Salone Sehgal On The Systems Of Play Shaping The Swipe Before Type Generation With The Offline Network

A generation is growing up that swipes before it types. Raised on mobile, comfortable paying through UPI and fluent in creator-led platforms, it expects every app to feel a little like play.

With The Offline Network, Salone Sehgal, Founder and Managing Partner of Lumikai, unpacks the forces shaping India's next wave of interactive media.

She looks back at a time when interactive media was hardly a category anyone could name, and at how Lumikai's thesis grew out of early trend-mapping, often informed by markets like China. That conviction helped the fund catch the microdrama wave ahead of the curve through Eloelo and StoryTV. Salone also explains why UPI marked the turning point for monetisation, how 591Mn gamers paying through in-app purchases settled whether Indians pay, and why portfolio companies like Supernova and AskMyGuru put AI at the core of their products. She closes on what comes next: frontier tech, UGC platforms and the new systems of play competing for that generation's attention.

Building for the generation that swipes first? Consider this your field guide.

Press play. No typing required.