Gaming is a universal tongue

Businessweek reports on the growth of online and mobile gaming amongst upwardly mobile Indian teenagers. "They're transformed into another world," gushes founder Alok Kejriwal of Games2win.com.

Games2win is just one of India's top three sites for gamers. (The other two are IndiaGames and Zapak). Bombay Taxi and Raju Driver are two of the most popular titles, and 90 percent of gamers come straight out of the continent serving as the games' background.

ICube reports five percent of India's 42 million internet users are active gamers, with disparate broadband availability posing the main obstacle. But cybercafes are helping to close the void — particularly amongst teens — and the gaming sector is raking in $30 million a year, a figure expected to double annually.

Kejrwal attributes the sector's growth in part to what he calls the "BPO-ization of the country," which lines Indian teens' pockets with disposable income.

BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing: The process of outsourcing administration, tech support and other forms of phone-based assistance to India, which puts its youth to work in swelling cities and towns.

Most of their monthly wages, which can fall between $200 and $400, are absorbed in recreational activities. Online gaming is a favorite, and the majority of free gaming opportunities serve as fertile soil for enterprising advertisers.

Young gamers get their fix via office PCs, on mobile phones or at cybercafes. Sites like Games2win finance free gaming by charging for upgrades or extras: $2 for a bigger car in Bombay Taxi, par exemple.

Cyrus Oshidar, formerly of MTV India, helps populate the site with new content. A year shy of its launch, Games2win's games have already been featured on sites in Poland and Germany, as well as Viacom's own AddictingGames.com.