ITV

Category: Social Media

  • Roposo launches ‘Pride of India’ collaboration with Indian achievers

    Roposo launches ‘Pride of India’ collaboration with Indian achievers

    NEW DELHI: Roposo launches the 'Pride of India' program, a collaboration with Indian achievers like Babita Phogat, Chandro Tomar, Neel Ghose and Sangram Singh. The multifaceted program recognises remarkable Indians by providing them with a platform to mentor and inspire fellow Indians.   

    India is a land of many talents. Many Indians have made it big in their chosen field and many more are waiting to be discovered. Roposo believes that each of us has an innate talent that needs a bit of inspiration and a platform to shine.  

    The inaugural phase of the program kickstarts with Babita Phogat, India's first gold medal winner in women's wrestling at the Commonwealth Games, Chandro Tomar aka Shooter Dadi, who at the age of 88 years is the oldest woman sharpshooter in the world, Sangram Singh, the world's best wrestler (as per World Wrestling Professionals), and Neel Ghose, whose Robin Hood Army is on a mission to feed 30 Million Citizens.  

    "Just like age has no bearing on my achievements, Roposo is an all-encompassing platform that doesn't differentiate across statures. I am happy to contribute to a platform that doesn’t put constraints on unlocking one’s full potential,” says Chandro Tomar.

    Each 'Pride of India' mentor will have a Roposo profile to share their experiences and life lessons with other aspiring Indians through innovative Roposo-styled short-video capsules.  

    The series will comprise:

    Chandro Tomar's life lessons around persistence, dedication and discipline [click here]
    Sangram Singh's tips on physical wellness [click here]
    Neel Ghose’s insights on providing meals for the less fortunate [click here]
    Babita Phogat's talk about self-defense techniques [releasing soon]

    "As the largest #MadeInIndia social video platform in the country, we have a great responsibility towards creating a platform rooted in Indian culture and ethos," said Glance CMO Bikash Chowdhury,  which owns Roposo. "With the Roposo Pride of India’ program, we hope to recognize Indians who have made the nation proud and contribute to the cause of nation-building by inspiring millions of Indians to realise their full potential."  

    "I'm really grateful to the Roposo team for providing this platform – the "pride" honestly belongs to every single Robin in the Robin Hood Army," said Neel Ghose. "We've done impact campaigns with Roposo over the years, so it's even more special coming from a team which obviously cares about building a better, more inclusive community and future." 

    Chandro Tomar, Neel Ghose, and Sangram Singh are already Roposo active, having garnered more than 25k followers within a day. Babita Phogat will be sharing her first message in the coming days.  

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  • Chinese app ban leads to higher uptake of Facebook, Instagram: Kantar

    Chinese app ban leads to higher uptake of Facebook, Instagram: Kantar

    KOLKATA: In the wake of the government of India banning 59 popular Chinese Apps, Kantar, has released insights on the impact of this ban on consumers’ digital behaviour. The ban came into effect from 29 June 2020. 

    The app-ban impacted platforms with a sizeable following. Given that users were spending hours every week across these platforms, one would have expected to see a dip in the overall time spent online once these platforms were no longer accessible. However, the average time-spent dropped only marginally (-6 per cent), indicating that consumers were switching over to rival platforms much faster than anticipated. 

    Instagram and Facebook saw an immediate increase in engagement. Avg. Time/Day on Instagram more than doubled (2.3X), and Facebook too saw a significant 35 per cent jump in time-spent on the platform with the bulk of this additional engagement being driven by smaller town consumers. Among the youth audience aged below 24 yrs, average time/day on Instagram grew by 35 per cent.

    Sharechat, India’s very own video sharing platform which focuses content around regional languages also witnessed a 2.5X increase in time spent. This has primarily been driven by the younger faction of internet audience (aged below 24 yrs). It has more than tripled (3.4X) its average time/day on Sharechat since the ban came into effect.

