In the field of information technology, 'numbers' are of great importance. Numbers provide the basis for the computer's mathematical capabilities and logical processes and are what drive technology forward. Computers work based on 'binary code'. A binary number is a system of 0's and 1's. The entire computer system is run by these two numbers. In particular, the computer does not understand numbers other than these two.

While writing about a gaming app that has taken Nepal to the world market in information technology, here we are trying to enter the topic from 'numbers' or numbers, because numbers have a special meaning. Among the mobile apps made in Nepal, there are only two apps with more than 100 million users - Ludo and Callbreak. As the name suggests, both are gaming apps. The company that makes Ludo is Yarsa Labs of Pokhara and Tesla Tech of Lalitpur has made Callbrake. Callbreak is the first app made in Nepal to get 100 million downloads according to Tesla Tech's claim.

On August 11, 2022, when Tesla Tech's Callbreak reached 100 million downloads, Tesla Tech said that there were less than 700 apps downloaded in the world at that time. This is the download number for Google Play Store or Android device only. Tesla Tech has also developed other games like Word Puzzle, Ludo Life. On the other hand, the Ludo app developed by Yarsa has so far been downloaded 200 million on Android devices alone. It has 1 million plus downloads on iOS. This number is a 'statistic' of success achieved in a short span of three and a half years.

The total number of downloads of 14 other mobile games published by Yarsa Games on Appstore and Playstore is around 120 million. According to NJ Subedi, founder and CEO of the company, currently Ludo alone has 6.6 million daily active users. V.No. It is NJ's experience that Ludo, which was made available for download around October/November 2077, was downloaded up to 500,000 times a day. The way to count how many times an app has been downloaded is the number of installs per unique account. Installing the app on different devices using the same Google/Apple account counts as one download. One account equals one download.

"There are more people playing Ludo in Indian Ocean countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and South American countries such as Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil," NJ says, "now there are 30,000 downloads per day on average." Ludo is different in different countries of the world - Because there are different rules in Yarsa Ludo, there are complaints from all over the world that when balls of the same color land in the same place, the path of balls of another color is not blocked, only the computer always wins. Ludo, made in Nepal, has been taken to the world by Google and Apple's app marketplace. Searching Ludo from any country shows Ludo from Yarsa Games at the top position.

Yarsa Labs, which was started by four young people in 2016, currently employs one hundred and five people. Yarsa Gaming under Yarsa Labs has only 70 employees, who are active in creating new mobile games, digitizing local games, fixing errors in published games, etc. Yarsa Labs' Mobile Game Studio, Yarsa Tech (Electronics Company) and Yarsa Bazaar (E-Commerce) in different 'verticals' are trying to create the latest 'Product' of Information Technology by redefining the 'Made in Nepal' theme. . The company started from Pokhara and has a branch office in Lalitpur. 

Addiction to Ludo

Yarsa Gaming, which started making mobile games since 2017, released the game on Google Play for the first time in 2018. The Nepali 'Call Break' that was released at that time went well. Yarsa team started digitizing solitaire, rummy, marriage, etc. But none were as successful as Kalbrake. 'We also made 19/20 hyper casual games like Flappy Bird but all of them flopped,' says Saroj Subedi, Chief Technical Officer of Yarsa Labs. None went on.'  Although the Taswalla mobile game made by

Yarsa was somewhat popular, it was only single-player or solo-playable. A team at Yarsa Gaming came up with a proposal to make Ludo as the easiest game to create a multiplayer game or a mobile game that can be played by more than two. Enz immediately designed 'Dice'. Sandeep and Sangam helped him create icons, digital graphics to storyboards. "We prepared a prototype in a week," he remembers, "we made it as simple as possible without many features and published it within a month." After 5/6 months of Ludo being on Google Play, there were no downloads, the team forgot about it and started building another game. As Daiv Natar said, the corona epidemic suddenly spread around the world, governments announced continuous lockdown, people who were locked up at home started playing ludo on their mobile phones, Hollywood celebrities posted photos of playing ludo on social media, Ludo in Yarsa suddenly became twice a day and four times a night. Download started. The app, which was downloaded 10 million in 2020, reached 50 million in 2021, 100 million in 2022 and currently 200 million unique users in 2024. The company aims to reach 500 million users by 2025.

