PUBG Mobile creator Krafton to submit IPO application in Korea: Report

The year 2021 has brought a lot of exciting news and announcements for mobile gaming and esports fans all around the world. With two of the biggest names in mobile gaming, Garena and Krafton, announcing their new titles, the market is abuzz with excitement and anticipation regarding their release.

The studios and companies behind these popular games are witnessing unprecedented growth in terms of revenue and downloads. The popular battle royale game PUBG Mobile by Krafton recently crossed 1 billion downloads worldwide. In 2020 alone, the game generated a total of $2.6 billion in revenue. PUBG Mobile has officially crossed $5 billion in player spending.

According to a recent report by Roundhill Investments, an investment advisory firm, Krafton is all set to file its IPO (Initial Public Offering) application in Korea.

The firm tweeted out saying:

*PUBG Creator Krafton To Submit IPO Application • The Tencent-backed game developer plans to IPO in Korea. • PUBG Mobile was the highest grossing mobile game in 2020, generating $2.6 billion in revenue. $TCEHY

— Roundhill Investments (@roundhill) April 6, 2021

Earlier this year, the CEO of Krafton Kim Chang-Han, in an interview with popular tech publication Bloomberg, revealed that the organization was looking to expand its operations into animation, movies, and drama.

The company also promised a new battle royale game set to take place in 2022. This promise manifested into reality with the release of the trailer and pre-registration for the game PUBG: New State. Kim also said that Krafton will offer its IPO around mid to late 2021.

According to a report by Eugene Investment & Securities Co., the IPO of the company could be valued at a whopping 30 trillion won ($27.2 billion).

Krafton in a blog post on their website, revealed that to strengthen their global competitiveness, the company would hire outside experts. Krafton CEO Chang-Han Kim announced that they had recruited four outside directors for Krafton, including Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, at a regular shareholders meeting on March 31st.

The outside directors include Kevin Lin, co-founder of the global game streaming platform Twitch; Lee Soo-Kyung, CEO of P&G's China division; Yeo Eun-Jung, professor of business administration at Chung-Ang University; and Yang-hee Baek, co-founder and representative of Rael.

Last year, the company faced a bump when the Indian government decided to block access to PUBG Mobile for its users, sighting the title as a threat to the sovereignty and integrity of the country.

In response, Krafton cut its ties with Chinese developer Tencent for its India operations and took the IP under its own banner.

The company also released a trailer for PUBG Mobile India featuring Indian esports players and content creators and later invested 164 Crore in Indian esports management company Nodwin Gaming. However, the release date of PUBG Mobile India remains uncertain.

With Krafton making so many moves worldwide, it will be interesting to see the growth of the company as a whole in 2021. The company's success will also depend upon the release of PUBG Mobile India as the country accounted for the biggest user base of the company's title PUBG Mobile.