What makes this <keyword id="2494939" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="azhar-iqubal">Azhar Iqubal</keyword> unique? Well, it’s his honesty to his business. Founded four years back by three musketeers of the Indian Institute of Technology Azhar <keyword id="4899647" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="iqubal">Iqubal</keyword> (Delhi), Anunay Arunav (Delhi) and <keyword id="3252339" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="deepit-purkayastha">Deepit Purkayastha</keyword> (Kharagpur), Inshorts has sorted out the revenue model for itself. Four years since its inception, news aggregation start up <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=inshorts">Inshorts</a> has been christened as the country's highest rated news <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=apps">app</a> , awarded the 'Best Innovation App' by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) at the 6 th India Digital Awards while its founders bagged mentions at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=forbes">Forbes</a> India's '30 under 30 list of young achievers' and Fortune Magazine's coveted list of 40 under 40. The news aggregation app has about 8 million subscribers from a paltry 100,000 subscribers in December 2014. Till last year, the co-founders were not looking at monetization or actively working on revenue stream for a year. Things have changed now. According to Iqubal, “Inshorts has emerged as a go-to-platform for brands focusing on millennial marketing. Brands Across verticals are including in brand activation targeting millennials. Some of the major brands being - <keyword id="28251" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dell">Dell</keyword>, <keyword id="215177" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vivo">Vivo</keyword>, <keyword id="1731609" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Oppo">Oppo</keyword>, One Plus 5, <keyword id="13722" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lenovo">Lenovo</keyword> , <keyword id="43777" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Renault">Renault</keyword> , <keyword id="103029" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Maruti-Swift">Maruti Swift</keyword> , Kotak Mahindra, Polaroid etc.” Most users of Inshorts use smartphones priced over Rs 10,000, which make them good target for brands How will the money flow in? Inshorts has already partnered with a few top notch brands and branded content is what driving their coffers. The mantra of news in 60-words has appealed to the fan base whose morning routine now includes reading at least 10 news stories a day. This in return gives Inshorts a superb engagement on app. And that’s how Iqubal wants to thrive his business on. In an age of advertising as storytelling, it starts with deciding what stories to tell that are worthy of an audience’s time. Competition The news market is still emerging. While Iqubal admits of apps like Daily Hunt and UC News being direct competitor, he believes, what Inshorts does is unique in terms of shortening the news and feeding more content to a single user. Out of 200 stories uploaded every day, an user reads at least 20 stories all over the day. And with billions of page views (counted as one swipe per 60 –word story) every month, Inshorts has achieved a feat in the crowded market. Future Inshorts had raised $24 million from two rounds of fund raising, both led by Tiger Global. Now after offering English and Hindi, Inshorts wants to go <keyword id="6355055" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="USA">USA</keyword> or Singapore, which is again a matter of time.

This media start up has sorted out profitability from crisp content. Here's how

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/54312460.cms" /> “We take APPbert <keyword id="77977" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Einstein">Einstein</keyword> very seriously. *stern face*”, that’s what news content start up <keyword id="2976225" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Inshorts">Inshorts</keyword> tweeted to explain some serious bugs about some apps. Well, if that wasn’t self explanatory enough, Veet taking the laughter game to another level should. The day Obama defeated <keyword id="6434613" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bush">Bush</keyword> in the US presidential election in 2008, the hair removal <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Indian-start-ups-now-hiring-for-non-technical-roles/articleshow/50073782.cms">brand </a>published a punchy advertisement saying “Goodbye Bush’. Believe it or not, humour is going to take you a long way. That’s the trend to follow. Gone are the days when you took a full page in a leading newspaper and published an advertisement. In the digital age, the consumers have migrated to visually driven social media like Facebook, Twitter, <keyword id="819905" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Instagram">Instagram</keyword>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Indian-start-ups-now-hiring-for-non-technical-roles/articleshow/50073782.cms">Tumblr </a>and Snapchat. While this is true that the attention span has gone down, but there are so many ways of engrossing the consumer today. 
 
Marketers have taken recourse in humour. Even <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Indian-start-ups-now-hiring-for-non-technical-roles/articleshow/50073782.cms">Old Spice</a>, much famed for the vintage men’s grooming products are adding fresh laughter to their campaigns. They are simply going over the top to appeal to the millennial instead of our dads. 
 At Cannes, <keyword id="33542" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Burger-King">Burger King</keyword> had won Grand Prix for Media because unlike many others they had the audacity to introduce <keyword id="3021214" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="McWhopper">McWhopper</keyword> and write an open letter to rival <keyword id="14775" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="McDonalds">McDonalds</keyword> mentioning about the combination of big Mac and Whopper. 
 
