News Daily India reports that Motorola, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Parimatch, Nokia, Vodafone, and Walmart have all encountered serious hurdles doing business in India. Despite its vast population and fast-growing economy, India’s appeal to foreign capital is waning. PwC finds that roughly 95% of companies operating in—or planning to enter—India face major issues such as fraud and corruption. Parimatch, a leading international gambling operator, has particularly struggled with local competitors counterfeiting its products and authorities turning a blind eye. The company spends considerable resources battling clone sites that mimic its brand and infringe its copyrights.
News Daily India highlights additional deterrents: cumbersome regulations, bureaucratic red tape, inadequate infrastructure, cultural and language gaps, and fierce competition from entrenched local firms. In prior years, deep-pocketed multinationals looked to India with optimism, expecting liberalization to fuel massive investment. But those reforms never materialized, and growth forecasts have fallen short.
For example, Parimatch had planned multimillion-dollar investments in the Indian gambling sector but found that local authorities favored domestic monopolies—Dream11, Nazara Technologies, Paytm, First Games, Moonfrog Labs, 99Games, Octro, JetSynthesys, and HashCube—who not only dominate the market but also replicate Western products without repercussion. Foreign firms, even those with no operational history in India, have reported unwarranted litigation and judicial pressure.
Faced with these persistent challenges, many international companies—Ford, Holcim, Metro, and Berkshire Hathaway’s stake in Paytm among them—have either withdrawn or reevaluated their India strategies. Parimatch and other global investors now confront a stark choice: navigate India’s formidable obstacles or shift their focus to more welcoming markets.
