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Tag: MX TakaTak

  • MX TakaTak introduces Suresh Raina as influencer on platform

    MX TakaTak introduces Suresh Raina as influencer on platform

    Kolkata: MX TakaTak on-boarded famous cricketer Suresh Raina as an influencer on the platform. Raina’s association with MX TakaTak is expected to compel his audience to explore other facets to their cricketing hero that ensures their affection for him and the sport is not limited to the field.

    As a market leader in the short video category, the platform has built a large community of influencers across genres, and Suresh Raina’s on-boarding announcement comes immediately after Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli joined the MX Taka Tak platform. The social media intermediary is not only strategically diversifying its content but also strengthening its sport vertical.

    Raina said: “I believe the love for cricket is everlasting but I am now looking forward to showing my fans multiple facets of my personality beyond the (cricket) pitch. I am very excited to join MX TakaTak, this app is a fascinating place to share some personal moments from my life and engage with newer audiences.”

    Here’s a look at a video that he put up announcing his association with MX TakaTak.

    MX TakaTak is also one of the first short video platforms to host live sessions that enables content creators to reach out to a wider audience. Using this feature to its fullest, Suresh Raina will also go live on MX TakaTak on 30 May, in a session to be moderated by the popular sports anchor Jatin Sapru. The duo will cover a whole range of lesser known topics centred on Raina’s life, his love for music, tips and tweaks of his fitness regime with personal cricketing anecdotes.

  • How MX TakaTak plans to sustain its initial success

    How MX TakaTak plans to sustain its initial success

    KOLKATA: MX Player entered the short video race with the launch of MX TakaTak when the Indian audience was looking for a TikTok alternative. It was just one aspirant among a bunch of homegrown apps that were looking to fill the void created by the abrupt ban on Chinese-origin apps. These short form video platforms have been aggressive in customer acquisition but some of them clearly have emerged as leaders; MX TakaTak is one of them.

    It is comparatively easy to acquire a bunch of new users but much harder to retain them. The homegrown short video app is focusing on a couple of factors to hold on to the initial success; consumer experience, creation experience being key components of the strategy, said MX TakaTak business head Janhavi Parikh.

    “One is consumption experience on the platform, that is driven by content, content partnerships as well as the creators that we onboard. It is also driven by our ability to provide the right kind of recommendations to the users so that they get the content they are looking to consume. Those are two very big focus areas for us – building our content and continuing to improve our recommendation,” she elaborated.

    The platform is focusing on the right kind of tools, effects, filters, video editing capabilities to help create better content and retain top creators on the platform. Moreover, there is another segment of creators who are not professional, but just enjoy creating content. For the second segment, MX TakaTak is trying to build a product that can be used easily as the platform has a huge number of long-tail creators as well, Parikh added.

    A recent study by RedSeer Consulting had quantified the market leadership enjoyed by MX TakaTak. Interestingly, the report said the app leads in the net promoter score in the metro cities as opposed to the common notion that “I don’t think it is necessarily just metro cities, we have quite a wide audience” held by its peers.

    “Compared to some other players in the market, we are viewed as a good alternative or a good option because of the kind of content, creators we have onboarded so far,” Parikh remarked, further cementing the claim by adding that MX TakaTak has welcomed 11-12 influencers out of the top 20 former TikTok stars.

    The content they create sort of addresses the sensibility of the metro audience, she noted. In addition to that, the app has managed to create a high quality product from camera, effects, as well as overall user experience perspective which has played a critical role to attract those consumers.

    Is it helping the platform rope in premium brands? There are such brands carrying out campaign experiments on the platform but a number of long-tail of brands are also interested in working with MX TakaTak, Parikh claimed. “Because our audience is very large that cuts across all demographics. We have the premium brands on board with us because short video is such a high engagement platform but we also have other brands interested to work with us,” she stated. Nonetheless, it’s very early days for them from a monetisation perspective.

    Right now, most of the traction for MX TakaTak is coming from the Hindi-speaking market, followed by Maharashtra, Gujarat, South India. As part of its push into building regional content and diversity, the platform has started to focus and onboard creators in south India. However, 60-70 per cent focus is on Hindi content currently, followed by regional content.

