MxMIndia

Tag: Vuclip

  • The Bates-creative 'Kaafi Feels Bro!' campaign encapsulates the essence of the Viu brand

    Viu fires up OTT market with aggressive ad blitz

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vuclip has announced its first ever integrated brand marketing campaign for Viu – ‘Kaafi Feels Bro!’. The new campaign aims at building Viu, the OTT service available in 15 markets across Asia and the Middle East.

     

    Commenting on the launch of brand campaign, Shantanu Gangane, Head of Marketing, Viu India said: “At Viu, our endeavour is to offer great viewing experiences and riveting content with a dose of local flavors to our audiences. With compelling content that is bound to evoke various emotions from viewers, our first brand campaign is a reminder of the diverse genres, moving stories, interesting and original content available for our viewers on the platform. With the ‘Kaafi Feels Bro!’ campaign we aim to connect with our audience in their lingo, which to them signifies the range of exciting content.”

     

    Speaking on the brand campaign, Bates Chi & Partners India CEO VS Srikanth, said: “It was a great experience to co-create this communication with Viu and we look forward to many more such experiences. The collaborative effort of the Viu and Bates teams has led to this piece of communication; a perfect representation of youth and their viewing habits. We knew we had a winner when we first presented the line ‘Kaafi Feels bro.’ After much deliberation, testing and market research, here we are today. The rest, as they say, is history.”

     

    The 360-degree marketing campaign is being rolled out across TV, Print, OOH, radio and social platforms.The campaign has been created inHindi and Telugu.

     

  • Brings diverse experience across internet and mobile commerce, film and TV digital distribution and consumer software to enhance product offerings

    Vuclip appoints Nish Bhutani as Global Product Head

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vuclip has announced the appointment of Nish Bhutani as its Global Product Head. The appointment comes at a time when Vuclip is scaling up operations and expanding its global footprint in India, Southeast Asia, Middle East and Africa.

     

    In his new role, Bhutani will lead product innovation and operations to grow the monthly subscriber base, increase user traffic and build engagement with all Vuclip’s product offerings — including the leading premium OTT video on demand service Viu and on-demand video sites run in partnership with mobile carriers.

     

    Welcoming Bhutani to the Vuclip family, Arun Prakash, President & COO Vuclip said, “We are very excited to bring on-board Nish. His rich diversity of experience and leadership will propel us rapidly towards achieving our mission of entertaining a billion consumers through our services.”

     

    Speaking on his appointment, Bhutani added, “I believe that a product or service is a manifestation of a company’s culture. Vuclip’s offerings have been devised keeping every stakeholder in mind, but with the user at the center, and with unique perspective on emerging markets. I look forward to working with the team at Vuclip to make our products more relevant and meaningful to consumers in these markets.”

     

  • To Leverage the Ex-Yahoo! India Director's Experience in Mobile Internet and Indian Consumer Engagement for the Launch of New OTT Video Streaming Service in India

    Vuclip appoints Vishal Maheshwari to head India ops

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vishal Maheshwari

    Vuclip has announced the appointment of Vishal Maheshwari as the Country Manager in India. This comes at a time when Vuclip is on course to launch its new Over-The-Top (OTT) video streaming service in India.

     

    Vishal’s core responsibilities will include driving consumer adoption, engagement and monetization for this service in India through strategic partnerships, service innovation and consumer insights. He joins Vuclip with over fifteen years of leadership experience in the telecom and mobile internet space with organizations such as Yahoo! India and BPL Mobile, and ten years of product and brand management experience at Parle, Warner Lambert and SBI Cards.

     

    “We are excited for Indian consumers in 2016 to experience a whole new way of entertainment on the go and pleased to have Vishal come on-board to lead our OTT service in India,” said Arun Prakash, COO, Vuclip. “With India in digital overdrive, creative thinking, fleet-footedness and focused execution are required to win over consumers’ hearts, minds and devices. Vishal’s leadership, consumer centric thought process, passion for product and brand, and value creation for partners will lead Vuclip and this entire industry in India.”

     

    Vuclip has a free user base of 20 million and a paying subscriber base in excess of 5 million people in India. The imminent launch of its OTT video on demand (VOD) service is aimed to redefine the way entertainment is consumed in the country.