    The most impressive gain was seen on YouTube. Already the most popular digital video platform in the country, it saw a further 25 per cent increase in time-spent. Other players also enjoyed their fair share of the rise in engagement levels. Hotstar, India’s leading video OTT player saw its daily time spent grow by over 25 per cent. Time spent in the video OTT space grew by 40 per cent overall once the ban was imposed.

    Summarising the learnings, Kantar vice president (Insights) Akhil Almeida said, “Although consumers lost access to some of their favourite short-form video sharing apps, the bulk of consumers switched over to alternate platforms in an almost seamless manner. We saw that overall time-spent online was not as strongly impacted as one might have expected, given the size and scale of the affected platforms.” 

  • IPRS and Facebook sign music licensing deal

    IPRS and Facebook sign music licensing deal

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Performing Rights Society Limited announced today that it has reached an agreement with Facebook to license its music repertoire for video and other social experiences across Facebook and Instagram. People will now be able to choose music from the IPRS repertoire with hundreds and thousands of songs, to add in their own videos they share on Facebook and Instagram, as well as other social features like Music Stickers on Stories. Through this association, the artists/ members of IPRS would be able to get their music compositions out to millions of people in the country, as some of the largest and most thriving communities on Facebook and Instagram are here in India.

    The IPRS is a representative body of authors and owners, which include composers, lyricists, and owner publishers of music. The deal with Facebook will cover licensing and royalties whenever music represented by the IPRS is used on Facebook and Instagram. 

    Facebook India director and head of partnerships Manish Chopra commented, “Music plays an important role in India for sparking people’s creative expression. With this agreement, people will be able to access a wide variety of music and discover new scores from hundreds of authors and owners, across various genres in many Indian languages.” 

    Facebook director international music publishing Anjali Malhotra said, “We care deeply about enabling the music on our platform that is most important to people. IPRS plays an important role in that, given the meaningful repertoire of their songwriter, composer and publishing members. We continue to innovate with our music partners around the world to create new ways for people and musicians to tell their stories with music.”

    IPRS chairman Javed Akhtar said, “At the heart of music are the creators. The songwriters and the composers. IPRS is excited to create opportunities for our songwriters and composers for their use of works on Facebook and its platforms. The future is brighter when all industries work together and evolve the next phase of music usage together."

    IPRS CEO Rakesh Nigam said, “We are happy that Facebook and IPRS have concluded this deal. We are sure that this partnership will be very beneficial for all members of IPRS and Facebook. We are happy that more and more companies are respecting copyright and coming forth to seek proper licenses from IPRS."

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  • Twitter backs disaster preparedness efforts; launches a dedicated search prompt in India

    Twitter backs disaster preparedness efforts; launches a dedicated search prompt in India

    NEW DELHI: People come to Twitter first to learn about news and events unfolding in real-time, and the company is committed to ensuring that the information they receive is credible and authentic. To continue serving its purpose, Twitter India today launched a dedicated search prompt to help people stay updated with the latest information from authoritative sources around disaster relief and preparedness efforts.

    Every time someone searches for certain keywords associated with disaster relief, a prompt will direct them to the relevant information and sources of help available on Twitter. This is an expansion of Twitter’s #ThereIsHelp prompt, which was specifically put in place for the public to find clear, credible information focusing on disaster preparedness and emergencies. 

    Twitter has partnered with the National Disaster Response Force (@NDRFHQ) in India to expand its efforts towards handling disaster situations. The search prompt will be available on iOS, Android, and on mobile.twitter.com in India, in both English and Hindi languages.

    Shri SN Pradhan (@satyaprad1), Director General, National Disaster Response Force, said "While disasters both natural and manmade can undoubtedly cause widespread humanitarian havoc, open internet and social media can immensely benefit the ecosystem by enabling people to connect with each other and with government agencies. Twitter’s ability for facilitating real-time dialogue has ensured that crucial information about disaster affected areas flows seamlessly. Timely and reliable updates through Twitter can support the government in communicating to the people on rescue/relief services available to them and what they can do to receive it. Through the launch of this search prompt and our collaboration with Twitter, we are optimistic about bringing authentic and credible information to the fore to promote open public communication, in times when it is needed the most. This partnership will also strengthen NDRFs credo of आपदा सेवा सदैव सर्वदा – Disaster rescue related services everywhere in India & at all times.”

