Speaking to TechGraph, Raghu Kumar, co-founder of TradingLeagues, a well-known gamified stock trading platform, sheds light on the platform’s latest innovations and strategies to increase user engagement on the platform.
Read the full interview:
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TechGraph: What measures does TradingLeagues take to foster a competitive community among players and encourage active participation in their fantasy stock market trading games?
Raghu Kumar: By design, TradingLeagues is a hyper-social app. Most of our users are referred by friends, which encourages a lot of organic/unpaid promotion of the app on social media, Telegram, Whatsapp and Youtube.
Each league format has a “leaderboard” that shows all participants, their avatars, usernames and winning positions. Our games are designed in a way that encourages competition.
For example, “Selection League” allows users to build a portfolio of 4-6 stocks and compete against competitors. Classic leagues allow users to compete against each other through day trading outside the leaderboards. Our users report feeling a combination of healthy competitive juices, all the while participating in a skill-based environment.
We have an active Telegram channel where we share daily app updates and have a strong presence on all social media platforms.
We’re in the process of rolling out product updates aimed at helping create a community-driven environment in the app, including the ability for users to share emojis and chat with their friends while playing games.
Finally, we recently launched “Mega Games” for select games from Selection Leagues and Classic Leagues, and it was a huge success! Our users love the proposition of being able to win a significant, huge prize for a low entry fee in a skill-based environment.
TechGraph: How does TradingLeagues incorporate real-time market data and news updates into its gaming platform to improve user experience and keep participants engaged?
Raghu Kumar: Unlike a traditional stock exchange, where the price of a security is determined by the demand or supply of the security on that exchange, our approach involves creating a reference price of a security in real time.
We use a variety of real-time data sources and models to arrive at a security benchmark. Depending on the market, the data may be obtained from CFD market data feeds, OTC data feeds, crowdsourcing tools or a combination of sources.
This reference market price is not intended for financial decision making, but is perfectly suitable for gaming purposes. Our methodology ensures that our games are fair and accurately reflect market movements. We don’t currently offer real-time news on the app, but we may in the future.
TechGraph: Given the sensitive nature of stock market trading data, what steps does TradingLeagues take to ensure the security of users’ personal and financial information?
Raghu Kumar: Data is the lifeblood of the financial industry, and we follow industry best practices to ensure the security of users’ personal and financial information. However, it is important to note that we constantly encourage users not to disclose sensitive personal data or information that is not required. Information shared by users is stored and stored on a secure server located in India.
We follow numerous other industry practices such as encryption, firewalls, password protection, restricting access to certain personnel on a need-to-know basis, de-identification and other physical security measures to protect against unauthorized access to the server and systems and information located on such servers and systems.
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An often overlooked aspect of India’s gaming industry is its remarkable technological advancement and maturity. Internal industry players are proactive in implementing best practices while ensuring that consumer safety remains a top priority. The industry operates under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), working together to establish and adhere to common standards.
Having first-hand experience as a founder in both the fintech and gaming sectors, Harsh and I can confidently say that the gaming industry has surpassed fintech in terms of technological advancement.
TechGraph: Looking ahead, what are TradingLeagues’ plans for growth and expansion? Are there new features or partnerships on the horizon that will further enhance the platform’s user experience?
Raghu Kumar: We are in the process of launching a web-based offering of TradingLeagues for our power users who cannot play a wide range of games simultaneously due to the physical limitations of mobile screen size. We’re rolling out a variety of social-first product features to help foster a true community. We plan to introduce new asset classes and encourage users to think outside of stock markets in just one country. Finally, we want to introduce bigger mega games with higher prize pools.
Our long-term vision for TradingLeagues is to establish it as a global gaming platform and we aim to achieve this milestone right here in India. It would be truly remarkable to witness a homegrown gaming company captivating a global audience. Putting in place the necessary technical, regulatory and financial frameworks to support such a venture would not only improve the user experience but also contribute significantly to India’s gaming landscape.
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