ITV

Category: Social Media

  • coto’s Publisher Partner Program enables users to create, distribute & monetize content

    coto’s Publisher Partner Program enables users to create, distribute & monetize content

    Mumbai: coto, a social community platform for women built on the web3 principles of trust, transparency, and participative ownership, has announced its Publisher Partner Programme. It brings together publishers, experts, and creators across genres and platforms to create and monetise their communities.

    coto explains that its Publisher Partner Programme aims to reshape the traditional content ecosystem of creation, distribution, and monetisation for publishers. Through the program, publishers can finally turn their current challenges of discovery, monetisation, and value-added services into the advantages of preferred partnerships, community engagement, and multi-monetisation models.

    It added that the internet has created a wealth of opportunities for publishers to extend their market reach and cater to a more focused audience. Competing in an era of free content, most publishers walk a tightrope in expanding their network, enhancing revenue generation models, attracting the attention of the right audience, and at the same time, owning the brand-audience relationship. As the world transitions to web3, there remains a need for a multi-network online platform that can provide creators and brands with a wider content ecosystem that offers universal content access and incremental revenue opportunities. This is the gap that coto is looking to fill.

    It will help collect the right mix of content, genres, and users on the platform that resonate with the brand’s ethos.

    coto co-founder Aparna Acharekar said, “coto’s Publisher Partner Program endeavours to create a responsible social platform where authentic, verified information is available from credible experts. As we transition to the new era of the internet, there is a clear need and potential to create an ecosystem that helps the audience navigate through the vast amount of content online and, at the same time, captures growth opportunities that disrupt the sector. By adopting a community-driven approach, the programme incentivizes engagement, thus creating an ever-evolving diverse model of monetization. It will offer members, brands, publishers, and creators a truly universal experience of accessing content.”

    Big FM COO Sunil Kumaran said, “Big FM stays committed to engaging its diverse audience with purpose-driven campaigns that entertain and inform with exceptional content, delivered in an impactful manner. Our thoughts align with coto, a women-only social community platform serving as a channel of change with content by women, for women. We are glad to associate with coto and are coming up with an exhaustive content line-up by our RJs covering multiple topics and industries. This convergence will create a new horizon of infotainment, exclusively on this trailblazing platform—coto.”

    Spooler founder & CEO Binoy Joseph shared, “The internet has become the primary source of content and, therefore, has created a need for different revenue generation models for creators and publishers. coto’s publisher partner programme is built on the principles of participation, ownership, and micropreneurship for all women. Its monetisation opportunities such as social, live, and service commerce, advertising revenue, and merchandising give creators and publishers a perfect platform to begin the monetization journey. We look forward to growing our audience with a very distinct and discerning women audience base.”

  • Chingari, Scope Entertainment collaborate to promote budding artists

    Chingari, Scope Entertainment collaborate to promote budding artists

    Mumbai: On-chain social app, Chingari, powered by Gari, has announced a partnership with Scope Entertainment. As a part of this arrangement, Scope Entertainment’s content library will be available to the Chingari community and will enable its creators to create content. These new-age songs from Scope Entertainment will be promoted by Chingari to increase their exposure. This will be accomplished by utilising 360-degree promotions for all their tracks and promoting their upcoming musicians via Chingari’s other avenues like Chingari Gupshupp, Kahi Unkahi audio session or Chingari Live interviews.

    Chingari is a short video app that allows users to create and share videos. Chingari has introduced Gari Tokens and a Gari Wallet, thereby establishing the creator’s economy.

    Meanwhile, Scope Entertainment is a destination that caters to all aspects of music and entertainment, including production, artist management, brand building, distribution, international events, and IP festivals. Their industry specialists and leaders are actively involved in managing and growing in-house talent/artists through services like music production, promotion, digital distribution, and social media marketing. Some of the most affluent names that have been associated with Scope Entertainment include AP Dhillon (The Takeover Tour), Jasmine Sandlas, Diljit Dosanjh (Born to Shine-India Tour), and Lil Pump (Time Stamp). They also exclusively manage celebrated artists like Simran Kaur Dhadli, Ashish Bhatia, Kaka Ji, Nav Sandhu and more from the Punjabi music scene.