With images and videos grabbing eyeballs on social media like nothing else, there are still a lot of experiments to be done. <keyword id="2494939" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Azhar-Iqubal">Azhar Iqubal</keyword>, CEO and co-founder, Inshorts was quick to comment, “…we try to keep things punny. Right from our name to even our app updates, we try to sprinkle a tad bit of punnery in our communication with our users … we also make sure to not take it overboard.” 
 
One thing to keep in mind, never interpret sense of humours as bloopers or just puns. It’s also your own gut to laugh at yourself. Sense of humour isn’t just laughing hard, it’s also smiling to yourself silently. Think of Paperboat. The kind of campaigns they create has nothing to do with the juices they produce. Still those nostalgia laden train journeys, rainy evenings, and sunny winter afternoons would surely make you smile. 
 
"The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Indian-start-ups-now-hiring-for-non-technical-roles/articleshow/50073782.cms">element of humour</a> has always been a key ingredient for any brand as it transcends the target group, age and gender divide,” said <keyword id="3648158" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="pawan-hora">Pawan Hora</keyword>, of a leading media consultancy firm. “It was not utilised to its core in the yesteryears with an exception being the 'Roshni deta bajaj' or 'ECE bulb jingle' but in today's scenario every brand, especially the start ups have realised its true potential and are using it as very potent tools to reach out to the end audience. It also has to do with the fact that today's generation uses a lot more humour in their daily lingo and a casual chit chat or a colloquial terminology has more chances of creating ripples in the mind set of an average consumer.” 
 
Also, amidst the clutter of so many brands, if played well, humour can make you stand out. A brilliant <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Indian-start-ups-now-hiring-for-non-technical-roles/articleshow/50073782.cms">case study</a> could be <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>. They created a lot of media buzz a few years back with getting kids to act as adults, exhibiting various story boards of human life and weaving the element of e-commerce in it that tickle the funny bone for almost anyone who saw these advertisements. 
 It registered well with the audience and got the creative agencies a lot of appreciation as well. Now, when the company is going through tough times viz-a-viz heightened competition from players like <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> and a depleting loyalty base, they have again gone back to the tried and tested formula of humour with a few different story boards and kids acting as adults. The rise of web based content platforms like TVF and <keyword id="1875393" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="AIB">AIB</keyword> and the kind of brand associations they draw also bear testimony to the fact. “Humour was, is and will be the best way to have that much needed recall value,” infers Hora.

​ How sense of humour is important to brand your start up?

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/51053978.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /> 
 
 
In barely three years of its existence, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=inshorts">Inshorts</a> has been christened as the country’s highest rated news <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=apps">app</a>, awarded the ‘Best Innovation App’ by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) at the 6th India Digital Awards while its founders bagged mentions at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=forbes">Forbes</a> India’s ‘30 under 30 list of young achievers’ and Fortune Magazine’s coveted list of 40 under 40. 
There’s more. 
 
Today, their app also has about 3 million subscribers from a paltry 100,000 subscribers in December 2014. 
 
One would assume that the three founders- all IIT dropouts would have accepted that they had finally arrived. 
 But, one chat with <keyword id="3252339" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Deepit-Purkayastha">Deepit Purkayastha</keyword>, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at <keyword id="2976225" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Inshorts">Inshorts</keyword> and you know that’s far from the truth. 
 For him and his two co-founders (<keyword id="2494939" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Azhar-Iqubal">Azhar Iqubal</keyword>, <keyword id="2940800" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Anunay-Pandey">Anunay Pandey</keyword>) the journey has just begun. 
 
At the onset, he seems determined to clear one obvious and over-asked question- Is Inshorts finally planning to focus on monetization? 
 
Purkayastha is quick to respond. “Unlike what has been reported, our team has no plans of monetization atleast for this year. Infact, we are not even actively working on a revenue stream right now,” he adds. 
 
<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/51053996.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /> 
What they are doing instead is approaching companies for content partnerships. “We are not charging these companies for the partnership. They give us the information and we go about condensing it into 60-word summaries. Based on our insight, we’re deciding which companies to approach and what information to ask from them.” 
 
When I prod him more regarding the lack of a business model or a revenue stream, he admits that it is not as much a priority for them. “See, we’re obviously working on a business model and figuring out which revenue stream works best for us from the two-three options at hand, but that is not something we’re obsessed or worrying our heads off. The way we see it, if people are spending time with our product, engaging on it- then monetizing it should not be one of the big challenges. It’s okay if we take our own sweet time to work around that,” he tells me. 
 