     

  • 67 per cent of respondents globally consider Mobile their primary entertainment viewing platform

    Mobile Videos emerging a hot favourite among mobile internet users in emerging markets

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vuclip has announced that 67 per cent of 12,000 global survey respondents prefer mobile as their primary method for watching their favorite movies, music videos, and TV shows. Overall, 81 per cent of survey respondents were from emerging markets of India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. This illustrates that mobile video popularity, in the emerging markets has moved beyond just a few early adopters and is fast becoming mainstream.

     

    Survey respondents in emerging markets showed an increased desire to pay for a better video experience, such as HD and unbuffered video content, and for payment to be through their mobile carriers.

     

    The overall global study results found that:

    :: 70 per cent of men and 56 per cent of women prefer to watch their favorite videos, TV shows, and movies on mobile; compared to 20 per cent of men and 29 per cent of women who still prefer their televisions

    :: 85 per cent of men and 75 per cent of women said they will increase the amount of time they watch videos on mobile in the future

    :: 73 per cent of men and 61 per cent of women said it is important that the video not buffer while they are watching it; with 54 per cent of men and 49 per cent of women saying they would pay to download videos just to avoid buffering

    :: 65 per cent of men and 54 per cent of women prefer to pay through their mobile carrier to purchase mobile videos; followed by credit/store payment and net banking payment, respectively

     

    “Mobile is fast becoming the medium of choice for consumers in emerging markets to watch their favorite music, movies and TV shows,” said Arun Prakash, COO of Vuclip. “It is only natural for consumers to expect an unbuffered viewing experience in their primary method of consumption, with relevant and high-definition content, and simplicity of payment methods. This expectation and need continues to inspire us as an industry leader to innovate in these areas. We see a strong and fast-growing mobile video economy in emerging markets where the entire ecosystem will come out a winner.”

     

    All of the statistics in this report were gathered via a global survey of more than 12,000 people predominantly from India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East conducted in October 2014. Users were provided with multiple-choice questions and had the option to opt out. No incentives were provided for responding.

     

  • Vuclip has announced the results of a study of Vuclip's user base conducted by leading global marketing and research firm

    Mobile phones a clear favourite for video consumption, notes Vuclip study

    By a correspondent

     

    Independent mobile video and media company Vuclip has announced the results of a study of Vuclip’s user base conducted by leading global marketing and research firm Millward Brown. The study revealed that Vuclip’s more than 20 million mobile video consumers in India are largely trending towards mobile devices as their go-to source for content with 81 per cent of metro and 87 per cent of non-metro survey participants identifying mobile phones as a preferred medium. Moreover, 80 per cent an overwhelming majority, of Vuclip’s consumers report watching videos on their mobile devices at least once every 2-3 days, with more than half opting to watch daily.

     

    The study polled over 500 respondents across numerous locales and demographics in India from the Vuclip user base. 58 per cent of the study participants were from metros; 42 per cent were from non-metros. The greatest number of respondents, 83 per cent came from the age group of 18-34, demonstrating tremendous affinity among youth audiences for the mobile medium.

     

    The mobile phone has emerged as a strong alternative to traditional entertainment media like television, as most of the Vuclip users surveyed regardless of region, watch videos from home (72 per cent). The most popular genres among participants were movies and music, though in non-metro areas, the popularity of TV shows and lifestyle entertainment videos spikes. It’s notable that there is a growing interest in longer videos on mobile, with most metro users (59 per cent) opting for videos over five minutes in length.

     

    The study notes that 2G internet connection is still the most widely used, making up 73 per cent of non-metro and 58 per cent of metro markets, although metro users report higher usage of 3G networks (24 per cent versus 19 per cent). Samsung and Nokia phones lead in both regions, with the former dominating metro areas and the latter favored among those polled in non-metro regions. In metros, 73 per cent of consumers spend over Rs. 4000 (approximately $65 US) for their device where-as in non-metro areas, 44 per cent of consumers favour phones priced less than Rs. 4000, explaining the dominance of Samsung and Nokia devices in metros and non-metros respectively.

     

    “The data speaks volumes for the fact that in a very short time, mobile phones have garnered undisputed dominance in terms of content consumption. For a majority of Indian consumers, it’s the only screen, and no doubt, the demand for mobile video will be pushed to new heights in the days to come,” said Vuclip COO Arun Prakash.