    The feature will be reviewed at regular intervals by the Twitter team to ensure that all related keywords generate the proactive search prompt. Some of the search keywords include:

    English: #cyclone, #DisasterRelief, #earthquake, #flood, #floods, #heavyrainfall, #hurricane, #Landslides, #NDMA, #NDRF, #rain, #rainfall, #SDRF, #storm, #thunderstorm, #tsunami, 

    Hindi: #आंधी, #आंधीतूफान, #आपदा, #एनडीआरएफ, #चक्रवात, #तूफान, #बाढ़, #बारिश, #भूकंप, #भूचाल, #भूस्खलन, #राज्यआपदाप्रतिक्रियाबल, #सुनामी, #राष्ट्रीयआपदाप्रतिक्रियाबल, #राष्ट्रीयआपदाप्रबंधनएजेंसी

    The search prompt will also generate a list of government agencies working towards Disaster Response and Relief in India, so people looking for support can easily identify and establish contact with credible authorities.

    Sharing her thoughts on this initiative, Mahima Kaul (@misskaul), Director, Public Policy, India and South Asia, Twitter, said, “At its core, Twitter is a real-time and modern version of a town square. These characteristics make Twitter a uniquely useful place for timely communication, and more so when a disaster strikes. Relief teams have time and again turned to Twitter to connect with the people on ground, and share real-time information on provision of aid, rescue operations and emergency resources. With the launch of this initiative, we are furthering our commitment to partner the citizens, civil society as well the government. The dedicated search prompt will ensure there is uninterrupted access to relevant and authoritative information, such as important updates on critical transit and utility outages, efforts to oversee crowd management, and establish direct access between the affected areas and the rescue teams.”

    During times of crisis and emergencies, Twitter’s live, open and public nature continue to be leveraged by NGOs, citizens, government agencies and the media to share and exchange information. In India, the usefulness of Twitter during disaster relief has come to light by its use during the Kerala Floods by @CMOKerala and last year during Mumbai Floods by @mybmc and most recently by @CMOfficeAssam as well as the citizen groups that organized themselves entirely on Twitter to help those affected on ground.

    How to search and find credible information around disaster management on Twitter

    On app

    Click on Explore tab

    Type and enter your disaster management-related keyword or query into the Search option on the top

    A prompt on ‘ThereIsHelp’ will appear – click on it to access credible information and facts on the issue

     On desktop

    Go to Home

    Type and enter your disaster management-related keyword or query into the Search option on the top Right

    A prompt on ‘ThereIsHelp will appear – click on it to access credible information and facts on the issue

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  • FLYX, a social network platform for personalised OTT content, raises $200K in pre-seed funding

    FLYX, a social network platform for personalised OTT content, raises $200K in pre-seed funding

    NEW DELHI: Delhi- and New York-based, FLYX, a first-of-its-kind social network platform for OTT content, announced that it has raised a pre-seed funding amounting to $200K by HNIs. The company will use the funds to accelerate product development and further expand services in India. 

    Founded by seasoned technologists Shashank and Mayank, FLYX is a streaming social network that helps users find recommended content to watch, on the back of a unique algorithm that aggregates reviews from friends, family and contacts across all major streaming platforms. The app is available for free download on both iOS and Android stores, and works across all streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Hulu, Google Play among others.

    The value that FLYX provides is reducing time in decision making, and being able to find positive reviews from your social network, aligned to personal taste. Just by logging in, users can see what their contacts have recommended, and make informed choices. Users can also create a unified cross-platform watch-list, and keep track of shows watched in a private “seen list.” The platform lets them cross-post on social media platforms including Instagram and Snapchat. An interactive platform, where users can engage with their followers through the private or group chat feature – FLYX also enables watching trailers, and exchanging notes and comments with followers about new and upcoming releases.

