Singtel is now launching a gaming joint venture called Storms with Yin at the helm as its CEO. Thailand’s AIS and South Korea’s SK Telecom join Singtel in the venture, with each partner contributing equally to a US$22.5 million initial investment.


Storms has signed legally binding commercial agreements with Singtel and its associates, guaranteeing that the startup will benefit from the telco’s broad ecosystem. The agreements allow Storms to acquire users on the telco’s network at discounted prices, which can lower the company’s cost per install up to 50%.


Storms is a gaming company with four lines of business.

First, it’s a publisher of hyper-casual and casual mobile games, working with indie gaming studios across Southeast Asia and India to license and publish titles. It recently released two on the Google Play Store, namely Umbra: Amulet of Light and Zombeast: Survival Zombie Shooter.

To supplement its publishing business, Storms offers gaming advisory services to small studios. With the service, game developers and advertisers will be able to leverage Singtel’s network across Southeast Asia to grow their business. The company is also looking to help paid advertising companies sell advertising tools to its network of studios as well.

Third, Storms is working on building an HTML5 gaming ecosystem in collaboration with Singtel associates and HTML5 platform partners in the region. Part of this involves converting its games into HTML5, which makes them playable on web browsers.

HTML5 is the web language behind the games that sit within many super apps, with Gojek’s GoGames a notable example.

There’s also a rising trend of mobile platforms attempting to retain audiences with content – think Shopee and Lazada in Southeast Asia and Zomato and Flipkart in India.

Storms is working with partners to distribute its portfolio of games (as well as those from prominent studios) to various super apps.

Lastly, the company hopes to pull everything together with a Storms app, a mobile-based community for gaming news and rewards. The app is still in its early stages and is scheduled to be published late this year.

One of the key strengths of the company is that it’s made up of gaming industry veterans. “Around 80% to 90% of [the staff at Storms] are ex-gaming company employees” from companies such as Ubisoft, EA Games, Riot Games, and Tencent, Yin said.


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