     

  • The session on ‘Monetization Opportunities in the Multiscreen World’ sought to throw light on how the ecosystem was witnessing an interesting shift in revenue-sharing models and how companies could monetize effectively during these challenging times

    #FF14 Day 2: Need to monetize big in a multi-platform era

    By A Correspondent

     

    There’s a lot that is being said on how the advent of technology has revolutionized the M&E ecosystem. With the emergence of newer technologies and players offering these services, it becomes a challenge to find a balance in providing technology with creativity and content. The session on ‘Monetization Opportunities in the Multiscreen World’ sought to throw light on how the ecosystem was witnessing an interesting shift in revenue-sharing models and how companies could monetize effectively during these challenging times.

     

    The panelists included Sam Balsara, Chairman & MD, Madison World; Satyan Gajwani, CEO, Times Internet Panel; Chakrapani Gollapali, General Manager, Consumer Channels Group, Microsoft India; Neeraj Roy, MD & CEO, Hungama Digital Media; Rishi Jaitly, India Market Director, Twitter; Nikhil Naik, Head – Director, Global Content and Distribution, Vuclip; Karan Bedi, Founder & CEO, Tutorific! and Ramki Sankaranarayanan, CEO, Prime Focus who moderated the session.

     

    Presenting an insightful outlook, Sam Balsara highlighted how the television and mobile will be the only two mediums that will continue to be dominant in the future and how the interplay between the two would result in positive growth of the industry. Balsara said that while television continued to find favour with advertisers, they were gradually waking up to the medium of digital as well. “But advertisers need to be flexible about how the viewer’s see their ads; not just on television but across multiple screens.”

     

    Cautioning the audience, Balsara expressed discontent on how the older norm of doing business was seeing a shift that was not healthy. “The older model of doing advertising was 50-50; half from subscription and half from advertisers. But that has changed of late with more revenues coming from advertisers allowing them to have a greater say in content. It is important that we move back to the old model of 50-50 so that equilibrium is maintained and focus around content remains intact.”

     

    According to Neeraj Roy, it is not true that monetization in India is not up to the mark. “Around Rs 1500-2000 crore is still being directed towards content and that was a very positive sign. But he expressed worry as he said that the monetization exercise was being limited to certain mediums only. The way out is to have a balance in the advertising-transaction ratio, said Roy. With the shift to 4G being imminent, Roy urged content providers to focus on providing content that is high on value as consumers will be willing to pay more provided they get quality content.

     

    Providing a synopsis of his company, Rishi Jaitly said that more than 25 million users use twitter to discover content. Jaitly said that if companies concentrated on investing in value then the monetization will actually go up. “The world today is becoming mobile-first, so content providers needs to work on providing content that is of context and relevant. As a network, our focus would continue to be on fueling public conversation across multiple platforms,” affirmed Jaitly.

     

    Highlighting the scope and challenges faced by his company, Satyan Gajwani said that it was great to see the digital ecosystem in India thriving but the challenge is in delivering content that is high-quality because at the end the customer is going to pay for it. Talking about the issue of piracy facing his portal gaana.com, Gajwani said that the only way to overcome that was by offering such high-value and widespread offering that the user will be forced to come back for anything and everything got to do with music. This will indirectly bring down the number of users going to pirated websites to seek such services.

     

  • Vuclip provides insights into key brand metrics for mobile beyond click-through-rates to help brands achieve engagement and attention, Millward Brown study results have shown

    Vuclip provides third party authentication with Millward Brown for mobile ad effectiveness metrics

    By A Correspondent

     

    Independent mobile video and media company Vuclip has announced that it now offers a solution to evaluate mobile campaign effectiveness. Vuclip has partnered with Millward Brown to give brand metrics that provide meaningful insights beyond click-through-rates. This enables brand advertisers to measure and optimize the brand metrics on mobile ad campaigns, allowing them to measure performance against their key marketing objectives and compare effectiveness against industry averages.

     

    Reaching 45 million monthly users on 5,500 different mobile handsets, Vuclip has an unparalleled, global consumer base. This critical mass, combined with Millward Brown’s independent survey capabilities and robust analytics, allows Vuclip to analyse six metrics: top-of-mind brand awareness, brand familiarity, mobile ad awareness, brand association, brand favourability and purchase intent.