    One of the major initiatives that has driven engagement for the app is the Famehouse property. The idea is to create a location where creators from different backgrounds, different stages in their career can come and collaborate, create very engaging content, detailed Parikh. This a very exciting proposition for creators as small-scale influencers get to meet some of the larger creators and learn from each other.

    “As long as we sort of focus on the user experience and keep creating a quality supply of content on the platform, make sure the environment is safe for users which we are doing through a variety of steps, there is a huge opportunity to grow,” Parikh signed off.

  • Will Indian short-video apps’ monetisation experiments pay off?

    Will Indian short-video apps’ monetisation experiments pay off?

    KOLKATA: The popularity of short snackable videos exploded in India with the advent of TikTok. While it was on the way to be the indisputable leader with top influencers, premium brands, and a growing number of users, geopolitical tension curtailed the dream journey. When several homegrown apps emerged to plug the market gap left by TikTok, many experts had been sceptical about their sustainability.

    However, these apps did not tank – in fact, the ‘Made in India’ apps collectively have managed to capture TikTok’s market share. These platforms have secured 97 per cent of the Chinese app’s users, a recent report from consulting firm ReedSeer suggested. However, the time spent reaching 55 per cent of what it was in June shows there are more opportunities to boost engagement. While many of these apps are raising funds, using the capital to scale up the operations, build robust technology, adding new features, they have started looking at monetisation potentials as well.

    Unleashing brand partnership opportunities

    One of the apps that have emerged as a leading player in the ecosystem is MX TakaTak, the short video arm of MX Player. “For short video platforms, there are a variety of monetisation opportunities available. One is obviously the ad-based model, where we sell inventory to different brands. We are not focusing on that too much at the moment,” MX TakaTak business head Janhavi Parikh said.

    For now, the platform’s primary focus is to work with brands to run branded hashtag challenges to drive engagement. “Although it’s in pretty early stages for us, a lot of brands are interested in doing this. But we are taking things slow. Branded challenges, influencer marketing are big opportunities to grow monetisation,” Parikh added.

    Chingari has also tried out hashtag challenges for brands that are very popular on the platform, co-founder & CEO Sumit Ghosh said. Brands can float a hashtag and then offer money to influencers, creators to create content for the brand. It’s a win-win for the brands and creators as brands pay the latter and the platform amplifies the brand. However, the app is overall not very bullish about direct advertisements as those disrupt the user experience, he noted.

    Another homegrown app Bolo Indya has partnered with brands to do content marketing using live streaming with creators where there could be a product positioning during the live stream or purely working with a brand for brand recall being the primary objective, Bolo Indya CEO and founder Varun Saxena shared.

    Expanding the role of social commerce

    Rather than depending only on advertisers, the apps are also coming up with innovative initiatives. Take for example Chingari – the app that’s dominating the vernacular markets is experimenting with several routes. “We will get into monetisation at a later stage but right now we are just testing certain methods,” Chingari’s Ghosh said.

     “We have recently produced video commerce technology where every video that gets uploaded to Chingari, you will see a shop button on the video, powered by AI & ML. Basically, what we are doing is finding out shoppable objects within the video and comparing with the live catalogue of Amazon and showing what products you can buy from Amazon,” he explained.

    The chosen model will impact revenue as well. For Bolo Indya, it will not be a backend set-up but will be launched under a partnership model with an e-commerce player. MX TakaTak has also been toying with the idea. Lifestyle content focused short video platform Trell also entered this segment at the beginning of this year, partnering with over 500 brands across makeup, personal care, health and wellness categories.

    Building consumer-creator direct engagement

    “I think everybody is trying to innovate revenue model, somebody is trying e-commerce model, somebody is going the advertisement way. Everybody has to find which model suits their product and how to benefit. The good part for us is we have seen a good trend in terms of users spending on the platform, not just time but some money since last quarter,” Mitron TV CEO and co-founder Shivank Agarwal previously said in an interview.

    The app, which recently celebrated its first anniversary, has opened up different monetisation opportunities. One such feature is Mitron Club, Through the Club, creators can churn out engaging content exclusively for users opting for the service. The Club members can also directly connect with creators to request to create content that they would like to watch. Consumers subscribe for Rs 99 per month to become a part of the entire ecosystem of the creator.