    Scope Entertainment is launching four new artists this year, including Rawme Hooda, Agam Aulakh, and Jaymeet, under their upcoming record label and as part of their management.

    Chingari co-founder & CEO Sumit Ghosh remarked, “We are delighted to have Scope Entertainment as our valued partners. This partnership brings original content from new and upcoming artists to our creators. Nurturing and promoting upcoming talent has been one of the core beliefs at Chingari, and we will continue to do that along with making our content library even more exhaustive for our 160M+ creators and users.”

    Scope Entertainment CEO Ajay Bansal said, “Our core vision is to emerge as the revolutionary leaders of the entertainment world. Our intention is to volte-face the traditional culture of show business, to rewrite a brand-new inspiring tale, and we have managed to find an ideal match with Chingari. Through its extensive reach and strong monthly active user community across tier II, III, and metros alike, Scope Entertainment’s content will travel far and wide. We’re looking forward to amplifying our reach and connecting with a larger fanbase by utilising the platforms’ popularity.”

    Chingari recently introduced Chingari Audio Rooms, through which fans can interact directly with the stars. It also has show formats such as Gupshupp and Chingari Live, through which the platform will be promoting Scope Entertainment’s content and shows.

  • Govt’s Digital India Act to monitor OTT, social media & metaverse

    Govt’s Digital India Act to monitor OTT, social media & metaverse

    Mumbai: The Digital India Act (DIA), India’s upcoming digital regulatory framework, will have jurisdiction over OTT and social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and the Metaverse, according to media reports.

    Any violations of content guidelines by OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, such as spreading misinformation or inciting violence, will be monitored by the DIA.

     

     

    The ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) is working to replace the existing IT Act 2000 by the winter session of parliament. MeitY is rushing to finish the legislation by the deadline, which will include specific rules for women’s and children’s online safety.

    The Digital India Act will cover social media, OTT platforms, and online apps, as well as web3 applications such as the metaverse and blockchain.

    It was previously reported that the proposed Digital India Act would oversee laws dealing with cybercrime and e-commerce, but new reports indicate that the government has broadened the scope of the DIA.

    In order to create the Digital India Act, the regulators have studied similar internet laws from other countries, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and laws in Singapore and Australia.

    The government has also formed a special committee to review the rules from a technological and legal perspective.

    The government will have the ability to request that OTT platforms remove content that transgresses the aforementioned rules, with the DIA serving as the highest authority in this regard.

  • Linkedin’s efforts to boost content creation on its platform

    Linkedin’s efforts to boost content creation on its platform

    Mumbai: Professional online social network LinkedIn is looking to boost content creation efforts in the country. Engagement on the platform, it said, has skyrocketed. The platform said that it has 92 million members in the country. India is one of its fastest growing markets when it comes to member engagement.

    LinkedIn APAC head of creator management Pooja Chhabria said that growth in conversations have been responsible for driving more engagement on the platform. The platform has also led to creator conversations. She added, “This is such an important part of the experience of professionals on the platform. We want to continue to invest in that. What we are also keeping in mind is the fact that the core of our content strategy is member value. Members and professionals come to LinkedIn to advance their careers. They want to grow, learn, connect, and have professional conversations. Creators are at the centre of that.”

    The aim of LinkedIn, she explains to Indiantelevision.com is to make sure to invest in creators in a way that is core to its mission of having a knowledge marketplace where content creators can impart skills to their community and inform and educate their community. Creators should also share trends and industry insights. This is the work that LinkedIn is doing when it comes to content, which is a part of its growth strategy. She said that LinkedIn’s efforts to boost content creation fall into three buckets.

    “Product launches have happened to make it easier for creators to put out content, whether it is video, newsletters, or audio events. The aim is to make sure that creators can put forth stories and experiences in the format that they are most comfortable with. It could be stories or experiences. The second bucket is the content management team at LinkedIn, supporting creators and educating them. Sessions are done to educate creators on the best practices for creating content on the platform. The third bucket is the Creator Accelerator Programme. This was a 10-week programme.”

