Speaking to the TechGraph, Raghu Kumar, Co-Founder of TradingLeagues, a prominent stock market game, spoke about the platform’s recent innovations and strategies the company is adopting to enhance user engagement.
Read the complete interview:
TechGraph: What measures does TradingLeagues take to foster a competitive community among players and encourage active participation in their fantasy stock market trading games?
Raghu Kumar: By design, TradingLeagues is a hyper-social app. Most of our users are referred by friends, which encourages a lot of organic/unpaid promotion of the app on social media, Telegram, Whatsapp, and Youtube.
Each League format has a ‘Leaderboard’, which showcases all participants, their avatars, usernames, and winning positions. Our games are designed in a manner that fosters competition.
For example, ‘Selection League’ enables users to build a portfolio of 4-6 stocks and compete against peers. Classic Leagues allows users to compete against each other by day-trading off of the charts. Our users report feeling a mix of healthy competitive juices, all the while participating in a skills-based environment.
We have an active Telegram channel where we share daily updates on the app, and we have a strong presence across all social media platforms.
We are in the process of launching product updates aimed at helping create a community-led environment in the app, including the ability for users to share emojis and chat with their friends while playing games.
Finally, we recently launched ‘Mega Games’ for select Selection Leagues and Classic Leagues games, and it has been a huge success! Our users love the proposition of being able to earn a significant, outsized reward for a low entry fee in a skills-based setting.
TechGraph: How does TradingLeagues incorporate real-time market data and news updates into their gaming platform to enhance the user experience and keep participants engaged?
Raghu Kumar: Unlike a traditional stock exchange where the price of a security is determined by the demand or supply of the security on that exchange, our approach involves creating a real-time reference price of a security.
We use a variety of real-time data sources and models to arrive at a reference price for security. Depending on the market, the data may be sourced from CFD market data feeds, off-exchange data feeds, crowd-sourced means, or a combination of sources.
This reference market price is not intended for making financial decisions but is perfectly suitable for gaming purposes. Our methodology ensures that our games are fair and accurately represent market movements. Currently, we do not offer real-time news on the app but may do so in the future.
TechGraph: Given the sensitive nature of stock market trading data, what steps does TradingLeagues take to ensure the security of users’ personal and financial information?
Raghu Kumar: Data is the lifeblood of the financial industry, and we follow industry best practices to ensure the security of users’ personal and financial information. However, it is important to note that we consistently encourage users to not disclose any sensitive personal data or information which is not required. Information shared by users is stored and retained on a secure server located in India.
We follow multiple other industry practices such as encryption, firewalls, password protection, limitation of access to specified personnel on a need-to-know basis, de-identification, and other physical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to the server and systems and information residing on such servers and systems.
One often overlooked aspect of the gaming industry in India is its remarkable technological advancement and maturity. Domestic industry players have been proactive in implementing best practices while ensuring that user safety remains a top priority. The industry operates under the guidance of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), working collaboratively to establish and adhere to common standards.
Having firsthand experience as a founder in both the fintech and gaming sectors, Harsh and I can confidently assert that the gaming industry has surpassed fintech in terms of technological advancements.
TechGraph: Looking ahead, what are TradingLeagues’s plans for growth and expansion? Are there any new features or partnerships on the horizon that will further enhance the user experience on the platform?
Raghu Kumar: We are in the process of launching a web-based offering of TradingLeagues for our power users, who are not able to play across a wide array of games concurrently due to physical restrictions of a mobile phone’s screen size. We are launching various social first product features to help foster a genuine community. We are planning to introduce new asset classes and encourage users to think outside of just one country’s stock markets. Finally, we want to introduce bigger Mega Games with higher prize pools.
Our long-term vision for TradingLeagues is to establish it as a global gaming platform, and we aspire to achieve this milestone right here in India. It would be truly remarkable to witness a home-grown gaming company captivate a worldwide audience. Implementing the necessary technical, regulatory, and financial frameworks to support such an endeavor would not only enhance the user experience but also make a significant contribution to India’s gaming landscape.