     

    Vuclip and Millward Brown recently conducted an AdIndex Advertising Effectiveness Study to assess the success of a mobile video advertising campaign on behalf of one of India’s leading toothbrush brands. The study included respondents from the 18-45 years age groups, with 41 percent belonging to the 25-34 years of age category. Respondents were segregated into two groups, one of which was exposed to a banner brand ad, while the control group was not.

     

    Advertisements displayed on the Vuclip site generated favourable opinion among the online audience. Purchase intent towards the brand was significantly higher post campaign exposure. Brand favourability was 7.9 percent higher among the exposed group compared to the control group, while purchase intent went up by 11.1 percent.

     

    “Mobile technology has become a ubiquitous part of our lives. Anywhere in the world, consumers turn to their mobile device for instant news, videos and product information. While brands have recognized this shift from ‘prime time’ to ‘real time’ advertising, mobile metrics have not kept up with the changes. Click-through-rates reveal little about brand engagement or purchase intent,” said Meera Chopra, Global Head & Vice President, Ad Sales at Vuclip. “By partnering with Millward Brown we have found a way to successfully apply traditional TV and online metrics to mobile. This gives brands the opportunity to measure the impact of their mobile initiatives against their overall marketing goals.”

     

    Ritesh Dutt, Head Media Practice, India of Millward Brown commented, “As an industry leader, Vuclip is helping brands define success on the most important platform of our age – mobile. We are delighted that Vuclip has recognized our track record in mobile ad metrics and analysis. Through our partnership, we can help transform the way brands view mobile measurement and believe the impact will benefit the entire mobile ecosystem.”

     

  • Mr Prakash will lead strategy and execution for Vuclip, as well as manage all aspects of consumer interactions

    Arun Prakash appointed EVP of Vuclip

    By A Correspondent

     

    Independent mobile video and media company Vuclip has announced the addition of Arun Prakash as the company’s new Executive Vice President of Products, Content and Marketing. Mr Prakash will lead strategy and execution for Vuclip, as well as manage all aspects of consumer interactions.

     

    “We are very excited to have Arun on board. His experience in leading startups to help shape industries, achieve market leadership and realize financial growth in dynamic markets is a terrific asset,” said Nickhil Jakatdar, CEO of Vuclip. “Given the tremendous growth Vuclip has experienced over the past year, Arun will help us further expand our role as pioneers in the mobile media industry,” he added further.

     

    Prior to this role, Mr Prakash led marketing and products at YouSendIt and helped pioneer the company’s freemium business model to deliver outstanding financial success and user growth. Prior to that, he was the head of product development at Ketera Technologies where he was instrumental in developing the world’s first on-demand spend management solution. Previously, Arun oversaw products at Aspect Development, Inc. resulting in its acquisition by i2 Technologies for more than $9 billion.  He also founded and acts as CEO for Spozzle, an online community for US high school sports.

     

    “It takes a lot of sweat, blood and sacrifice to translate an idea into a high growth company, and I have deep respect for what Nickhil and the rest of the Vuclip team have accomplished. I am thrilled to join Vuclip during this exciting time of mobile media evolution. Vuclip is well positioned to define and lead the industry,” said Mr Prakash.

     

  • Vuclip has been selected to amplify the 'trendify' campaign for the Nokia Lumia 510 through more than 55 million video views

    Vuclip helps Nokia, Maxus trendify social media sharing

    By A Correspondent

     

    Independent mobile video and media company Vuclip has announced that it has been selected by Nokia and Maxus India to promote the much touted Trendify brand campaign for Nokia Lumia 510 on Vuclip’s mobile video portal and social networks. As many as 65 percent of Vuclip’s 14 million Indian users share videos primarily through Facebook and Twitter, making it the ideal platform to integrate Trendify and allow users to experience what Trendify means in the language of Nokia Lumia 510.

     

    Social users in general and the youth in particular are in the age of ‘discovery’ enabled by the proliferation of internet-enabled mobiles in India. Identifying this, Nokia, Maxus India and Vuclip have joined hands to empower the youth to discover and create new trends in time and spearhead innovative social media campaign on mobiles. As part of the product innovation involving a seamless integration with Vuclip, for the first time, the ‘Share’ button has been changed on a video portal to reflect the brand campaign. The ‘Share’ button for each video has temporarily been replaced with ‘Trendify’, encouraging users to now trend their videos directly on m.trendify.in at the click of a button, which in turn can be shared on Facebook, Twitter and other social sharing sites. More than 55 million videos on Vuclip are expected to be viewed in 2 weeks through this campaign. Besides its mobile portal, Vuclip has also integrated Trendify with its own social media properties to further amplify the campaign leading to virality, where it has extended Nokia’s opportunity for lucky users to win a Nokia Lumia 510.