    Bring in diverse voices: The goal of the programme, she explains, was to bring in diverse voices from different professional fields, coach them, educate them, and give them voices and resources. The aim was to help them take their content creation journey on the platform to the next level. Some 200 people took part. “India is the first market after the US where LinkedIn launched this programme. This shows the importance of the country when it comes to our creator’s investment. The creators experienced mentorship and coaching sessions from some of the best content creators in the industry.”

    People like Edelweiss Asset Management CEO Radhika Gupta coached the creators. Creators at the programme got to try out various formats, like text newsletters and video events. Chhabria added that thanks to the programme, many creators have become more comfortable with video content creation.

    “Two things stand out. One is just the positive feedback that we are getting from the creators. They appreciated the time, effort, and coaching not just from LinkedIn but also from external speakers. The second thing is the tangible impact being seen. The follower growth that they got was two times what it was before they joined the programme. They followed best practices and the tips and tricks that we shared.” Now the company is collecting learnings on how the programme has actually performed. There is interest from more creators. In the US, the second leg has been launched, which focuses on the tech and innovation sector.

    New products: On the product side, she said that two new features have been launched. Creators can now have a clickable link on their videos and images so that if they want to lead their community to, for example, a particular learning course or to their site or to a book being launched, that can now be done. So they can actually drive leads based on the objective that they have. The second thing launched is easy-to-use templates. This makes it easier and more engaging for creators to put up posts. This allows creators to quickly adapt and tell their stories. Another product in the works is the carousel format. This will allow creators to put up images and videos in a more engaging manner. “It is in the works, but this is something that I am very excited about.”

    Room for various kinds of content: She also mentioned that different types of content gain traction. A creator’s journey is unique. Consumers also prefer to consume content in different ways. LinkedIn’s aim is to provide a varied and diverse set of formats for creators to create content in. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. So a creator can put up a live video event. On the other hand, if someone prefers the written format, then text posts with images, newsletters, or articles can be put up. The aim is to democratise content creation. Just one format will not be pushed. The aim is to make it easier for people to create content in the format that they are most comfortable with.

    “In the creator accelerator programme what we saw was that people were very happy to experiment with new formats. In video we saw a 300 per cent growth in adoption. People were inspired because of sessions to try videos. We had sessions for them to explain the process of shooting, editing a video. People already using video took it to the next level. Education, tools and examples of content creation were given. The creators also learnt from each other.”

    In terms of content subject matter that gets member traction, she noted that a lot of conversations happen around certain categories like building skills, startups, tech, finance, and entrepreneurship. At the same time, other diverse topics such as responsible A.I., public speaking skills, data science, cybersecurity, environment and sustainability, women’s empowerment, and leadership are gaining prominence. “But the core will always be: what is the member value that is being driven for professionals who log on to our platform? Are they learning a new skill? Are they being informed and educated about something new? Are they getting industry trends and insights? This essentially will be the core of how we invest in content creation.”

    Importance of differentiation: The advice LinkedIn gives content creators, she explains, is that content should be differentiated and deep. Creators should also be consistent with an idea. “So if someone talks about public speaking and communication skills, then that person needs to make sure that consistent content is delivered on that subject. That way, their community will recognise that this person is an expert in this area. In this way, creators build their niche communities, who know that they can go to that creator for knowledge, advice, and to get their daily dose of content. Frequency and consistency in putting out content are absolutely important.”

    The role of local languages: Hindi content creation was piloted as a part of the content accelerator programme. 35 per cent of creators said that they are interested in creating content in Hindi. There was a 300 percent increase in Hindi content creation during the program. There is an appetite among people to go beyond English and create content in their own language. Video will play a very important role. For LinkedIn to go beyond English, Hindi is a starting point.

    In terms of content size being consumed, she said that shorter videos do well. But on the other hand, a one-hour audio event or a 30-minute live event also gets a lot of traction. It depends on the kind of topic that a creator is talking about and the depth that they want to go into. Again, one size does not fit all.

    If someone brings in a unique idea and tells it in an engaging way, it always gets engagement. She added that a significant number of the creators who took part in the programme were from tier two and tier three cities. Therefore, the programme was hosted virtually and participation went beyond the Metros.

