Mobile Premier League Surrenders in Indonesian Market

The Mobile Premier League (MPL) gaming and tournament platform announced the closure of operations in Indonesia, in connection with which it also laid off employees working in Indonesia. In addition, along with business adjustments, the company laid off 10% of its total employees. As is known, MPL is a startup from India that currently has a presence in a number of Asia Pacific countries, the United States, and Europe.

This information is confirmed directly by the company via his Instagram account which was uploaded yesterday (30/5). “MPL Indonesia informs that we are currently no longer operating and do not accept new users. Thank you for the support from the players and all parties," said MPL Indonesia.

Previously, this information was first reported by Inc24. MPL has also confirmed this decision. Mentioned this layoff occurred in the division streaming. Employees will receive a complete severance package along with other benefits.

Separately quote from Moneycontrol, MPL founders Sai Srinivas and Shubh Malhotra say that over the past few months the situation has become very complicated. The growth target is not as expected. The market today values ​​profitable growth at all costs.

"It's time to make the tough decision to redeploy our resources in other parts of the business to ensure our long-term health and success as a company," a company representative said in an email.

This news is so shocking. Because MPL acquired the platform streaming GamingMonk in April 2021. As part of the transaction, MPL absorbs the entire GamingMonk team. Allegedly, most of the employees affected by this layoff came from GamingMonk, after more than a year a little after the deal.

The founders also explained the reasons for leaving Indonesia in the email. According to them, MPL sees a return profile that is only a fraction of what they expected, despite having invested heavily in its operations in Indonesia.

The layoffs come eight months after MPL raised $150 million in a funding round that earned MPL the position of unicorn in India.

MPL was founded in 2018 by Srinivas, Kiran G, and Malhotra, MPL is platform Esports and tournament. The platform offers more than 70 games across various categories, such as daily fantasy sports, quizzes, board games, Esports, and casual games in the app. The startup serves more than 90 million users across India and the US.

More recently, MPL ventured into game publishing with the launch of Mayhem Studios and its entry into the US and European markets. The founder said the MPL business there had positive earnings within nine months of its launch.

Therefore, the company will focus on achieving EBITDA neutrality, while focusing on key global markets. To support this ambition, in September 2021, MPL raised a new $2,3 billion fund led by Legatum Capital, with participation from Sequoia, SIG, RTP Global, Go-Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures and others.

MPL Indonesia

Previously, MPL Indonesia was led by Ridzki Syahputera as VP & Country Head. Through the MPL website and application, users in Indonesia can enjoy two categories of games, namely: casual games and fantasy sports games. "Every game The existing ones prioritize players' abilities rather than luck, so in MPL users really have to practice and hone their skills, "said Ridzki.

While related to the contest, there are several types that can be followed. Starting from the tournament, head-to-head battles (one on one with the same skill level), battle arena (similar to one-on-one but with a certain timeframe, the winner is calculated from the number of times they get the champion of the session that follows), and mega contests (tournaments with bigger time and prizes).

“On average MPL provides 1600 contests per day. Our technology is basically able to facilitate tournaments Esports on a large scale with 24-hour support," he added in a statement joint interviewDailySocial.id.

Any player interested in joining a session will be charged a fee. In the session there are certain prizes from the nominal collected – in some events prizes are also provided from sponsors. Users can also exchange points (diamonds) obtained through the MPL Mall feature to be exchanged for various vouchers provided.

It is claimed, the overall growth of MPL users has reached 85%, the pandemic has also driven an increase in the user base. Since March last year, there has been a 55% increase in game play and 7 times the number of users. But the pandemic also presents many challenges for companies.

“There is a positive impact in some metrics, but there is a disturbance in other metrics as well. For example due to declining purchasing power. Many users continue to play for alternative entertainment during the pandemic, but their purchasing power has dropped. March to April 2020 was the peak, we felt a significant impact on the deposit rate on the platform,” explained Ridzki.