    “It’s fantastic to have the support of our investors as we look to grow and scale FLYX in India. We have seen encouraging growth over the last few months, and we consider this to be the right time to scale our operations, and to strengthen our position as the one-stop-shop for reviews, feedback and updates for all entertainment across major streaming platforms in India. Our immediate plan is to enhance our technology, add more streaming platforms and social networking platforms, to provide users a more comprehensive experience. We are thankful to our investors for the opportunity to tap into their capital, knowledge and network,” said FLYX CEO and co-founder Shashank Singh.  

    “Shashank and Mayank are two of the most impressive entrepreneurs and technologists I've come across. Their ability to identify a need in the marketplace and quickly adapt to consumers needs positions them beautifully in this constantly changing marketplace. With content consumption at an all time high, the need for a utility like FLYX is undeniable and I am supremely confident that Shashank and Mayank are the right founders to scale this business and take it to the next level,” said AIT Global Inc investor chairman and founder Raj Mishra.

    Key features

    What to watch: Use FLYX to know what friends and family are recommending and let them know what your favorites are.

    Discover trending and search: Be updated with what movies and shows are trending across various platforms. No need to Google anymore.

    Where to watch: Once you know what to watch, FLYX will help you know where to  watch. The platform is linked to 100+ streaming providers including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Hulu, iTunes, Quibi, Apple TV+, HBO, Google Play, Fandango, CBS, NBC, and many more.

    Create fun stories: Users can create new kinds of stories available only on FLYX. Stories can be about your favorite shows or you can ask questions, or let your friends know what you are watching. Post these fun stories to your Instagram and Snapchat too.

    Watch trailers:  One central place to see all trailers in a fun way and share trailers with your friends and also post on your social networks.

    Unified watch-list across platforms: FLYX you can create your watchlist on the go and add movies and shows in one central place regardless of where they are available.

    KPMG in its latest report, ‘Unravelling the digital video consumer’ estimated that India will have more than 500 million online video subscribers by FY 2023. This would make it the second-biggest market in the world after China. The report also highlights that Indians continue to love their movies and movie related content. Original content is also emerging in a big way with a reasonable preference by respondents as compared to the supply of original content on platforms currently.

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  • Google to broadcast edutainment series for SMBs on Doordarshan

    Google to broadcast edutainment series for SMBs on Doordarshan

    NEW DELHI: Google India country head and vice president Sanjay Gupta kicked off the Google for India event, today. He touched on topics about health, welfare and digital India. Gupta spoke about how Google has helped in connecting more people to India.

    The company also announced new initiatives as part of its ongoing efforts towards the response to the Covid2019 pandemic. Talking about the Covid2019 impact on small businesses and creating economic opportunity, Google GM and VP of payments and next billion users Caesar Sengupta said: "Now more than ever, to survive and grow, every Indian business must be a digital business. And we are investing in helping Indian businesses go digital and helping Indian workers learn, grow and find better jobs."

    He announced a new initiative with Prasar Bharati, launching an edutainment series on Doordarshan on how small businesses can adopt digital tools and adapt to the current situation, using examples of real-life Indian businesses.

    “We are investing in helping Indian businesses go digital and helping Indian workers learn, grow and find better jobs,” Gupta elaborated.

    “Digital revolution is redefining what's next and presents an opportunity to build the future of India. As a country, we have made tremendous progress in making the internet more accessible and affordable to people. India now has over 550 million active internet users with over 400 million users accessing the internet on a smartphone,” said Gupta.

    Connectivity and access provides a foundation for building products and services that are relevant and helpful. These products and services help solve some of the biggest challenges that our society faces like learning, education, jobs or payments. Solving these challenges has been a focus for Google in India, over the last several years, Gupta emphasised.

    At the sixth edition of Google for India, Gupta further stated that India has always been a strategic and important focus for Google. “Today, we are committing ourselves to partner deeply and support India in becoming a truly digital nation by making the internet helpful for a billion Indians and empowering India to become a leading digital economy,” he said.

    "Google Pay facilitated the transfer of more than Rs 120 crore through its platform to help the government during the pandemic,” he said, adding that digital payments have facilitated consumers to buy products online even during the lockdown. “With Google, small businesses have also managed to go online quickly and continue their business when physical distancing kept consumers away from stores.”