    She added that anybody can be a creator. They have to switch on the creator mode and then the features are available. They can share content, get analytics on their content, see the performance and then improve. “Millions of videos, posts are put up and it skyrocketed, especially during the pandemic. People are sharing much more. There are also more comments. More people have meaningful professional conversations. That is the essence. We have to make sure that LinkedIn is the platform for this and for engaged communities.”

    Content relevance: She added that LinkedIn’s teams focus on making sure that the right content reaches the right members based on their interests, skills, and usage of the platform. The company works with creators to ensure that the best quality content is put out there. The product teams work on A.I. and machine learning. “Our vision is to create economic opportunities for every member of the global workforce. When we keep that in mind, we always want to make sure that the right content reaches the right audience.”

    She noted that people at the top of their professional fields, like Sugar Cosmetics CEO Vineeta Singh, are very actively creating content on the platform. Singh, for example, discusses entrepreneurship and her experience building a large company. Breakthrough India CEO Sohini Bhattacharya talks about gender equality and how one can stop violence against women. “Our endeavour has always been to bring in these diverse voices who can provide that value to members.”

    When asked about the goals of content creation, she said the reasons are varied. It could help people build their personal brand to grow in their career or build their personal brand to build their company brand so that they can look for investments or collaboration opportunities. Another person might look for speaking gigs or to be able to launch a book later. “It is very varied how opportunities show up. Now creators are also getting brand sponsorships as companies see the creators as being able to help them reach out to their targeted communities that align with the brands’ objective.”

    “I would say that three things are important for content creators. The first is to define why you are creating content. What is the objective? The second is, what is the niche you are targeting? What is the topic that you will talk about? What is the kind of community that you want to build? The third is that once the community is being built, you have to build a predictable volume of content while keeping quality intact. That is extremely important.”

    She also noted that B2B brands already create content on the platform. They have a company page and build their community through content like e-books, reports, and videos to ensure that customers get value through engagement.

  • Social media platform Khul Ke rolls out its maiden campaign

    Social media platform Khul Ke rolls out its maiden campaign

    Mumbai: Social media platform Khul Ke, launched by Loktantra Mediatech, has rolled out its first campaign “Naya Daur – What’s Next, India?” to commemorate India’s glorious run to its 75th Independence Day on 15 August this year.

    Khul Ke is a one-of-a-kind platform that has been launched to empower the audience to have more informed and meaningful conversations. It is the only social media platform that allows video, audio, and text-based conversations and gives audiences a 360 experience.

    In the past 75 years, India has completely transformed its image through many extraordinary achievements. From a nation that carried parts of a rocket on a bicycle to a nation that sent a satellite to Mars. From a nation of snake charmers to a major IT service exporting country. From a group of princely states to the world’s largest democracy. From a nation suffering from epidemics to a nation that conducted 25 million vaccinations on a single day. India has come a long way. Naya Daur embodies the current phase where India knows how to play the game of diplomacy, mesmerise the global audience with its music, art, and cinema, and has made strides with its technological innovations. The tagline “What’s next, India?” captures the sentiment of a nation hungry for growth, development, and innovations to change the course of humanity.

    India is a nation now racing towards 100 years of Independence. While the campaign honours and celebrates its achievements after independence, it also questions what’s in store for the country and the people in the next 25 years. As a part of the campaign, Khul Ke will host various ‘RoundTables’ and discussion forums on India’s politics, sports, cinema, art & culture, science and technology, and business & economy with known experts from the respective fields.

    Additionally, as part of the rollout, the company has launched a campaign film in the voice of a renowned actor, singer, and lyricist Piyush Mishra. The animation film traces India’s remarkable achievements since Independence and speaks about hope, as the nation is on the brink of a new dawn. The campaign will be rolled out across social media platforms, theatres, and radio stations.

