Category: iWorld

‘The next billion YouTube users are going to come from India:’ Ajay Vidyasagar

MUMBAI: Even as Google CEO Sundar Pichai prepares for his India trip with a mandate to outline the company’s vision for the new smartphone users in the country later this month, YouTube has trained its eyes on India in a big way. With a global community of over one billion people that gives anyone the power to create something that everyone can watch, YouTube APAC director of partnerships Ajay Vidyasagar is of the opinion that the next billion users of a platform like YouTube are going to come from a market like India.

Citing Pichai’s example, Vidyasagar adds, “Senior leaders at Google are very excited about India. India is one of our most valuable opportunities in the world. YouTube is already a mainstream platform in the country. The next billion users of a platform like YouTube are going to come from a market like India.”

As a definitive step towards its vision for YouTube’s growth in India for churning out original local content, the company has launched YouTube Space Mumbai – the destination for web content creators and aspiring YouTube stars. YouTube Space Mumbai is India’s first and the world’s 8th YouTube Space.

When asked what influenced the company’s decision to set up YouTube Space in India, Vidyasagar points out a few important stats. “While the year on year growth for YouTube globally is 60 per cent, in India the growth in watch-time has been a whopping 80 per cent. Needless to say India is a very important growing market for us. YouTube Space Mumbai is just one of the many initiatives the company has in store for the country.”

Not just as a country of viewers, but as content creators too India has seen a steep rise. “There has been a growth of 90 per cent year on year, when it comes to uploading videos to YouTube in India. So getting Spaces to further empower the creators in the country was the obvious next step,” Vidyasagar informs.

Moreover, YouTube users in India have also made an exponential shift on mobile devices to watch videos. “This year we saw 55 per cent of the total viewership on YouTube in India coming from mobile devices alone. It’s the first quarter when mobile device viewership eclipsed desktops.”

When asked what this means in a country where mobile marketing is just setting up a roadmap unlike a developed market like China, and how it can impact a YouTube content creator’s revenue, Vidyasagar says, “Our way of looking at mobile or desktop viewership is fundamentally ‘bought and sold’ on a promise of a video view, which is pretty much the same thing on any device. Therefore monetisation isn’t a challenge, even if the device changes. We actually have figures to show now that monetisation is pretty much the same in all devices.”

Further explaining the monetisation process in YouTube and how the platform gives advertisers a plethora of choices, Vidyasagar shares, “Our advertising team sells reserve advertisements and auction advertisement inventory. The skippable ads that you see are part of a suite that we offer in auction advertising. What ad will be placed on the channel is not decided by the creator but by the buyer of the advertising space. As an advertiser you can choose to buy from the reserve, which means to buy an ad in a specific channel at certain time in a certain volume. And you pay for specific price. But in an auction, you actually bid for an ad to be placed on the platform. So it is not creator led but advertiser led; we give the advertisers a lot of choice in the process.”

A veteran in broadcast media from his earlier stints at Star TV and Sun TV, Vidyasagar shares how differently a VOD platform such as YouTube functions.

“When I came to Google, I really thought YouTube is going to be a lot similar to television and very quickly I realised how wrong I was. In a lot of ways, television is a one way communication. You expect the audience to come at a certain hour to a certain television station and then go away. Everything about television is very different in terms of consumption and engagement from a platform like YouTube. Interactivity amongst creators is what drives YouTube and its community at heart. The single biggest difference for me has been realising the power of how creating, sharing and commenting plays such a big role in what was originally a one way communication,” he offers.

Comparing the television medium to online, Vidyasagar says that in his stint with television, it was mainly the opinion of a handful of decision making people that was more often than not reflected in shows. “On television, we got a very filtered version of what people thought about the content. But when content goes out on YouTube, I have a pretty strong idea of what people actually think about it. This makes you very responsible over what you put out there as a content,” he says.