To ensure more and more people engage with their app, the team is pulling no stops. They recently launched their Hindi version, which targets the same demographic- i.e., people between the age of 18-45 years, but those who are more comfortable reading in Hindi. The reception has been encouraging to say the least with the Hindi version getting over 2 million screenviews. 
 
Another way they’ve ensured their product keeps evolving is by shying away from senior-level hires and instead hiring young people. 
According to Purkayastha, Inshorts looks for youngsters ‘whose capabilities are much more than what is expected out of them.’ 
 
This is also the reason why their Head of Technology is a 20-year old who joined Inshorts right after he completed his 12th. 
 
The conversation then naturally progresses to the rounds of funding received by Inshorts and all the eminent investors backing it. When asked about how the funds of their last round have been spent, Purkayastha says that the two main areas they’ve been spent on are Innovation, building the correct team and on the intelligence around the curation process, adding that ‘majority of the last funding is still in the bank.’ 
 
He then proceeds to explain how he doesn’t want Inshorts to be viewed as a news content app. “We wouldn’t call the three of us news junkies. However, all three of us are very obsessed with the way content is packaged and information is presented to the general public to digest. We feel there is a huge gap in that area- with regards to innovation and that is where we believe Inshorts steps in. Wikipedia is the single innovation in how content is packaged. Inshorts aims to be its successor,”he claims. 
 
Unable to help myself, I ask whether in the near future Inshorts would entertain the idea of people paying for the app and his reply comes even before I finish my question. 
 
“Inshorts is always going to be a free app,”

EXCLUSIVE: “Inshorts is not looking at monetization or actively working on revenue stream for a year,” says co-founder Deepit Purkayastha

'<keyword id="20653768" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="chefling" source="keywords">Chefling</keyword>', a unique do-it-yourself (DIY) kit that includes all the ingredients needed to make a tasty global recipe, has sealed a deal of Rs 40 lakh with four sharks on the business reality show '<keyword id="19913228" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shark-tank-india" source="keywords">Shark Tank India</keyword>' season 3. Hailing from Mumbai, the 25-year-old <keyword id="20649763" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rounit-gambhir" source="keywords">Rounit Gambhir</keyword>, founder of Chefling, introduced this innovative concept of, aiming to streamline the preparation of exotic cuisines. Seizing the opportunity during the lockdown, this young entrepreneur launched his product in Mumbai. Chefling seeks to offer individuals a personalised, cutting-edge gourmet experience that is not only enjoyable and delicious but also affordable. Rounit's vision is rooted in the desire to simplify the process of cooking fancy dishes for enthusiasts with time constraints. The types of DIY kits available are -- Japanese: Sushi and Mochi; Mexican: Enchilada and Taco; and Italian: Lasagna. Talking about his brand, Rounit said: "The company was started in August 2020, and we have sold more than 5,000 kits pan India till date. The kits are available on our own website." "The Indian DIY meal kit market size by the year 2025 will reach around Rs 8,000 crore, and we want the global cuisines to reach every household in India, and Indian cuisines to reach worldwide, so that their experience is economical, easy and sustainable," shared Rounit. He then made a pitch of Rs 40 lakh for 10 per cent equity. Anupam Mittal, the founder and CEO of Shaadi.com said: "Sushi was very good. Thank you for feeding us. The young pitcher further talked about his entrepreneurial journey. Fueled by the determination to rise above his father's company losses and bankruptcy, Rounit harnessed this setback as an opportunity in a market where culinary experimentation is a universal desire. Chefling emerged as the answer to the complexities faced by aspiring home chefs, making it a culinary haven that eliminates hassles and brings the joy of cooking straight to our homes. The compelling pitch and unique brand captured the attention of shark Namita Thapar, the executive director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd, who took on the challenge of crafting the perfect sushi roll on 'Shark Tank India 3'. And with that, 'Chefling' secured a deal with sharks Namita Thapar, Azhar Iqubal (Co-founder and CEO of Inshorts), Amit Jain (CEO and Co-founder of CarDekho Group), and <keyword id="20313422" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="peyush-bansal" source="keywords">Peyush Bansal</keyword> (Co-founder and CEO of Lenskart), at Rs 40 lakh for 16 per cent equity. Speaking about the experience on the show, Rounit shared: "Over the past three years, belief in connecting our unique idea with the right audience fueled our journey through highs and lows. This belief sustained us through challenges, leading to a pivotal moment when Shark Tank India expressed interest in featuring Chefling." 'Shark Tank India 3' is streaming on Sony LIV. SEE ALSO:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/google-pixel-8-pro-review/articleshow/107726935.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/google-pixel-8-pro-review/articleshow/107726935.cms" target="_blank">Pixel 8 Pro review: ‘Okay Google’ – The flagship smartphone ticks almost all boxes</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/poco-oneplus-top-indian-smartphone-shipment-growth-but-overall-reading-flat/articleshow/107681294.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/poco-oneplus-top-indian-smartphone-shipment-growth-but-overall-reading-flat/articleshow/107681294.cms" target="_blank">Poco, OnePlus top Indian smartphone shipment growth but overall reading flat</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/ola-electric-cuts-prices-of-scooters-to-compete-with-ice-two-wheelers/articleshow/107816897.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/ola-electric-cuts-prices-of-scooters-to-compete-with-ice-two-wheelers/articleshow/107816897.cms" target="_blank">Ola Electric cuts prices of scooters to compete with ICE two-wheelers</a>