    In addition to that, it has unveiled an on-demand service wherein consumers can ask specific help of creators and they can create videos around the queries asked by the audience.

    Direct engagement between consumers and creators to drive monetisation is a key focus for Bolo Indya. On this app, content creators can create online services and post on the platform which are delivered on a real-time interactive basis to audiences through one-to-one, one-to-many live interactions, Bolo Indya’s Saxena said. This could be an astrologer conducting an astrology session with someone or a comic creator doing stand-up comedy show for a group of audiences on a pre-ticker basis. The app takes a platform fee and the rest of the share goes to creators.

    “Our application primarily revolves around the core of enabling the content creators to monetise their content. When we native them to monetise their content on the platform, we see a revenue share out of it,” Saxena stated.

    Another major mode of monetisation for the app is through live streaming. Any creator can go and live stream and people who are watching those live streams can send gifts to those creators. These gifts can be purchased by the audience paying real money on the platform, Saxena said. Whatever the value of the gifts end up being the earning of the content creators and the platform takes a revenue share out of it. Hence, the app highly relies on consumer microtransactions which start from as low as Rs 10 and goes up to Rs 5000.

    Tapping into booming ed-tech opportunities

    Interestingly, some of these platforms are looking at ed-tech as an opportunity to bring in money. Mitron Academy is one such initiative where the creators get an opportunity to share educational videos to help users learn from the platform. It has onboarded a number of experts on different topics.

    Chingari is also working on an edtech offering called ‘Chingari Skill’ which will be launched soon. Thanks to this product, any Chingari user will be able to sell their skills. According to Ghosh, it will leave a lot of scopes for users to create such content in vernacular language as most ed-tech content is either in English or in Hindi. Notably, a large part of Chingari’s user base comes from tier-3 and tier-4 cities.

    Future opportunities

    “We have few other revenue streams in the pipeline which include launching creator rooms where the creator can post social games live learning sessions around fitness, wellness, health etc on the platform for a closed room of the audience creating their own customisation by the platform,” Saxena said.

    While MX TakaTak is already doing live streaming, Parikh seems optimistic that there are a multitude of monetisation opportunities in live streaming over time. The bigger ones could be e-commerce as well as virtual gifting, all of which will be explored in near future.

    How far is profitability?

    As the platforms are trying to build sustainable revenue models, the question of when these models will turn profitable also arises. However, Chingari is not focusing on profitability at the moment and is devoting its energies to distribution, to reach the maximum numbers of users. Ghosh added that it may take two years down the line to become profitable.

    However, Bolo Indya’s Saxena claimed the platform is very close to breaking even at the current scale as well when it comes to the monetisation side. He expects the app to be profitable in the next 12-15 months.

    “If we look towards China, after the first few years, Kuaishou, as well as Douyin, have done phenomenally well because the growth has been so huge. With all of the different monetisation opportunities kicked in, it probably took three-four or even five-six years. If we follow that China model, revenue opportunity is huge and profitability follows definitely,” Parikh commented without revealing any timeline.

  • MX TakaTak & Nas Academy power Creator Fellowship Training Programme

    MX TakaTak & Nas Academy power Creator Fellowship Training Programme

    KOLKATA: MX TakaTak in collaboration with Nas Academy, has announced India’s first Creator Fellowship Training Programme, wherein 25 handpicked influencers will be trained to tell great stories and create high-quality content on-the-go. In this programme, selected applicants will get a chance to grasp the A-Z of content creation – be it scripting, shooting, editing and publishing.

    The platform has already emerged as a frontrunner in the short video space, encouraging the country’s innovative minds to create engaging, impactful and inspiring content on its platform.

    Nas Academy is a global online education platform for the Creator Economy. Founded by Nuseir Yassin (Nas Daily), with 35 million followers and seven billion plus views on the internet, it has a track record of identifying and mentoring aspiring creators across the world.

    The programme will include fellow meetings, weekly activities, contests, regular projects, training, feedback sessions, guidance on the management of social pages, 1:1 sessions from Nas Academy mentors and an opportunity to join the MX TakTak Influencer Programme.

    MX TakaTak business head Janhavi Parikh said, “Collaborating with the Nas Academy is a big opportunity that we as a homegrown platform can offer to aspiring Indian creators. The idea is to provide them exciting opportunities to grow and innovate along with newer ways of grooming themselves, and we think there is no better platform than Nas Academy for accomplishing this.”