That said, both YouTube Spaces global head Lance Podell and Vidyasagar stress the need to get more and more Indians be active on YouTube. While infrastructure and lack of uniform access of internet through the country, specially in Tier II and III cities remains a challenge, the duo is happy to inform that their previous marketing initiative YouTube Offline, which was first introduced to India, has borne fruit and shown a 500 per cent growth in usage across the country. Additionally, a slew of services are being thought of to pull in more users to the platform, Vidyasagar informs.

With an aim to attract tens of thousands of fully functional content creators who can add to the YouTube community and also inspire others, the 4G wave in the country will only add an impetus to facilitate the video network’s plans in India.

December 4, 2015
The Quint forays into documentary making with film on UP

MUMBAI: The Quint has forayed into the space of documentary film making with The Wild West of Uttar Pradesh – Rise of Radical Hindu Vigilante Groups.

The main idea behind foraying into such a documentary is to unearth news that is underground.

The Quint will travel to the interiors of western Uttar Pradesh to meet members of these groups, their sympathisers and young Hindu recruits who are being trained and indoctrinated in this emerging brand of religious extremism.

Speaking about the proposition The Quint CEO Ritu Kapur said, “The QuintDocu will have a raw, gritty, provocative feel. It will be up-close, intimate, honest and un-filtered. Our documentaries will have energy, pace; we pack in a lot in a short time. We believe we are addressing an audience that is well-informed and knows how to ‘join the dots’. We will also publish related opinion pieces written by The Quint’s top-notch contributors; all this to give our audience a real 360 degree view of the subject.”

The documentary will be produced in stand-alone two – four minute segments, which will be posted independently on The Quint. These documentaries are focused for an audience that accesses news and information mainly on the mobile phone. The Quint will also post raw interviews, key documents, maps, infographics, photo essays, detailed information about the protagonists and phenomenon and issues that are taken up in the documentaries. The Quint’s documentaries will also feature on the festival circuit.

December 3, 2015
Zeop deployes Broadpeak to improve video delivery

MUMBAI: Broadpeak, a leading provider of content delivery network (CDN) technologies and live and video-on-demand (VOD) servers for cable, IPTV, OTT, hybrid, and mobile TV operators worldwide, today announced that Zeop, the first and leading fiber operator based on the French island of Reunion, has deployed Broadpeak solutions to improve video delivery. Using a combination of Broadpeak’s BkS400 cache servers and BkM100 CDN manager, Zeop can cost-effectively distribute VOD content via a content provider located in France, while providing an exceptional quality of experience (QoE) and quality of service (QoS) to end users.

“Recently, we wanted to offer subscribers a wider choice of content. Under standard video delivery architecture, this would have been extremely challenging in terms of the transit and CDN-as-a-service costs incurred. We needed an optimized video delivery solution,” said Zeop CTO Martin Vigneau. “Broadpeak’s video caching technology dramatically reduces our transit and contribution link costs, allowing us to deliver a wider range of popular video content at a fraction of the cost of traditional CDN methods, while providing a better quality of experience and service.”

Broadpeak pre-provisions popular video content in a local cache server, located in the operator’s network in Reunion. Each time an end user requests video content, it is directly streamed by the BkS400 local server, without needing to reach the content provider’s origin server. The technology is deployed on virtual machines, optimizing Zeop’s costs even further.

Broadpeak’s BkS400 servers deliver video content via adaptive bit rate (ABR) technology, guaranteeing a high level of video quality. The presence of a local cache removes any latency that could take place between the origin server and the edge network. This mechanically benefits the QoS, and also the QoE, since higher video profiles will be streamed more often. Broadpeak’s BkS400 server offers broad format support (e.g., Apple HLS, Microsoft Smooth Streaming, Adobe HDS, and MPEG-DASH) so that operators can deliver video content anytime, anywhere, on any device. Zeop is also delivering content in the Microsoft Smooth Streaming format.