    Going forward, Sengupta also spoke about the spot platform on Google Pay, he shared that the Google Pay Nearby Stores Spot which was introduced in March this year to improve offline merchant discoverability and to help people find shops near them to see what essential food items are in stock, has been used by more than 2 million users. To support people who are looking for work he shared that the Job Spot on Google Pay now allows for remote interviews and remote work listings so that people who are unemployed can secure employment and income more quickly during the Covid2019 pandemic.

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  • Google pledges Rs 75,000 cr for Indian digital economy

    Google pledges Rs 75,000 cr for Indian digital economy

    NEW DELHI: Google has announced that it will invest around Rs 75,000 crore ($10 billion) in India over the next five to seven years. The announcement was made by Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

    “Google will do this as a mix of equity investments, partnerships and operational infrastructure in the ecosystem investments. Investments will focus on four areas: enabling affordable access to information to every Indian in their own language, building products and services that cater to India's needs, empower businesses to transform digitally and lastly leveraging technology and AI for social good in health, agriculture and education,” Pichai announced.

    “This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy," Pichai said during the annual 'Google for India' event.

    The CEO thanked prime minister Modi for the Digital India vision. He said, “Low-cost smartphones, affordable data, and world-class telecom infrastructure has helped digital India become a reality.”

    Pichai shared, “India is setting the global standards on how to digitise payments and now it’s helping us to build the global product. Our AI-powered Bolo app is another example of technology build specifically for Indian users. Today, Indians do not have to wait to use the latest technology any longer.”

    He also mentioned that the digitisation of small business has been a success story. Just four years ago, one-third of small businesses in India had an online presence, but today 26 million SMBs in India are searchable on Google platforms. 

    “Digitisation of SMBs has increased greatly in India; small businesses are now joining the formal economy by using digital payments. India’s digital economy is far from complete. There is still more work to do in order to make the internet affordable and useful for billions of Indians,” Pichai added.

    In the last year's summit, Google unveiled tokenised cards, an artificial intelligence lab in Bengaluru, BSNL partnership, Google Pay for Business app for merchants and expanded Indian language support across its products such as Google Assistant, Discover, Lens and Bolo. 

  • Instagram Reels and what it means for brands and content creators

    Instagram Reels and what it means for brands and content creators

    NEW DELHI: The ban on TikTok surely made a dent in influencer marketing since it wasn’t just a space for content creativity but also for brands to connect with audiences. This gave the opportunity for other homegrown brands to scale up. Meanwhile, Instagram introduced a new feature ‘Reels’, allowing users to record and share short videos, much like TikTok.

    The new feature proposed by Instagram allows users to create and share 15-second videos with camera effects, editing tools and music. There is also a handy timer and option to adjust the video’s speed. The tool which was rolled out last week has become a quite hit among influencers and celebrities and people are trying their hands on the new feature.

    However, there is a sharp distinction in where these apps were used dominantly. TikTok had a user base of 200 million in India, which was a massive user growth base, and it was highly popular in Tier II and Tier III markets, while Instagram is more widely used in metro and urban markets.

    The Marcom Avenue director Divanshi Gupta shares that influencer marketing will see a shift. “Users and content creators will try to find their comfortable space amidst the chaos. But, eventually, influencer marketing will find its balance as the latest feature gains traction from the right kind of target audience and brands.”

    Grapes Digital COO Shradha Agarwal explains, “With Reels, Instagram has sent a signal to the entire country that we have evolved from being aspirational to massy. They have combined Instagram music with Reels where you can look at the lyrics while selecting the song and then create snippets of videos to combine them. From a user perspective, it is easier for them as they don’t have to manage multiple social handles. Influencers have already moved to Instagram. The only challenge is that while some TikTokers had a huge following on Instagram as well others may have had just 3000 compared to millions on TikTok. So, the biggest challenge for these influencers will be to first grow their numbers and then get business from brands.”