    “Video is the future of storytelling, and content creators are the future media powerhouses. We are proud to partner with MX TakaTak launching India’s first creator fellowship training programme. We hope to empower individuals to become the next wave of content creators on one of India’s most popular social media platforms,” Nas Academy founder Nuseir Yassin said.

    Anyone can join India’s First Creator Fellowship Training Programme, where one can learn directly from amazing creators. The programme aims to help amateurs and budding content creators help find their voice and learn everything they need to get started. Applicants will be asked to submit a one-minute video of why they should be chosen for this programme, which will then be followed by a shortlisting process. 

  • Short video platforms rise with Bharat positioning

    Short video platforms rise with Bharat positioning

    KOLKATA: The star of user-generated content was on the rise in India due to TikTok, only to be abruptly curtailed when the government banned the Chinese-origin app. Now, nearly a year after TikTok’s exit, a number of homegrown short form video platforms have emerged to plug the gap. It seems that these apps have been able to capture the space well, as a report from RedSeer says they have retained 65-70 per cent of TikTok users.

    "Indian short form apps have been able to retain over 65-70 per cent of TikTok users, adding 30-35 per cent new users in the past year, essentially back to 97 per cent of the TikTok user base," the report said.

    The newly acquired “30-35 per cent users” have been reeled in through aggressive customer acquisition and marketing push by Indian short form video apps. The new users getting onboarded have a higher share of tier-2+ users driven by stronger focus of platforms on vernacular content and ‘Bharat’ positioning.

    A finding of the report that may give TikTok pause is that nearly 75 per cent of current short-form video users are likely to stick with these domestic apps and are unlikely to switch back to Chinese apps even if the ban was lifted.

    The short form industry has seen strong recovery with respect to both traffic and engagement. It has differentiated itself from other global social media and content through a strong ‘Bharat’ positioning and moving from the middle of the internet funnel towards the top.

    Time spent on short-form video has reached 55 per cent of June 2020, which indicates that Indian platforms are still maturing and there is a strong market opportunity, the report added. At present, daily active users spend close to 30 minutes on average on short-video apps.

    55 per cent users mention availability of regional vernacular content as the key reason for using those apps. 45 per cent users would like more professionally generated content. Live commerce and online education are prominent features in the user wish-list. However, 60 per cent users mention data privacy as the main challenge, while 50 per cent complained about streaming quality and unregulated content.

    Users and influencers are driving each other’s growth on the platforms. While influencer availability is the most important decision making factor for more than half of the users, large user base helps influencers to decide to choose the platform.

    “Moj has been a strong gainer across consumer and business metrics, as compared to the last quarter. The growth has been driven by regional language markets, especially in the southern states. On the other hand, Roposo has shown strong performance in tier-1 cities compared to the smaller ones. MX TakaTak leads in the net promoter score (NPS) in the metro cities. The platform has held challenges and hashtag events similar to TikTok, to gain market share,” the report detailed.

    Josh has fared higher on the NPS primarily on the back of increased satisfaction (47 per cent) of tier-2 users. On the other hand, Moj has performed well in the vernacular region, leading to best satisfaction (51 per cent) in tier-2+, and second best (38 per cent) in tier-1 cities.

    In metro and tier-1+ cities, MX TakaTak and Roposo are leading the pack. The former has secured the highest satisfaction (38 per cent) across the competition in metro cities and Roposo has done reasonably well in tier-1+ cities.

  • MX TakaTak hops on IPL bandwagon partnering with 7 teams

    MX TakaTak hops on IPL bandwagon partnering with 7 teams

    KOLKATA: Homegrown super app MX TakaTak has become the official short form video partner for seven Indian Premier League (IPL) teams – namely, Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad.

    The platform is now the home of all the fun and entertainment of cricket – from net practice to locker room discussions, quirky dance moves to interesting behind-the-scenes moments. You can catch your favourite cricketers share their candid instances and experiences off the pitch on their official team handles on MX TakaTak.