Broadpeak’s cache servers also collect analytics about end user sessions, allowing Zeop to identify trends in audience behaviors. Zeop can monitor a full range of statistics related to video streaming, including bit rate per source, cache status percentage (e.g., cache hit, cache miss), requests per second, average time to serve, and HTTP status codes per second. By employing a solution with sophisticated analytics, the operator can provide detailed information to marketing, operations, and support teams to assist them with strategic decision-making.

“Using Broadpeak’s solution, Zeop can now negotiate with other content providers to offer a wider choice of content to their subscribers,” said Broadpeak CEO Jacques Le Mancq. “Broadpeak’s solution also enables Zeop to interface with other CDN service providers and deliver content in a wide range of ABR formats to address all growing consumer demand for high-quality video content on every screen. The end results are lower video delivery costs, more flexibility, and a better QoS and QoE for end users.”

December 2, 2015
Hatchbacks most favoured by customers; Maruti & Hyundai lead auto category: CarDekho

MUMBAI: The Indian consumer is now more discerning than ever before. Even when bombarded with options galore, consumers today know exactly what they want. And this can well be seen in the findings of a recent report released by Indian online automobile marketplace CarDekho.

The report on online search patterns of the Indian consumers compared to actual in-market sales of cars during the festive season showed that when it comes to cars, hatchbacks were the most preferred customer choice, figuring in consideration sets for nearly 47 per cent consumer with their actual demand clocking in 48 per cent of the overall figure. The sedan category also saw consideration (26 per cent) and demand (25 per cent) nearly at par with one another.

On the other hand, Maruti and Hyundai occupied the top slots in the hatchback as well as the sedan segment, with Honda also marking prominent presence in the latter category.

The report, which is based on CarDekho’s platform traffic as well as Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) data, focused on various car categories such as hatchback, MUV, Sedan, SUV and Compact SUV/MUV to present a comprehensive statistical picture of the user consideration versus actual demand.

Compact SUV/MUV section saw a high consideration per centage (17 per cent) due to the buzz effect surrounding the new category launch. However, the actual demand for the segment was only 10 per cent, which could be attributed to the relative unfamiliarity of the Indian public with the category. MUVs, on the other hand, resulted in a much higher actual demand (12 per cent) than consideration, which stood at a mere two per cent.

GirnarSoft CMO LK Gupta said, “The October-November festive season is a time when Indian consumers wield their financial clout to buy things that they have shortlisted over the year. As such, this report provides a valuable insight into the shopping trends during this busy period. These insights will help car manufacturers to better understand the dynamics of consideration sets that buyers go into the market with, and how they change through the purchase process. The report also helps us as an auto portal to improve upon our existing services and shape our product offerings to be more in sync with the consumer preferences.”

CarDekho’s report also highlighted the importance of price and value-for-money proposition for the Indian consumers. Amongst hatchbacks, Hyundai’s Elite i20 saw nearly 17 per cent user consideration; however, the actual conversion stood only at nine per cent. In comparison, its Grand i10 model, priced nearly Rs 2 lakh lower, managed to record 11 per cent demand despite a measly four per cent consideration. The Alto also recorded 18 per cent actual demand as compared to eight per cent consideration owing to its lower price and Maruti’s brand value. Similarly for the Sedan category, Dzire’s actual demand (37 per cent) far eclipsed its consideration (16 per cent), while the case was reversed for Honda City, which saw 20 per cent consideration, but only 11 per cent actual demand.

However, while price was an important factor that drove transactions, performance and features were also given due consideration. In the Compact SUV/MUV category, both the consideration (14 per cent) and actual conversion (12 per cent) for Maruti’s S-Cross was much lower comparatively to Hyundai’s Creta (32 per cent consideration and 28 per cent actual) despite a lower price. This was attributed to more attractive features offered by Creta as compared to S-Cross.

December 2, 2015
YuppTV launches on-demand movie streaming service

MUMBAI: Over-the-top (OTT) player YuppTV has launched its on-demand movie streaming service called YuppFlix.

