It is not an overstatement to say Free Fire revolutionized mobile gaming and provided an exhilarating battle royale experience on mobile experience before everyone else. The title published by Garena in 2017, has conquered the world with highly accessible gameplay and engaging updates that kept making people return for more.
Image via Garena
Forrest Xiaodong Li is the founder and CEO of Garena, who can be dubbed as the father of Free Fire. Inspired by the phenomenon of battle royale, he challenged his team to make the best-optimized version of the battle royale experience for phones. Under the helm of Li, Garena crafted Free Fire to be smooth and enjoyable for all users irrespective of their devices, which many publishers struggle to pull off even today.
Li’s strategic visions proved prophetic. Steady inflow of fresh new content, sizeable esports investments, and smart monetization drove it over 1 billion downloads in emerging regions. The space where others saw limitations Li saw opportunities and built a diversified global fan base with a strong focus in localization.
Forrest Li Xiaodong was born in Tianjin, China. Following his engineering undergraduate degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, with limited limited financial resources, went on to earn an MBA at Stanford University. Li first worked for Motorola as a human resources manager and then moved onto join a startup called GGgame founded by his classmate at Stanford.
Image Credits: Garena
In 2009, Li founded Garena, a leading online gaming platform, operating out of a small shophouse in Tanjong Pagar. His vision was to create a company that could cultivate and support the growth of mobile games, leading to the development of the massively popular Free Fire battle royale title. Under his guidance, Garena evolved into Sea Limited, a multi-billion-dollar corporation with subsidiaries like Shopee and SeaMoney providing e-commerce and digital financial services across Southeast Asia.
Today, Forrest Li continues to serve as the chairman and CEO of Sea Limited, relentlessly driving the company’s expansion and innovation forward. He also lends his expertise through positions on the board of the Singapore Economic Development Board and the Graduate School of Business at his alma mater Stanford University, looking to give back to the institutions that played an instrumental role in his success.
Image Credits: Garena
Free fire has emerged as a global contender in the mobile battle royale space, rivaling established IPs like PUBG: Battlegrounds. This has come despite stiff competition and regulatory pressure, for example, the ban of Free Fire in India.
Regardless, it’s natural that Free faces challenges since the game encounters a formidable as well as dynamic industry landscape.
Free Fire has always managed to surpass similar titles with awards like the best mobile game, while lifetime revenue stands at $4 billion; it has reached peaks of 80 million daily active users worldwide in 2020, especially due to lockdowns worldwide.
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