     

    Viral Oza, Marketing Director, Nokia India said, “Through the Trendify campaign we wanted to connect to the urban youth on a platform and space that is relevant to them. The youth today are socially connected 24×7 and have their own take on life. They experiment to express their originality, creativity and individuality. Topics that trend affect their lives in a big way and is their tool to express themselves on the bigger stage. This was the genesis of the Trendify campaign. We believe that anyone can begin a trend by sharing, following, liking through social platforms. The Nokia Lumia 510 is designed to empower the Indian youth to start their own trends. By leveraging Vuclip, world’s leading mobile video platform, we wanted to bring the Indian youth even closer to the Trendify campaign. Creating trends requires a 360 degree approach, and with its exponential growth in India, leveraging entertainment snacking was a clear choice for us.”

     

    Unny Radhakrishnan, Digital Head (South Asia), Maxus India said, “Nokia wanted us to craft a campaign which exemplifies trendifying in the DNA of each of its core elements. Leading the curve in mobile video sharing, Vuclip fitted well with our strategy in helping us connect the Nokia “Trendify” campaign with millions of users in a fun sharing way almost instantly. One of the essential criteria that worked in their favour was that besides being a leader in mobile video sharing, their team was quick to internalize the core philosophy of our novel campaign, think out-of-the-box with creative application of technology, and adapt to make functional enhancements that added value to our campaign, instead of just cosmetic changes. Looking at the results, we are confident that this agile integration will help us optimally amplify the campaign across regions.”

     

    Commenting on the integration, Meera Chopra, Vice President – Head of Advertising Sales (APAC & ME), Vuclip said, “We are delighted that Vuclip has been chosen to showcase and integrate Trendify. This fun and path breaking campaign is yet another proof of how Vuclip is fast becoming an integral part of aggressive digital campaigns for leading brands like Nokia. In one of the most unique ways of perfect integration on the site, Vuclip has temporarily renamed the social Share link on all its videos as Trendify. This not only helps build a stronger brand recall but also builds a ‘cool quotient’ for the youth who now Trendifies, instead of just sharing.”

     

  • Popular mobile video platform Vuclip launches a mobile portal for women and promises a lot more for Indians on the go

    Vuclip wows women with video…on the go

     

    Text and Video by Shruti Pushkarna

     

    Mobile video portal Vuclip unveiled India’s first mobile video portal for women in New Delhi on July 11. The video portal for women, Mira!, is designed to appeal to the independent women of our times. Mira! draws content from around 30 content providers in India, as well as globally, to offer videos across a host of categories that interest women. The mobile portal will feature content relating to health, beauty, fashion, lifestyle, parenting, cookery, entertainment, astrology and much more.

     

    Launching the portal at the Press Club of India in New Delhi, Chief Guest Prof Kiran Walia, Delhi NCT’s women development minister, said: “Mobile phones are emerging as an economical tool for accelerating mass-scale development of women. Studies show that the mobile phone has helped women feel safer, more independent and connected, and has opened new professional avenues and income sources for women. As India’s first mobile video channel for women, I hope that this initiative will help boost mobile adoption among women, and will encourage the creation of more women-oriented mobile content.”

     

    Prof Kiran Walia, Delhi NCT’s women development minister, with a part of the the VuClip leadership team

    Vuclip also unveiled the findings of its global survey in which almost 40,000 women users participated from 176 countries, including nearly 13,000 women from India. The survey found that besides voice and text, 60 per cent of Indian women respondents use their handsets as a primary source of entertainment. As many as 80 per cent of the respondents reported steady increase in time spent on mobile-viewing. Besides movies and music, Indian women also loved watching TV soaps, funny videos, sports, news and celeb gossip on their mobile. Women between 18 to 35 years comprised 65 per cent of the Indian respondents, while 24 per cent were under 18 years and another 11 per cent were over 36 years.