Backed by its library of more than 5000+ movies in 12 languages, YuppFlix will offer users on-the-go entertainment across genres like comedy, thriller, romance, action, drama and devotional.

YuppFlix will offer instant movie updates through ad campaigns and push notifications, internet premiers of upcoming movies.

Speaking on the launch, YuppTV founder and CEO Uday Reddy said, “The Indian expat communities living overseas have limited access to legal regional movie content. Having established YuppTV as the digital destination for over-the-top Indian content, we felt the time was right for us to launch YuppFlix as the premier on-demand digital movie solution for Indian expats. With our extensive database of movies in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Punjabi and Kannada, we are confident of delivering high-quality digital movie solutions for our users across the globe.”

YuppFlix’s catalogue has over 25,000 hours of on-demand content accessible with a subscription.

December 2, 2015
TO THE NEW Digital bets high on video content management

MUMBAI: Digital services company TO THE NEW Digital, has made a mark in the digital ecosystem with Fortune 500 clients like Sony, P & G, Airbus, Time Warner Cable and Nike. The company reached another milestone as it leveraged the power of videos by publishing 2.5 lakh hours of online video content and 1 lakh hours of YouTube channel management for different clients.

TO THE NEW Digital CEO Deepak Mittal says, “Digital revolution has compelled companies to capitalize on new-age communication tools. Video management is the need of the hour for brands to get the maximum out of their video content. At TO THE NEW Digital, we provide end-to-end video optimization and distribution services to promote video content to relevant target audience. We are delighted that we have earned trust of the best brands in the market.”

As per TO THE NEW Digital’s market analysis, by 2020, Asia will be the largest hub for social networkers and mobile operators with about 60 percent digitally-inclined population. Driven by this estimation, TO THE NEW Digital plans to be at the forefront of exploding digital landscape, creating eye-catching content, promoting technocratic practices for the existing and emerging businesses as a sure-shot method of achieving unwavering success, and ultimately delivering the best digital solutions.

ETV, a large network of satellite TV channels in India, approached TO THE NEW Digital to optimize, publish and manage its content on YouTube channel for their 17 regional channels. ETV wanted a 24×7 support system and operations to increase visits and traction through video SEO services. TO THE NEW Digital helped them increase their monthly subscriber growth rate by 254 percent.

Digital multi-channel network #Fame also engaged TO THE NEW Digital for end-to-end services for their multi-channel content publishing, management and promotion to increase viewership/subscriptions. By deploying analytics-driven content curation, contextualization and multi-platform content publishing, #Fame achieved a significant growth in their monthly viewership rate.

December 1, 2015
Crime Patrol maker looks forward to more online content

MUMBAI: Shlok Entertainment, headed by the makers of Crime Patrol, Subbu and Neeraj Naik, had launched an intense suspense thriller titled The Razor’s Edge on Youtube some time back.

Talking about the film, Shlok Entertainment director and producer Subbu said, “With the evolution of the internet, we broke the norms with this film and released it on the internet as we feel that it is the right medium for our target audience. A digital release will allow the viewers to enjoy this film in their own space.”

He further added, “Now twitter gives you an option to watch a one minute snippets whether it’s news or anything else. A majority of the audience watch television episodes on YouTube. A few years ago, Tata Sky started the trend where, with the help of a DTH recorder one could record and watch a favourite show at a convenient time. Now YouTube has taken it to the next level. Most of the channels have started their own web platforms and are uploading their content to tap into online audience.”

The Razor’s Edge was released on 23 October, 2015, and received 5,342 views so far. “The response has been decent. I would not say that the response was very good but we are happy with it. It will take time to get the eyeballs but soon will meet our target,” Subbu said.

The film attempts to expose the trials and tribulations of the film industry while keeping the audience at the edge of their seats. It follows the journey of the protagonist, Sameer played by Pankaj Singh, who like any newcomer, finds no takers for his script. Moreover he lacks backing. His fortune takes a turn when he befriends Tanya played by Shweta Gulati. All doors mysteriously open up for him.