"There are not as many downloads as before, both downloads and revenue were high during the lockdown," says NJ, "The company is still running with the income of that time. Still, 25 percent of the company's total income comes from the Ludo app. According to him, the app is popular because it is designed to be simple to play. Along with this, NJ says that the age rating of Yarsa's Ludo on Google Play is also a blessing to them. 

"We had a three plus age rating so that even a small child can play, so Google made our app appear at the top as soon as they search Ludo," he says, "Google accepted our Ludo in the Play for Families and Made for Kids categories." After it was accepted, Ludo itself started to rise in the ranking of the game. Downloads increased.'' Some people don't keep 3 plus rating on

apps as 12 plus or 18 plus rating gives them more revenue from advertisement. Unlike foreign apps, Nepali apps do not have various options of income, the producer earns income from advertisements. App makers in Nepal earn income from in-app advertising and reward-based advertising. In such ads, Google's Real-Time Bidding (RTB) method automatically determines which ad will be shown on which platform for how long within a millisecond. "Each 1000 impressions (users) earn about 20 cents," says NJ, "In developed countries like America, Europe, Google gives revenue of 20 dollars per 1000 impressions." 

A series of flop apps

In 2010, NJ dropped out of his undergraduate studies in computer engineering at Kathmandu University and wandered around Kathmandu for some time riding a bicycle. Joined Foss Nepal and worked on Google mapping system. After that, he became active in bringing the draft of the Constitution of Nepal made by the then Constituent Assembly to the general public through online for public discussion. He is involved in making a system that can be converted to PDF and even comments can be written on the side.

NJ returned to Pokhara in 2013 after being cheated on some things in the course of that project and designed the logo and name of Yarsa Labs by drawing a dream of his own company. Friends sometimes stayed at the grocery store and mother's hotel, but most of the time they stayed in Pokhara in the 'Harilattak' style. However, at the same time, he did not stop self-studying about technology including app development. After some time, he opened a small office near the lakeside of Pokhara and started delivering chicken dishes. Then made a hotel booking system. Along with that, he established an e-commerce platform selling down jackets. They also created a system that allows customers to book taxis, vans and vehicles that return empty to Pokhara. Before that, he launched a matrimonial or dating site. "Whatever we made, they all failed," says NJ, "but we kept on learning, let's keep building." 

A brother who is making one platform and mobile apps one after the other, one day he will deliver the goods of 'drawer' to NJ, asks for help to make his college project. "Whenever I ordered things from the drawer, the same brother would always bring them. After getting to know each other, one day we started gossiping. He works as a delivery boy in the morning and evening and is studying computer engineering in the afternoon," says NJ. At that time there were three other friends along with me in our company. We built an order management system in a restaurant in one night. After that brother submitted the app to the college, 10/11 students came to learn app development with NJ. 

While teaching the same students about mobile apps, he chose a gaming app to explain the concept of computer programming. NJ has experienced that student interest will increase as gaming apps are easy and engaging. Even now, at the skill fair conducted by Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Yarsa Labs experts are teaching 52 young people how to develop Mobi app from gaming app, NJ informed. 

"In the course of making a gaming app, many simple games were made and published, but none of them worked," says NJ, "but we kept working." We registered Yarsa Labs in 2016. For the first time in 2018, our company made and published a card game, Callbreak, and it worked. Then we made eight/nine card games but they didn't work again.''The days of Yarsa Lab changed after making Ludo in 2020 at once. After this, the company has manufactured electronic devices like sensor-automatic switch, smart water level monitor, router power bank along with gaming app. The 'e-speaker' that was released by e-service some time ago was also made by Yarsa. The audio payment notifier tells the transaction details through voice to facilitate digital transactions.  

Final statistics

NJ is of the opinion that making any 'product' based on information technology is beneficial for both the company and the country rather than exporting information technology services. He is trying to create another universal game like Ludo from Yarsa Labs to create 'passive income'. For this, some games were developed and published after spending two to three years, but they did not work. NJ is of the opinion that films of Katra-Katra heroes don't work, just because one film doesn't work or becomes a super hit doesn't mean we won't play another film. The job is to make the app, we keep making it.'