According to Indian media reports, Zupee, a game platform under the umbrella of Z47, the Indian industrial giant, announced a shift to the field of micro-short dramas after the gold game was banned by government legislation. According to sources, the start-up company had launched a pilot of new services last week and planned to integrate short video content into existing applications rather than introducing independent applications.
The new platform will use a subscription model while supporting access by users outside India. To this end, Zupee is considering registering overseas entities, which are likely to be located in the United States. In addition, the company is planning to develop an “asterisk platform”, although discussions are still at an early stage.
Zupee was founded in 2018 by Dielse Marsh and Siddant Salab, with board games like Ludo Supreme and Snakes & Ladders Plus. Thanks to the fire of the genuine gold game in India, the company made a profit in its financial statements in 2024, with net profits shifting from a loss of Rs. 360 million over the same period of the previous year to a profit of Rs. 1.46 billion (approximately Rs. 146 million) and an increase of Rs. 36.5 to 11.23 billion over the same period.
However, with the implementation of the Online Games Promotion and Supervision Act 2025, Zupee was forced to stop paying, as was the case with other gold start-ups. The Act prohibits all forms of genuine gold games (whether based on skills, luck or a combination of both), as well as advertising on all media platforms and requires banks to stop dealing with genuine gold platform transactions. The violator is liable to imprisonment for up to three years and a fine of 300 million rupees.
The bill has had a huge impact on the Indian game industry: the Dream 11 parent company, Dream Sports, has shifted its focus to the sports stream media platform, FanCode, and has sought opportunities in the field of AI; WinZO has gone into the field of micro-scenes and continues to operate real money games in international markets such as the United States; and enterprises such as MPL, PokerBaazi, Games 24×7 and Head Digital Works have responded to the change through large-scale layoffs.