    Additionally, the app has kicked off the #KhelTakaTak challenge that allows its users to get up-close and personal with their cricket icons through a live meet-and-greet as well as the chance to win some exciting merchandise. As part of #KhelTakaTak, the platform will introduce weekly challenges like the #FanDanceMove where users can add cricketing moves to their dance videos, the #BatBalance that gets them to multitask keeping a bat on two fingers and the #BolCricket challenge where they complete the commentary in a given situation. Along with these, the #KhelTakaTak challenge enables users to use specifically curated stickers to support their teams along with their respective anthems.

    MX Player and MX TakaTak CEO Karan Bedi said, “Our aim has always been to entertain our diverse user base and through this innovative association, users will get a sneak peek into the fun side of cricket, the lives of their favourite teams and cricketers as well as a chance to participate in this year’s tournament fervour with our engaging #KhelTakaTak challenges.”

    Delhi Capitals CEO Vinod Bisht welcomed the partnership, saying it provides yet another way to reach out to fans and engage with them in new and creative ways.

  • MX TakaTak launches influencer collaborative space

    MX TakaTak launches influencer collaborative space

    KOLKATA: Short video apps have paved the way for millions of young content creators to grow into digital superstars. With its vision of nurturing such budding talent, leading short format video app MX TakaTak not only aims at giving young creators a platform to showcase their talent, but is also empowering them to make better content with the launch of MX TakaTak My Home. This first of its kind initiative in India is a content creator collective that will see some of the country’s finest talent come together week on week, to collaborate and help each other amass more followers. 

    My Home is a month-long activity that will see a fresh churn of content creation every day, with a dedicated team giving the KOLs all the professional support/assistance they require. Spread across entertainment hubs – Mumbai and Delhi, these two luxurious homes will host 15 audience favourites every week and these talented digital enthusiasts will be given the opportunity to innovate and create cool content.

    MX TakaTak business head Janhavi Parikh said, “My Home has been devised to offer our content creators an equal opportunity for growth. The doors of this house will be open for those creators who are passionate about their craft, who are consistent with their videos and those who want to pioneer change in digital content consumption. This house is about creating a collaborative environment  that encourages our digital enthusiasts to produce compelling content to entertain India.”

    Delhi My Home participant Faizal Siddiqui shared, “The concept of creating an engaging environment for creators to join forces and make fun content is a great thought, opportunities like these give rise to the greatest digital stars."

    Wish Rathod, yet another creator on the platform, said, “Creating a space like this is a very international concept and it’s great that MX TakaTak is doing so much to give creators like us a once in a lifetime chance such as this. You get to meet like-minded people, discuss ideas, ideologies and grow creatively, and that’s what I am looking forward to.”

    Some of the influencers who are a part of My Home Delhi include Oye Indori, Sofia Ansari, Wish Rathod, Mahira Khan, Deepak Joshi, Vishal Bhatt and Mihir Gupta, among others. 

  • MX TakaTak launches Fame House for top Indian influencers to create and collaborate

    MX TakaTak launches Fame House for top Indian influencers to create and collaborate

    KOLKATA: Short video app MX TakaTak is the new home for content creators across the country, with over 6 million digital influencers, and counting, under its umbrella. In order to nurture and give a platform to these talented digital enthusiasts, MX TakaTak has announced the first edition of MX TakaTak Fame House. It’s a one-of-a-kind platform wherein 15 leading Indian influencers are put under one roof in an exotic location and given an invite-only opportunity to reach millions of new fans daily.

    The influencers who made the cut for the maiden edition of Fame House include some of the biggest names like Nisha Gurgain, Lucky Dancer Lucky, Ashika Bhatia, Amulya Rattan, Ayush Yadav and Rush Twins, to name a few.

    Read more news on MX Player

    In a seven-day lockdown starting from 19-25 October in Goa, MX TakaTak Fame House will give these influencers the chance to create, collab and chill out together. Each of them will also receive professional guidance to turn their ideas into reality – be it hair, makeup, styling, cameras, equipment, or location. Each day will see a new theme with multiple tasks and all they need to do is innovate, create new content and see their following scale new heights – all the while having fun, of course!

    MX Player CEO Karan Bedi said, “Our aim has always been to bring alive the dream of fame, fandom and eventual fortune for our TakaTak family and with this edition of Fame House, we want to give them all the right tools to make it big. The concept is to create an easy-going, collaborative but exciting environment by bringing together an exclusive set of digital creators and giving them opportunities to bring out the best in them.”