    The ban on TikTok enabled many Indian apps like Chingari, Roposo, Mitron and others to provide similar user experience and engage the disgruntled content creators and consumers. When TikTok was banned, Roposo claimed to bag 22 million users in only 48 hours. Chingari reported that the app has garnered more than 16 million users in just 25 days. Mitron also stated that the brand has observed an 11x jump in daily traffic after the ban.

    However, the popularity of Instagram is huge and could have an edge over the competition. In fact, all these apps will have a tough fight attracting users towards them and gain a market share. This means that brands will have to also choose platforms.

    Gupta feels that brands should be where their audiences are. “In a country like India, where the population varies from A to Z, it is difficult to find a micro-targeted audience at one place or in a particular ecosystem, especially amongst the Indian apps. With the change in demographics, gender, income and other personal factors, the choices of people change and so, to say that brands should focus more on Indian apps is quite irrational.”

    Agarwal explains, “I don’t think we should focus on only Indian apps. What is the benefit of globalisation if we are not adoptive and competitive? I don’t disagree that we should be proud of using Indian brands but the country should be open to foreign brands which have an edge.”

    For homegrown apps, consumer acquisition and sustenance also remains a big challenge.

    Media Moments MD Sandeep Sreekumar says, “Instagram is undoubtedly the most preferred choice of brands and influencers alike. Thus, it will be quite natural and easy for both to leverage the power of Instagram and its latest feature. As far as Indian apps are considered, they are likely to face the rough waters ahead and it will be an uphill battle to fight against this social media behemoth.”

    In this situation, advertisers will also play a pertinent role because influencers or content creators are usually attracted to brand endorsements and paid partnerships.

    It would be interesting to see if Instagram Reels will manage to fill the void left by TikTok in India.

  • MX Player launches home-grown short-video app TakaTak

    MX Player launches home-grown short-video app TakaTak

    KOLKATA: It seems that with the sudden boom of short-video platforms, even streaming services providing premium original content are keen to take the lead while TikTok stays banned. With the Chinese app being blocked, it has created a huge void in the market and the latest player to enter is MX Player with MX TakaTak.

    "MX TakaTak is a short video community, made locally and especially by MX Media & Entertainment in India. On MX TakaTak, we provide rich video content and encourage creation full of imagination," reads the description on Google Play Store.

    MX TakaTak offers users real and fun videos that they can watch and share on social media. They can browse all types of videos, ranging from dialogue dubbing, comedy, gaming, DIY, food, sports, memes, and many more.

    It has entered the market at a moment when the anti-Chinese sentiment and also call for local apps rising. In its description, MX Player emphasises that it is grown “locally’. 

    With the MX TakaTak app, users can create short fun music videos on the go, dub their favourite movies dialogue, dance videos, and a lot more, and also share on Facebook, Whatsapp, and other social media platforms. They can edit videos using the app's editing features and share them directly.

  • Chinese apps saw drop in usage post Galwan; ban sealed fate: BARC-Nielsen

    Chinese apps saw drop in usage post Galwan; ban sealed fate: BARC-Nielsen

    NEW DELHI: India on 29 June banned 59 Chinese mobile applications amidst a border stand-off with its neighbouring country. The government cited national security for banning these apps and included popular apps like TikTok, SHAREiT, UC Browser and WeChat.

    According to the latest BARC Nielsen report, the weekly usage of Chinese apps by those having such apps installed on their phones decreased by five per cent to 77 per cent in the week ended 20 June , which further dropped to 76 per cent.

    The report said that the highest impact was among users in tier-I cities, and those aged between 15-24, adding that both the segments reported an 11 per cent drop in the percentage of users per week.

    Those who were visiting the app, did so fewer times in a day, it said, pointing to a 10 per cent decline in the average number of sessions to 5.4 per day for the week ended 27 June from 7.4 in the week ended 20 June.

    According to the data, males between the age of 15-24 led the reduction in the number of sessions as well, with an 18 per cent decline, while tier-II cities witnessed a 20 per cent decline.

    During the lockdown, the percentage of users per week had touched a peak of 80 per cent for the week ended 13 June and the average number of sessions had touched nearly eight per day, the report further said.