    Speaking about the platform’s first campaign roll out, Loktantra Mediatech director & chief executive officer Piyush Kulshreshtha said, “Khul Ke is a conversations platform. Users can hold conversations freely in audio and video formats on topics of their own interests. As compared to the existing social media platforms, it is our strong belief that conversation will create possibilities and SM platforms of future will be based on conversations”

    He further added, “Khul Ke is at the moment in its test-phase. We are testing the platform for performance and security. While doing so, we needed to hold regular conversations, and were exploring a positive agenda. With the 75th Independence Day coming up, our team decided to experiment with the idea of holding conversations around the last 75 years and future 25 years. It gives us an opportunity to experiment with a variety of content, depth of conversation, quality of moderators and panellists, and interests of the audience. Considering we are still in test-phase and nobody knows about the platform, the topics, the moderators, the panellists and the amount of time the audience spends in such conversations tells us that we are in the right direction. We will continue to bring variety & quality of content through interesting moderators and panellists for an audience that likes to get to the depth and make sense of things they like to discuss. We are sure India will like our format and will join the platform soon.”

    Khul Ke chief marketing officer Manish Agarvwal shared, “Our campaign ‘Naya Daur – What next, India?’ reaches out to people across age-groups and walks of life who want to either opine or listen to what industry leaders must share. The objective is to celebrate the landmark moments not just on one day in August but to relive past achievements and take time to prepare for the coming years. The campaign has been rolled out across theatre, radio, digital and social media platforms to create awareness about the platform.”

    Conversation can lead to endless possibilities, but the existing clutter of social media platforms currently does not encourage or enable users to explore this power. ‘Khul Ke’ harnessed this thought and gave people the opportunity to engage in uninhibited enriching conversations and increase their circle of influence rather than just be mute spectators.  Khul Ke is available on both Appstore and playstore and will also be available on the web www.khulke.com.

  • Livon chooses to #ExpressWithPride, presenting Uncut on YouTube and Instagram

    Livon chooses to #ExpressWithPride, presenting Uncut on YouTube and Instagram

    Mumbai: India 2022 is seeing a world of changes in terms of how we perceive things as well as how we express ourselves. As we continue pride celebrations, the voice of the queer community is getting louder and prouder, rising above every obstacle and naysayer.  

    Livon, in collaboration with the Ogilvy Content Force, takes ‘the Pride month’ to move away from the cookie-cutter, age-old definition of self-expression and representation, breaking away from a world of binaries to truly celebrate the rainbow side of life. 

    Uncut, the brand new series by Livon, is an initiative to freely talk about things that are usually swept under the rug. But being true to the brand ethos of “self-expression”, they have launched the series with #ExpressWithPride, co-creating with a host of young, opinionated and talented queer creators who have spoken their minds about a lot of pertinent issues starting from what it’s like being non-binary in India to how their professional lives are impacted by their sexuality. 

    The activity has been rolled out in an integrated manner, starting with videos and promos on YouTube with teasers on Instagram as well as Spotify ads to have maximum impact and reach.  

    The campaign has struck a chord with the audience due to the sheer unfiltered and fresh nature of its content which steers away from the usual tokenism seen prevalent during Pride. For the first time ever, a brand was not just turning into a rainbow sign or talking about their coming out story but instead, highlighted not just major issues pertaining to the LGBTQIA+ community but all the little things that matter as well.

  • Vice Media elevates Nilesh Zaveri as managing director, APAC

    Vice Media elevates Nilesh Zaveri as managing director, APAC

    Mumbai: Vice Media Group has elevated Nilesh Zaveri as managing director, APAC. He took to LinkedIn to share this news.

    He wrote, “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as managing director, APAC at Vice Media Group.”

    Zaveri joined Vice Media Group back in 2017 as chief operating officer and chief financial officer, based out its headquarters in Singapore.

    He brings on board an experience of over twenty-two years. Prior to joining Vice, Zaveri was working for Discover Networks as chief financial officer and senior vice president of finance and corporate operations, APAC and regional CFO for Fox Sports Asia and held several roles at 21st Century Fox in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mumbai.

  • Meta launches 3D avatars for facebook, instagram & messenger users

    Meta launches 3D avatars for facebook, instagram & messenger users

    Mumbai: Meta has launched on Tuesday updated 3D Avatars in India for Facebook and Messenger. The new avatars will also be available on Instagram. The new avatars are expressive, customizable and diverse.  

