Ludo Kings and their kingdoms

People playing Ludo King, post offices hours in the streets of Samastipur, a tier 3 town in Bihar.

The Ludo King (and similar Ludo games) is a huge hit amongst the Next Billion Users (NBU).

The app Ludo King has 18.9 crore monthly active users and 5.1 crore daily active users (May 2020). This is phenomenal going by the DAU data for any product in India.

The Ludo Kings have found their kingdoms on the streets, on the roads, and in public transport, for them enjoying it is no longer confined by space, or the need to carry a separate physical entity and there is no longer the fear of the dice or a coin missing, thereby reducing the experience.

I’m always amazed at the engagement that a few products have when it comes to the Next Billion Users. Ludo King and its other competitors have created an important aspect to ponder upon.

What is really interesting to me is how ‘The Ludo King’ re-pushes entertainment as a social activity. The reason why I say it is repositioned is the ability to I’ve seen people play it on streets, in trains, at parks.

I am reminded of how Prof Payal Arora in her book, ‘The Next Billion Users: Digital Life Beyond the West’, mentions that the Internet is being used in many interesting ways and amongst them entertainment is perhaps the most important one.

For this very reasons the people deserve good technology infrastructure.

I’ve often observed that when it comes to the Next Billion Users; the product usage is often taken beyond it’s intended usage. So for example, playing Ludo online as a social activity in person and not just sitting remotely in their homes.

The craze of these products can be felt when visiting smaller towns and being observant on its usage.

Designing for NBU, requires one to think about Behaviour deeply, that is highly influenced by their immediate peers.

There are many factors that have changed the behaviour of the next billion users deeply. Here I highlight a few of them.

1. The rise of mobile phone penetration across the nation. Mobile phones have now become a necessity.
2. The proliferation of internet connectivity made possible by cheap data plans by Jio and later its counterparts Airtel, Vodafone.
3. The low-cost, high-performance mobile phones made accessible to the masses by manufacturers like Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi.
4. The improved light conditions, and accessibility to electricity across the country. For example, even in a state like Bihar, where during my growing up years we hardly got electricity for a couple of hours, today there is close to full day electricity.
5. The availability of mobile charging stations in almost all public spaces, the public transport, across homes.

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As I spent more time in the fields, engaging with the next billion users, I hope to share more insights and learnings from the field.

#designresearch #behaviours #nextbillionusers #designthinking #usercentereddesign #humancentereddesign