Suddenly Sameer has a line of producers knocking on his door to work with him. Things looksbright for Sameer until Tanya becomes the prime suspect of all the gruesome murders of the producers who refused to work with him.

When asked why he chose to go digital with the film Subbu said, “The idea was to make a suspense thriller because we have been doing shows in that genre for a long time now. With a shorter thriller film it was a good opportunity to foray into digital. Digital is the next big thing with growing viewership and advertising revenue therefore we wanted to explore the platform with this film.”

The production house is looking forward to create more content for online platform. The plan is to come up with new films with an interval of two to three months for online viewership. The team is already working on the couple of ideas.

Speaking about the revenue model he explained, “Currently the concept is not the revenue generating because the digital platform still commands lesser share of advertisement as compared to television. Moreover we lack sponsorship. From a revenue perspective, it looks difficult right now as lots of people are a part of it and many big companies have been associated with a huge library of content with them. So the subscription model works for them. But for smaller entities like us, it may be revenue generating when sponsors come in, because at the end of the day advertising works on viewership. We are hoping more for sponsors to come in as we garner more views on the videos.”

Recently we have seen many OTT players bringing back the discontinued shows on their digital platform. “I see a lot of that happening right now. Netflix has pioneered this trend of moving content from television and putting it on digital. There are a lot of companies that wanted to make content for digital. Today’s younger generation doesn’t watch television which is why the digital space is growing. They prefer to watch series online and some of them don’t have television sets at home. Social media’s growth has also promoted the online content,” he said.

November 30, 2015
YuppTV enters Red Herring’s top 100 global company list

MUMBAI: YuppTV, an OTT platform, has entered the reputed Red Herring’s list of top 100 global awards. The awards identify and honour the leading private companies from North America, Europe and Asia.

Red Herring’s list is a mark of distinction for promising new companies and entrepreneurs.

Red Herring CEO and publisher Alex Vieux said, “Choosing the companies with the strongest potential was by no means a small feat. After rigorous contemplation and discussion, we narrowed our list down from hundreds of candidates from across the globe to the top 100 winners. We believe YuppTV embodies the vision, drive and innovation that define a successful entrepreneurial venture. YuppTV should be proud of its accomplishment.”

Red Herring’s editorial staff evaluated the companies on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration. This assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the track records and standing of start-ups relative to their peers, allowing Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list a valuable instrument of discovery and advocacy for the most promising new business models from around the world.

Speaking about the new accomplishment, YuppTV CEO and founder Uday Reddy added, “When we were recognized as one of the top 100 North American companies earlier this year, we were absolutely thrilled with the distinction especially given that there were so many great companies. However, to have been selected as one of the top 100 global companies really confirms our belief that we have a service that our customers love and that so many new customers around the world will want.”

November 30, 2015
Decision on net neutrality case in US likely to affect Internet users globally

New Delhi Even as net neutrality became a major issue in India earlier this year when reports of Internet censorship began filtering in, a Federal Appeals court in Washington is to decide a major case in this regard early next month.

The outcome of this case is expected to set a trend that may affect Internet all over the world.

The issue being taken up is the United States net neutrality rules banning telecom and cable companies from unfairly discriminating against new or potential rivals.

If the court gives a rule in their favour, Internet providers could begin favouring preferred websites and control what services consumers can access from their smartphones, tablets and PCs.

Interestingly, one of three judges who will hear this matter on 4 December is of Indian origin, Judge Sri Srinivasan who was appointed in 2013.

The other judges are Judge Stephen F. Williams and Judge David S. Tatel. Tatel along with two other judges held in 2014 that the Federal Communications Commission misused its powers to impose net neutrality on Internet providers which led to a lot of debate in the US. The case was a petition filed by Verizon against FCC.