     

    Commenting on the survey findings, Meera Chopra, Vice President-Advertising, Vuclip India, said: “Even as the adoption of mobile among women grows in India, it is encouraging to note that mobile is already becoming a woman’s preferred source for content. While 37 per cent women from India reported that they spend more than one hour daily on TV, print or radio media, a close 32 to per cent women reported that they spend over an hour to access mobile content every day.”

     

    Vuclip’s Global Vice President-Marketing, Judith Coley, said: “In contrast to the developed countries, internet in the developing world is arriving on phones before traditional computers. About 59 per cent of internet users in India get online via mobile phones. We hope that Mira! will help spark a revolution in the way women’s mobile content is perceived – by content providers, brands, and women themselves. Cisco predicts that mobile video will increase 25-fold to account for over 70 per cent of total mobile data traffic between 2011 and 2016.”

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biLDcqZ-TkY[/youtube]

    Speaking about the choice of the name for the portal, Ms Coley said, “Mira!’ in Latin is the root word for ‘wonderful’, while in Spanish, ‘Mira!’ means ‘look’. Mira! is also the name of a bright star. The Mira! Woman is busy, engaged, radiant and full of life. She wants to make the most of every moment, and when she takes a break, she turns to her mobile phone for entertainment, news and tips.”

     

    MxMIndia also spoke to Salman Hussain, Vice President- BD & MD (India & Middle East), Vuclip. In his conversation with MxMIndia, Mr Hussain talks about the genesis of Mira!, Vuclip’s content partnerships, the road ahead and more.

     

    Excerpts from the interview:

     

    How did Vuclip decide to come up with a women mobile channel? And why ‘Mira!’?

    Vuclip launched in India in 2008 and it’s a mobile video portal. We were trying to get people to watch the videos they wanted on their mobile phones and it’s primarily search-driven. What we saw happening over the past couple of years that we’ve been around was that there were a lot of topics that were being looked at which were women-oriented and that was the genesis for us to create a verticalized portal with women-oriented content on it. The precursor to that was a global survey we conducted, where about 40,000 women responded, out of which 13,000 were in India. We asked these women that if we set up something with the kind of content they are looking at, would that be of interest for you. So that was the genesis for it. And Mira, the name was an amalgamation of the different things it means in various languages.

     

    Have you partnered with a content provider for all the content on the mobile video portal?

    Absolutely. Vuclip in India works with almost 80 content partners. We work with the large movie production houses, someone like a UTV. Then we work with television channels like a NDTV. We also work with a lot of regional players, like MAA TV down in AP, we also work with quite a few local news channels as well.

     

    So what about the content on Mira…

    Mira sort of becomes a subset of what’s happening on Vuclip. If you look at the Mira portal, you will see there are various kinds of content available, like the traditional entertainment genre, there’s also news so somebody like an AP (Associated Press) becomes a partner for that.

     

    If you could also share some mobile viewing trends in India indicated in the survey conducted by Vuclip.

    Vuclip is doing more than 4 million video views a day in India. We have an audience of more than 10 million unique users that are coming on to Vuclip each month. To talk about the kind of categories that people are viewing, they range from the typical movie related content, astrology, cricket and so on. But that’s not the only thing people watch. For example, you’ll be surprised that one of the big things that people look at is animation and nursery rhymes.

     

    Are you looking to launch any other channels apart from this women’s channel?

    Yes, there is a huge roadmap we have in terms of content that’s coming up. It will cover all genres. So there’s sports, music, devotional, cricket, health. It’s always going to be an ongoing process.

     

    Is this going to be an Instagram for video?

    Not really, because Instagram looks more at user generated content. In this case, we are more search-oriented, where we are saying that there is some curated content that’s available. But I think we’ll sort of move towards that phase eventually because while it’s easier to do that for images, it’s a lot tougher to do the same for video. Right now there is a huge demand for watching video content. I think as the space evolves, since video is still very nascent in Indian market, we will see folks starting to generate more video content. And that’s when we will see a video for Instagram sort of thing happen.

     

    Is Vuclip only for airing proprietary content? Or is it also into social video sharing?

    You know social is a very large aspect of why Vuclip grew in the first place. So if I watched a video which I liked, the biggest advantage that Vuclip brought to the table was that I could just forward that very quickly via Facebook, or tweet it or sms it to my friend. So that virality is what helped us grow in India. An interesting stat I want to share, when Vuclip started, 65 per cent of views came from search. But in the last four years, more than 65 per cent views come from people sharing. And that’s been the trigger for our growth.