    The new update adds Cochlear implants and over-the-ear hearing aids (for one or both ears) in a variety of colors, and on all platforms including VR. It also includes wheelchairs, which will appear in stickers on Facebook, in Messenger chats and in DMs on Instagram. Meta will continue to add more options over time based on feedback from the community.

    With this development, people in India can show up as their virtual self across apps via stickers, feed posts, facebook profile pictures, and more.

    To better reflect the billions of unique people on this planet, Meta is adding new facial shapes and assistive devices for people with disabilities. Meta is also improving the look of Avatars. Subtle adjustments have been made to certain facial shapes and skin shaders to make avatars more authentic.

    While speaking on the launch of new avatars, Meta India director and head partnerships Manish Chopra said, “Representations in the metaverse should reflect the diversity of the real world. Avatars are just the first step toward enabling everyone to express themselves in their unique ways. When you create your avatar you can choose the right facial features, body types, clothing styles, and more to create your virtual self. We offered more than one quintillion different combinations when we launched our updated avatars last year, and we’re continuing to add more options to give people even more ways to express themselves.”

  • The Twitter-Elon Musk tussle: To be ‘bot’ or not to be

    The Twitter-Elon Musk tussle: To be ‘bot’ or not to be

    Mumbai: The Twitter acquisition drama has been playing out- where else but on Twitter- on a daily basis (or hourly, if you go by Musk’s tweets) for the last several weeks. The latest in the Elon Musk-Twitter saga is that the Twitter Inc board has decided to go ahead and enforce its $44 billion agreement to be bought by Elon Musk. The board’s statement comes on the back of multiple tweets from Musk in the last several days that seem to indicate that the billionaire appears to be rethinking the whole deal.  

    “We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement,” the board said on Tuesday in a statement, adding, “the transaction is in the best interest of all shareholders.”

    Prior to this, the board voted to unanimously recommend that shareholders approve Musk’s $54.20 per share offer.

    Earlier on Tuesday, Elon Musk intensified his very public dispute with the Twitter CEO on the matter of bots or fake accounts on the platform, saying his acquisition of the social media company “cannot move forward” until he sees more information about the prevalence of spam accounts.

    “20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher. My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate. Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does,” Musk tweeted, citing an article by Teslarati, (which, by the way, is a media company and a publisher of news on Tesla, SpaceX, and ventures, affiliated with Musk himself!) that said, “Elon Musk may be looking for a better Twitter deal as $44 billion seems too high with 20% of users being fake or spam accounts.”

    The article suggested Twitter’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission were misleading. The company has maintained that less than five per cent of its daily active users are spam accounts.

    In yet another twist in the proposed acquisition, earlier on Friday, Musk had tweeted that his planned $44 billion purchase of Twitter is “temporarily on hold” pending details on spam and fake accounts on the social media platform.

    The proposed takeover includes a $ one billion breakup fee for each party, which means Musk will have to pay the said amount if he ends the deal or fails to deliver the acquisition funding as promised. Musk might be exempted from that requirement only if he can show a material change in the company’s situation or the information it has provided.

    This is just the latest in a series of twists and U-turns that have been doing the rounds on the platform, regarding the company’s take over by Musk amid increasing signs of internal turmoil between the two parties.

    In fact, ever since the billionaire grandly announced his offer to buy out the micro blogging platform on 14 April, the platform has been abuzz with new speculations on the acquisition front, mostly triggered by the Tesla founder himself. Musk has been highly active on the platform even before that, and became more so vocal about the site’s alleged shortcomings when he started building his stake in the company and became an active investor in April this year.

    This led to speculations on Musk being keen to join the company’s board, further amplified by the Twitter CEO’s own tweet on 5 April welcoming Musk onboard, where Agrawal wrote about the billionaire: “He’s both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on @Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term.”

    However, Musk surprised everyone- most of all, the Twitter management- by rejecting the company’s offer to join its board, instead offering to buy out the company itself!

    With Twitter now committed to completing the sale even as Musk continues to drag his feet over it, it remains to be seen how the rest of this very public saga plays out!