Indian Digital Media Startups –The Unexplored Fertile Land

Recently, there was quite a stir in the Indian media world as media sensation Arnab Goswami left Times Now to kick-start his entrepreneurial venture. 

The Internet boom and widespread penetration of mobile including smartphones in the country have opened new doors of opportunity in the media space. There is immense scope with the adoption of digital technologies, big data, analytics, machine learning, AI, etc. No doubt, digital media has great potential today in the country.

Digital Journalism – Crowdsourced Communication? 

With growing discontent across the country regarding the authenticity of traditional media, digital means are gaining centerstage.

Digital methods including social media are becoming more lucrative as crowdsourced communication including people participation is turning into a reality. 

Legacy news media in both print and broadcast, are facing widespread concerns about being compromised for short-term profits, weak professional ethics, rampant editorialising, and conflicts of interest due to vested and political affiliations .

People want to explore new avenues for information, more so authentic data. My article in this context .

Well! It is indeed a ripe time for digital journalism start-ups in India to build and develop on the huge opportunity.

Based on content, distribution and funding, India is now home to for-profit content-based start-ups (the Quint and Scroll), profit aggregators with a greater emphasis on technology(Inshorts and DailyHunt) and non-profit content-based start-ups(The Wire and Khabar Lahairya). Even sites like Indiatimes.com and Rediff.com have millions of users.

Yet another digital media platform, ScoopWhoop began by producing social entertainment for Indian youth. It is now moving into general news, politics, and sports as well. Legacy news media titans like TOI, NDTV, and Dainik Bhaskar are also investing in digital operations. International publishers like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Huffington Post, and BuzzFeed have also tried to establish a presence in India. Local media startups most likely have home advantages of knowing the territory.Demand exists !

As reference price for news and media content is very low in India, the challenge lies in getting people to pay for digital news. Additionally, India does not have much of a tradition of domestic philanthropic support for news and media. 

Can Indian media start-ups win the war of comparatively low average revenue per user in terms of digital advertising?

The challenge lies in handling the take-off, which often requires a long and potentially expensive runway. Can ‘users first, profits later’ work for media start-ups?

Are media start-ups more often suited to people with strong media network leveraged for visibility and investment?

Can media startups compete with legacy traditional brands that move online?

Way Forward – Discovering X-Factor

Media landscape in India has plenty of room to grow. The real challenge lies in developing a clearly distinct niche in the Indian market. Developing new and interesting forms of content, audience reach, loyal customers, volume and advertising are critical for establishing a sustainable media business.

The need for disruptive innovation by digital media start-ups is even more important with constant evolution of the digital media ecosystem, including the rise of social media, mobile, smartphone and now online video. 

Can businesses find innovative ways to retain readers' attention?

Can late entrants figure out a new niche to target?

Can media sustain themselves on digital advertising or do they need to build multiple revenue streams?

There have been a few big wins in the international digital media landscape notable being when Huffington Post was acquired by AOL and the publication became a cornerstone of Verizon Communications's media strategy since it bought AOL. 

Continuous innovation to acquire, captivate and retain viewers and advertisers is the constant challenge of media business. Indian media startups may need to expand beyond content creation into distribution, analytics and other tools. Disruptive models focused on distributed content, messaging platforms, virtual and augmented reality can prove to be solutions. Additionally, local digital media start-ups , in Hindi and other local-languages need to be explored especially when it comes to original, on-the-ground reporting.  

The equation of how much money can be made with content versus how much it costs to produce that content, i.e the general unit economics of being a media company needs to shift in favour of media companies.

Can media startups become a lucrative option for investors and VCs? Will 2017 be the moonshot year for Indian media startups ?

Can Indian media startups innovate themselves to get the gravity defying momentum?