Global top overall games
watched of 2020
• Minecraft
• Roblox
• Garena Free Fire
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Fortnite
201B views
75B views
72B views
70B views
67B views
Top 5 live games watched
in 2020
• Minecraft
• Garena Free Fire
• Fortnite
• Grand Theft Auto V
• PUBG Mobile
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Establish Your Presence in
Esports Ecosystem
Advertising and Media Placement
Like in traditional sports, esports leagues also offering
sponsorship assets for any brand who want to establish
their presence in tournament, either physically or virtually
Share of media value driven
by nonendemic brands in
live match play of overwatch
league’s inaugural season
(VS. Esports Average of 39%)
50%
Common Esports League Sponsorship Assets
In-broadcast digital overlays
Branded content built into competition livestream coverage
In venue signage
Social and standalone branded content
Gaming equipment
Apparel
Most Valuable Placement Locations
29% 14%
26% 11%
19% 1%
Video boards
& LED screen
Caster desk
signage
Full-screen graphics /
Digital billboards
Video vignettes /
Stitched commercial
Partial-screen
Graphics & Logos
Other
Source : Esport playbook for brand, Nielsen 2019
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GDP VENTURE
Blibli Esports Championship 2019
Millennials and Gen-Z have quickly adopted the
digital lifestyle across all sectors, including esports. This
digital adoption among the youth market has opened
new opportunities for e-commerce that similarly aim to
reach out to the tech-savvy millennial and Gen-Z audience.
Blibli sees esports industry as a good platform to engage
with the youth target market as well as supporting their
aspirations in pursuing their passion in digital technology.
“As one of our esports initiative, Blibli
Esports Championship 2019 has successfully
triggered high conversion rates among our
target market, namely young, tech-savvy
millennial and Gen-Z internet users who we
aim to maintain as our long-term user base.”
I Gusti Ayu Fadjar,Executive Vice President of Marketing Blibli
Business Impact
Sales Increase During
Championship vs Before
3X
Sales Driver
Sales Increase for Gaming
Peripherals During
Championship vs Before
3.5X
Boost Categories
Return Purchase Among Newly
Acquired Customers
100%
Customer Loyalty
Of New Customers in
18–34 y.o Category
75%
Expand Youth Customer Base
Source : Blibli - Esports Championship 2019
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Connect With More Than
5.8 Million of Indonesian
Gaming Fans Through GDP
Esports Ecosystem
30
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Together We Can Create a
Healthy Esports Ecosystem
and Grow Indonesia’s
Digital Economy
GDP Venture’s esports ecosystem with extensive
experience, network and resources will help the
brand to unlock the opportunity to grow
through esports.
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GDP VENTURE
“Indonesia has become one of the biggest gaming markets
in Southeast Asia with a value of $ 941 million, thanks to
the growth of mobile internet users that drive penetration
of gamers to 34 million players. It’s a huge loss if brands
do not leverage esports to engage their current
and future consumers.”
Rangga Danu
VP IESPL and Wakil Ketua
Pelaksana Piala Presiden Esports
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GDP VENTURE
The Indonesia Esports Premier League (IESPL)
can be considered as the first organization
to succesfully hold an esports tournament in
Indonesia. In partnership with Tokopedia,
they held the Tokopedia Battle of Friday
with prizes totaling up to Rp1.9 billion.
The IESPL continues to initiate other esports
tournaments such as Piala Presiden Esports
2019 and Piala Presiden Esports 2020.
The Piala Presiden Esports,
one of Indonesia’s biggest esports
tournament was first held in 2019 as
a collaboration between the government
and IESPL. The Piala Presiden Esports
has transformed into one of the most
anticipated tournaments,
drawing in massive crowds.
Fans came
to watch
their idols Peoples
>13,000
Piala Presiden Esports 2019
Held at Gelora Bung Karno, Istora Senayan
Source : Kincir.com
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GDP VENTURE
Piala Presiden Esports 2020 Brings 10x
More Participants Than the Previous Year
Participants Registered
18,000
Piala Presiden Esports
2019
Participants Registered
177,000
Piala Presiden Esports
2020
Ultra Space
Battle Brawl
Pro Evolution
Soccer
Free Fire Mobile Premiere
League
Piala Presiden Esports 2020 is the first esports
tournament in Indonesia to hold competitions for
local game Ultra Space Battle Brawl (USBB) as one
of the game categories along with Free Fire, Pro
Evolution Soccer and Mobile Premier League.