    Viral TikToker Nisha Gurgain is excited to come on board with Fame House. She said: “Most of us have always aspired to be a star and with the Fame House, MX TakaTak is bringing us one step closer to our dream by hosting us in Goa and ensuring we are given every assistance to create some great content.”

    Artist and influencer Lucky Dancer added: “I think events like this challenge us to think outside the box and work on fresh concepts that can draw in more fans. I’m really looking forward to staying in the Fame House and creating videos that can go viral.”

  • MX Takatak onboards rapper Badshah

    MX Takatak onboards rapper Badshah

    KOLKATA: Studies show Indian millennials and Gen-Z consume video content far more than any other form of digital content on a daily basis and MX Player’s short-format video app – MX Takatak was launched to cater to this ever-growing segment of digital enthusiasts.

    The platform has witnessed tremendous growth, setting a new benchmark with its daily video views, growing from 0 to 1 billion+ only within a month of its existence and is home to the largest number of 1Mn+ digital influencers, who have chosen MX Takatak as their preferred platform of choice. Their community just got bigger with the addition of star Indian rapper and singer Badshah, who has also decided to join the MX Takatak family. 

    Read more stories on MX Player

    The ‘party anthem’ singer as termed by his fans, Badshah has delivered several chartbusters over the years and is lauded for his lyrics, slow rap and performing with Bollywood’s biggest celebrities. Speaking about this association, Badshah said, “Music and video are two very important aspects of what I do to bring a complete experience to the audience. My fans have always been top priority for me and MX Tatatak, I feel, allows me to directly reach out and interact with them even in the most remote corners of India. With all of us having limited movement/travel and with so much happening around the world, this is the best time to engage with fans by creating some fun, snackable content. I am looking forward to my short format video journey with MX Takatak”.

    MX Player CEO Karan Bedi elaborated saying, “We are proud and happy to welcome Badshah to the MX family. MX Takatak aims to provide the budding influencer talent pool a world class platform to showcase their art. And, who better than Badshah to inspire them to scale new heights like he has –  he’s innovative, creative and is an icon of pop culture in India today, which makes him the perfect fit to inspire our millions of content creators on MX Takatak as well as engage with his fans on our huge user base.”

    Read more stories on Karan Bedi

    MX TakaTak offers a wide variety of short-form content and creation tools like a well organised and exhaustive background music library, advanced beautification tools, new & innovative effects/filters, sound mixing, and voice over recording and much more to its digital superstars. Currently, it hosts digital influencers such as Gima Ashi, Ashika Bhatia, Rugees, Manjull Khattar, Khusi Punjaban, Mridul Madhlok and Ayush Yadav amongst others.

  • MX TakaTak touches 1 billion daily video views in 1 month

    MX TakaTak touches 1 billion daily video views in 1 month

    KOLKATA: Homegrown short video app MX TakaTak has clocked 15 mn+ video uploads and has set a new benchmark with its daily video views, growing from 0 to 1 billion+ only within a month of its existence. 

    MX Takatak, in this short span, has also garnered over 10million daily active users and 45mn monthly active users with the average time spent per user per day being 20 min per user, and generating daily 1 billion+ video views and 100+ video views per user. 

    MX Player COO Vivek Jain elaborated saying, “Be it nurturing the talent of the young influencers who are associated with us, curating personalized content buckets that millions of users are watching on the app or the advertisers who come onboard to reach out to segmented audiences – MX Takatak has something to offer everybody. We’re overwhelmed by the response the platform has received and we look forward to scaling new heights from here on.” 

    Currently, it hosts the largest number of 1Mn+ digital influencers including audience favourites such as Gima Ashi, Manjull Khattar, Somya Daundkar, Khusi Punjaban and Ayush Yadav who have all chosen to be a part of the app. Additionally, a lot of community influencers such as Neetu Bisht and Lakhan Pratap Singh have also joined the app. 

    The app enjoys a 4.1 Star Rating on Google Play and ranks number one in the top free apps category on iOS. It offers short-form content across genres such as Dialogue Dubbing, Comedy, Gaming, DIY, Food, Sports, Memes and many more.