Deadly game of online mobile video streaming decoded!

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Deadly game of online mobile video streaming decoded! In line with global trends, Indian consumers are also taking to the consumption of content in the digital space. “Digital video space is the fastest growing sector, even within digital. It is growing faster than even eCommerce. The bull run that you had in eCommerce space, Expect the same bull run from 2015-2020,” said Puneet Johar, co-founder and CEO of To The New Ventures (TTNV), a digital services company. He gave us an insider view of the industry and also shared insights on the cut-throat battle that lies ahead for the online video streaming players. Tighten your seat belts before we take you in for a ride. .
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Numbers decoded

You can never understand an industry and its game better, unless you learn all the numbers associated with it by heart. Let’s take a look at the numbers that matter in the digital space.

Internet population: India added 43 million Internet users (20.5% growth) from October 2013 to September 2014 and total Internet users crossed 254 million out of which 235 million users accessed Internet through mobile devices.

Expenditure: The amount spent by an Internet user on an average on entertainment also increased by a whopping 34% from 2012 to 2014.

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How the netizens spend their time: In terms of media consumption, an average mobile Web user in India consumes 6.2 hours of media daily of which 21% of the time is spent on audio and video entertainment by youths.

Present Growth: Online video content space is growing at a pace of 70-80% YoY, in terms of consumption and revenue growth.

Future growth: Spending per month by users on digital media especially entertainment is expected to grow by 2.5 times by 2020.

The big hack code

On-demand entertainment services led by audio and video content are at the heart of digital space in India. While the evolution towards on-demand download and streaming of the content has just begun, a very promising ecosystem is already evolving as multiple players have launched their digital streaming platforms.

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“In the next 2-3 years online video consumption will become a mass consumption medium. It will definitely take shares from television which is expected to be a disproportionate share in the next five years. I think 20-25 per cent of television advertising money would move to mobile video or online video in the coming five years,” said Puneet.

One wouldn’t be surprised with the projections if one looks at the present numbers. The number of online video users crossed 200 million in 2014, an increase of more than 70% since 2011.

Major players

The space that was mainly dominated by established players like YouTube has seen an influx of other players who are bringing in innovation and support to the industry. There are mainly three buckets comprising the industry:

1. The established, pure digital video players like YouTube ;

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2. Users making their own content like Star and Zee who are television networks;

3. Innovative players like TTNV, who are coming up with innovation on the video space, like TTNV’s new app #fame which allows live mobile video streaming.

YouTube gets around 60 million unique visitors every month. About 63% of Indians using YouTube watch videos, and about half of them watch TV shows and film trailers.

The innovative players who are pioneering live streaming through their apps in India are growing at a fast pace too. Within 3 months of the launch TTNV, there has been over a million downloads, over 20,000 creators who are participating in the journey, over 250,000 registered users and more than 40,000 live videos have been created through this app.

VuClip report states that 80% of its consumers watch videos on their mobile devices at least once every 2-3 days with more than half opting to watch daily.

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Weapon of Death

Advertising is one the major factors which would be the major factor that will enable this industry to conquer TV. Digital ad market size in India is estimated to increase to Rs 354 billion by 2020.

The number of brands coming in to join this platform is an exponential growth. There are over 25 brands who are participating in content creation through #fame (TTNV’s initiative).

TTNV’s Puneet is expecting to grow up to 50 brands by the end of this year.

High-definition and ultra definition video content usage is the next major weapon which is expected to increase exponentially and its combined share is expected to be 21% of Internet video traffic in 2018, up from 4.5% in 2013.

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Challenges

Educating people about a new innovation is always the biggest challenge.

Infrastructure would be the next big challenge as providing Wi-Fi zone and upgrading from 3G to 4G would require immense infrastructure in which India is still lacking. More operators need to come into the game sooner.

Future

TTNV claims the gamification of app is going to be the next big thing in the online mobile video streaming industry. After entertainment, users spend maximum amount of their time in gaming. Once there is a gaming like experience between the app and the user, it would attract more audience.

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“The whole experience of the creator and the user will be gamified in the next 2 months. This will enhance the user experience hugely,” says the CEO of TTNV.

He added that localisation and social influence are going to be other two big drivers for the new players.

So,this is how the game would end with clearly one winner. We wait anxiously for the day when the gravestone would read R.I.P- our very own idiot box.

(Data and statistics source: Deloitte analysis; Digital Media: Rise of On-demand content)

Image credits: rysham