“Content is King” was a phrase popularized by Bill Gates former Chairman & Chief Software Architect of Microsoft Corp. However, changing tastes of a billion citizens has led to the rise of local content becoming more important than ever.
India trials its neighbor China in the Internet Revolution by at least 5 years. Taking a leaf out of Chinese saga we know that Weibo & WeChat are playing ever-growing roles in the social aspects of people’s lives and empowering users to create their own content, which is seeing a rise of KOLs – Key Opinion Leaders. While the threshold for being an internet celebrity is low, the RoI for advertisers is potentially significant, as advertising is more personalized as KOLs develop loyal followings.
Rjio’s Product Managers are thinking way ahead of competition [Airtel, Vodafone, Idea] and are placing their bet on live streaming through the Jio Broadcast App which is likely to become more pronounced as brands start deciding on how to leverage the growing usage of social media. Furthermore, the emergence of new technologies, such as Virtual Reality /Augment Reality, could transform content and its consumption in future.
The Young India are not viewers of the Cable TV nor its predecessor Analog broadcasted TV (view content from broadcasters) but want entertainment on demand and on the go which is how TV will be categorized going forward. Jio is filling the content vacuum through all available options Acquisition of Content Companies / Partnerships with Content Owners and now Live Streaming Platform for aspiring celebrities.
Localized Social Media Gaining Traction in India
Social media needs to become more local and social in India. While Facebook, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are the key social media platforms in India currently, we believe the recent US$175mn funding round in Hike (a localmessaging app), which was led by Tencent, highlights that this area is beginning to gain traction. Also, social media apps may need to think of ways to attract and engage Young India and users from Tier 2 and below cities on such social media apps.
Social media should be at the core of the internet ecosystem with integrations with eCommerce, travel apps, music apps, etc. In India, the potential of social media remains untapped as yet, in our view thus this explains the bouquet of Jio Apps.