     

    What are the infrastructural obstacles that something like Vuclip faced in being able to deliver bandwith-heavy content quickly? And what are the ways in which you worked around them?

    That is our USP, that’s really what we brought to the table in the Indian context. We have our own proprietary technology, whereby we can take a video and in real time make it match the handset which is requesting for it. Today we support more than 5,000 different kinds of devices and that has been our biggest strength in India. We have grown with the growth of mobile internet in India. With the advent of 3G and 4G, I think it’s only going to help us grow in a much faster manner.

     

    Will Vuclip be open to partnering with niche content producers to create subject or domain-specific content channels like this women’s channel?

    Absolutely. We are seeing content providers in three categories right now. Someone like a UTV is a much more tech-savvy partner who knows internet and mobile, and already has curated content. So it’s easier for us to work with them. But if you look at more regional content players, that’s been our focus for the last one year. And as we talk to them, they have great aspiration in terms of going mobile but they don’t know how to. So we are working with them, educating them and trying to get them to edit and tag their clips. From our perspective, we are a great distribution partner for them.

     

    Do you have to partner with each carrier?

    Not for Vuclip itself because if you are able to go on to a rediff or a yahoo on your phone, you will be able to go to Vuclip, it’s an off-deck site. And it’s free to the consumers, so there’s no billing integration required. But we are aligned with all the major carriers in India and that’s because we believe that the more we get to know about the consumer, the better product we can offer. Similarly, it’s a two-way path for the carriers as well; we provide a lot of insight in terms of what the consumers are watching. We are also able to tailor the experience for individual carrier depending on the kind of networks they have and depending on the kind of regions their audience is in.

     

    And how is it in terms of revenues?

    We are looking at two revenue models. We are looking at advertising increasingly becoming a larger play for us. I think it’s still in the nascent stage. What we have also been able to establish in parallel is like a ‘freemium’ model, where we take a subset of the audience that comes to us and up sell them on some premium video content for which they explicitly pay, and we proactively push out that content to them on a daily basis.

     

  • Leading independent mobile video destination Vuclip is set to unveil India’s first mobile video portal, Mira!, this week

    And now a mobile video portal for women, Mira!

    From the MxM Infodesk

     

    Leading independent mobile video destination Vuclip will be launching India’s first mobile video portal, Mira!, this week. Set to be available on over 5500 different types of basic feature phones to advanced smart phones, Mira! will feature global and Indian mobile video content catering to a woman’s needs such as health, beauty, parenting, cookery, career and entertainment anywhere, anytime.

     

    Prof. Kiran Walia, Women Development Minister of Delhi will be chief guest and Vuclip global and India leadership will be in attendance. In India, Vuclip already has over 1.1 crore active monthly users, out of which about 15 lakh are women.

     

    Last month, Vuclip had announced the launch of Vuclip TV (available at http://tvshows.vuclip.com), which enable users to watch popular TV shows on their mobile phone. Initially, Vuclip TV is serving over 4000 video clips from various popular TV shows in Hindi, Telugu, English and other languages and new videos are being added regularly. Late last year, Vuclip had also launched India’s first independent mobile movie portal, Starlight Cinema (available at http://movies.vuclip.com), featuring over 9000 Bollywood and regional movie clips from over 350 popular movie titles including popular titles such as Rajneeti, Guzaarish, Once Upon a time in Mumbaai, 7 Khoon Maaf, I Hate Luv Storys, Sarkar, Family, Tees Maar Khan, Thank You, Barfee, and many more, along with clips of Hollywood movies like The Adventures of Tintin, The Awakening, Hugo and Tresspass. In its first 100 days itself, Vuclip Starlight Cinema had generated over 11 million video views from as many as 2 million movie-lovers.

     

    Vuclip also has a channel exclusively featuring South Indian movie clips including top-grosser blockbuster action comedy Dookudu, action film Oosaravelli, romantic action flick Dhada, romcom Mr Perfect, romantic drama Ye Maya Chesave, Panjaa, Sri Rama Rajyam; Sci-Fi 7 Aum Arivu, Poraali, Osthe and Mayakkam Enna amongst others.