Source : Kincir.com
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GDP VENTURE
The role of game media like Kincir is very
important to the esports ecosystem. They write
about the latest esports development and in-
depth report of esports tournaments. With 4,66
millions website pageviews Kincir helps to boost
esports awareness and visibility to the public. Not
to mention support from the followers of Kincir,
IESPL and Piala Presiden social media followers.
Source : Kincir.com
1,100,000+
Social
Followers
300,000+
Registered
Players
7,000+
Active community members join
the tournaments & masterclass
every month
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GDP VENTURE
GGWP.id, an esports media from IDN Media,
also plays a big role in growing the ecosystem in
Indonesia. They advocate the promising market to
non-endemic brands by holding esports themed
exhibition called GAME PRIME as well as providing
customisable engaging contents to help brands’
penetration to gamers.
GGWP also turn their platform into a hub that
enables organisers to hold esports tournaments
to further support the growth of amateur potential
teams. Currently, there are 13,000 teams who had
joined daily events promoted in the platform.
Source : Google Analytics
71%
Organic
and Direct Visits
Source : Google Analytics
3,000,000+
Monthly Unique
Audience
Participants
57,531
Participants
More Than
Participants on Game
Prime Since 2016
Brands Countries Already Participate on Game Prime Since 2016
>50 >30
Source : ggwp.id
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GDP VENTURE
As an online media, Hybrid has an
advantage of being able to not only
provide an in-depth esports articles but
also build communities and nurture
them with relevant esports skillset and
knowledge through HYBRID Dojo.
HYBRID also routinely holds community
tournament which called HYBRID CUP
where more than 200 players play in one
day tournament and more than 1000
registered player all time
For the business, HYBRID has a HYBRID
CONTENT FACTORY which focusing their
work on content ideation, creation and
public relation for brand that want to
engage to Esports. HYBRID has extensive
experience in handling client, such as ESL,
AKG, EA, Moonton, Mineski, NVIDIA, Black
Shark, Samsung, BenQ.
Players
Registered Players
200+
1,000
Active Members
join the routine
gathering every
month
500
HYBRID
CUP
HYBRID
DOJO
Source : Hybrid.co.id
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GDP VENTURE
AGATE is one of the pioneers in Indonesia
gaming industry. In their extensive 11 years of
experience, AGATE is one of local developer that
able to compete in global market. For the esports
category, AGATE developed Metal Brave Arena,
which has been widely played in campus mini
tournaments in Indonesia.
On the global scene, Agate has Valthirian Arc
which got into #2 Best New Game on Steam
in the UK on the first day it’s released and got into
Top 15 Best Selling on Nintendo eShop Japan.
#2 Best Selling
Game in UK
Indie Game of the
Year - Baparekraf
Game Prime 2020
Top 15 Best
Selling on
Nintento
eShop Japan
Valthirian Arc
>10,000
Esports King
Daily Active Users
>60%
Day-1 Retention Rate
>250,000
Downloads
>30,000
Code Atma
Monthly Active Users
>40%
Day-1 Retention Rate
With more than dozens of games that have been developed, in 2019, Agate recorded more than 1 million
MAU (Monthly Active Users) and has worked with many brands in various forms, from event partnership
to brand experiences.
Source : Agate.id
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GDP VENTURE
To thrive in the world of esports, it is important
for a brand to understand gamers behaviour and
aspiration in order to make the right strategy to
reach and engage with them.
BUFF is an esports & gaming agency under
SAC Indonesia which focusing their work on doing
continual research and build strong networking
with competitive gaming communities.
BUFF mission is to craft strategies for brands and
re-articulate their purpose in gamer’s language
correctly, so your brands are able to penetrate the
esports market and unlock its potential.
MABAR Kuy! is an esports themed
product campaign for BCA.
Promoting their Xpreasi BCA and BCA Sakuku
through Mabar (Main Bareng) roadshow events
which successfully attract and engage young
audience who are the target market of the
product.
BUFF
8 285
Big
Cities
>170,000 Live Stream
Viewers
Total
Participants
SEASON 1
AOV
8 597
Big
Cities
>300,000 Live Stream
Viewers
Total
Participants
Free Fire
SEASON 2
Source : Study Case Buff Indonesia
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GDP VENTURE
The growth of esports in Indonesia
is impressive. Brands could take this
opportunities to engage the esports
ecosystem to grow together with it
and get success.