KARACHI: Trading in the shares of Gamer Pakistan, one of the first Pakistan-based firms to get listed on a US stock exchange, began on Monday with the share price losing about 30 per cent of its value by the time of the filing of this report.
Gamer Pakistan is an early-stage technology and e-sports company focused on game development, in-game AI community engagement and organisation of e-sports events in Pakistan. E-sports entail the competitive playing of video games by amateur and professional teams or individuals for cash and other prizes.
The firm raised $6.8 million by selling 1.7m shares worth $4 apiece on New York-based Nasdaq, the world’s second-largest stock exchange in terms of the value of shares traded.
It’ll use the proceeds to build infrastructure, organise and promote e-sports tournaments in Pakistan, increase staff, acquire one or more e-game developers and provide general working capital.
In addition, the company aims to gather “unique data” on college students in Pakistan, focusing on their mobility patterns related to video gaming and then “sell the data in ad exchanges, fuelling advertising innovation and reaching a targeted audience”.
The company expects to take advantage of “nearly half a billion people” worldwide who consume e-sports content. It creates live events in Pakistan focused on university students. It’s currently building an e-sports platform to scale engagement and revenue opportunities.
According to research cited by the company in its securities filings with the US regulators, approximately 36.8m Pakistanis played video games in 2022. The number is expected to increase to 50.9m by 2026.
The company’s market capitalisation, which came into being in 2021, hovers around $102.3m. Its financial accounts show a net loss of 0.31m for 2022. “We are a development-stage company without revenues to date,” it said in the securities filing.
“We will incur initial operating losses as we expand our business, and it may be some time before we achieve positive cash flow and/or profitability,” it added.