November 29, 2015
Gamification, localization and monetisation way forward for #fame

MUMBAI: Fame Digital Private Limited (FDPF) is fundamentally focusing on three objectives for its online entertainment app, #fame – gamification, localisation and monetisation.

When it comes to gamification, #fame talent league (FTL) is the first step in that direction. FTL is a path breaking initiative that will encourage and enable content creators to test their popularity with audiences in real time. FTL will start on December 5, 2015. As may be recalled, #fame launched the country’s live video app in May this year and in a short span of time this has emerged as the largest live video platform.

Localisation -#fame is also planning to launch more of regional and local versions on the app to differentiate the sections over the next couple of quarters. The company is also looking at launching south Indian version of the app, as well as planning to launch in Indonesia and Thailand

Speaking with Indiantelevision.com about the three fundamental plans, #fame CEO Saket Saurabh said, “There are three plans for #fame, one is that we have launched #fame talent league, also over the next couple of quarters we are planning to launch more of a regional and local versions to differentiate the sections of our app. Apart from this, we will be looking for monetisation also. Therefore gamification, localization and monetisation are the core components in building the name of #fame.”

Commenting monetisation potential of video, Saurabh said, “Within digital, video is the fastest growing section. We believe that access with 4G is coming and the hardware is becoming cheaper; video is becoming the new language of the consumer internet. Revenue will follow consumption. In two years we have brought on board 20 to 25 top brands in India across categories like FMCG, automobile, durables and telecom. We are planning to bring more traction now. In the next six months, we are planning to reach out to 60 to 65 brands. Therefore, we feel that video has tremendous monetisation potential and great monetisation flexibility. Video monetisation is moving beyond pure play inventory.”

Saurabh added, “We had launched the first live video app in the country in May. We have seen more than 30,000 people going live using our ap. That gave us the confidence that there is clearly an opportunity to discover the digital talent and that is why we started building a tech feature in our app, which in a sense is an innovation, because it has the kind of real time global audience looking at the live app.”

Since May, #fame has seen 20 lakh downloads, with more than 30,000 performers going live and over 30,000 watch hours of content.

Earlier, #fame had launched its first digital singing competition Web Singer with Pritam in November, 2014. “The experience with Web Singer has been great. This is why we call ourselves as #fame, because there is an opportunity for a talent to really emerge and connect directly with the audiences. All our initiatives are designed to allow talent to come forward whether it’s our live video app or the launch of #fame talent league which is on the top of the app,” he added.

India has 35 crore internet users and in couple of years India will have half of its people using internet and we are already a one of the largest market in the world.

India’s inherent advantage is that it is already a mobile ready country. “There are three fundamental trends that are making it big; one is that hardware access is getting cheaper as you get mobile phones now in Rs 6000-7000 price range, which makes video access easier. Another factor is the Indian population and the demographics which play an important role as we have a whole generation of youngsters who have grown up not with television as their first screen, but with mobile phones. The third factor is that digital will be seen as the support medium by content creators and networks over time. The rise of OTT in couple of years is a great reflection that brands have realized that digital requires original content. In the next couple of years we will see a tremendous growth in digital medium,” Saurabh predicted.

#fame is spending about 30 to 40 per cent of its investments in user acquisition and user engagement. Speaking about the competition Saurabh informed, “I think there is space for everybody, in the case of live video, we are the pioneers in India and we are trying to build that category. In digital, there are all kinds of players. We have OTT, content creators, YouTube and Facebook, hence it’s a fairly a vibrant place. Also, live video space and digital space are all in their early stages. I don’t see competition is really an issue right now. Here we need to have more innovations.”

4G is creating a lot of buzz in the country. Saurabh said, “I think 4G will take another 6-8 months as it is not in the mainstream in India and is only available in some major cities. The entry of more players and alliances will make an impact and there will be more, in combination with cheaper hardware manufacture. There will be a lot of cooperative marketing which will help mainstream 4G.”

November 29, 2015