A DIY cooking kit maker Chefling raises ₹40 lakhs from four 'sharks'

Short news aggregator Inshorts on Thursday said it has secured $60 million in funding from <keyword id="2603376" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vy-Capital">Vy Capital</keyword> with participation from existing investors. Inshorts, which also operates location-based social media platform Public, has raised $140 million in the last one year from investors including Addition, <keyword id="526777" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tiger-Global">Tiger Global</keyword>, <keyword id="857014" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="SIG">SIG</keyword>, A91 and <keyword id="7316344" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tanglin-Venture-Partners">Tanglin Venture Partners</keyword>. "The world is changing every minute, and each one of us has an inherent desire to remain updated about these changes. Both <keyword id="11645814" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="inshorts-app">Inshorts App</keyword> and Public App are aimed to help some of these people in their quest of keeping themselves informed," said Azhar Iqubal, Co-Founder and CEO. Inshorts has more than 10 million users on its platform. The app curates the most significant news items of the day, across categories like national, world, politics, business, sports, technology and entertainment, in just 60 words. Inshorts said it has more than 3 billion page views per month. "We are excited to partner with Azhar and team in their journey to build one of the largest content platforms out of India, running two market leading properties with a rapidly growing user base," said Vamsi Duvvuri, Partner, Vy Capital. The company launched Public app two years ago. The app has over 50 million active users and sees one million videos being created every month. It is available in all major languages including Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, <keyword id="62349" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Odia">Odia</keyword>, Assamese, Gujarati and Marathi. Public has amassed a large user base in the Tier 2, Tier 3 cities. Public earlier raised Rs 260 crore in funding led by Addition, along with SIG and Tanglin Venture Partners. It is a social network for hyper-local updates and happenings to hyper-local commerce, jobs, classifieds and more. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/windows-365-operating-system-can-be-accessed-from-an-android-device-mac-ipad-or-even-linux/articleshow/84436022.cms">Windows 365 lets you use the Windows operating system from any device, anywhere</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/twitter-says-goodbye-to-fleets-within-months-of-its-rollout/articleshow/84435334.cms">Twitter says goodbye to Fleets within months of its rollout</a>

News aggregation app Inshorts raises $60 million from Vy Capital and existing investors

Homegrown location-based social network <keyword id="9617663" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="public-app">Public App</keyword> has secured Rs 300 crore in <keyword id="6357455" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> from A91 Partners with participation from existing investors, the company announced on Wednesday. Launched by short news aggregator <keyword id="2976225" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Inshorts">Inshorts</keyword> in 2019, Public earlier raised Rs 260 crore in funding led by Addition, along with SIG and Tanglin Venture Partners six months ago. "With more than 50 million active users in India, we first aim to connect the hyper-local communities of Bharat and later make the product global," said Azhar Iqubal, Founder &amp; CEO, Public App. The company aims to utilise the funding towards rapid scaling up of tech infrastructure, content offerings and employee base to further speed up the growth and continue improving on retention and engagement. Public App is a social network for hyper-local updates and happenings to hyper-local commerce, jobs, classifieds and more. The app is already being used by over 50,000 elected officials, government authorities and citizen journalists to connect with their locality. Additionally, many local businesses have also started to use the app to reach their customers in the locality, the company said. "Public has continued to maintain best in class retention and engagement metrics while scaling. We look forward to working closely with the founders to help build an outstanding company," said Gautam Mago, General Partner at A91 Partners. Several brands such as GSK, Amazon and HDFC Bank have started to use Public as a medium to reach out to these audiences. "We are building customised ad solutions for brands to better engage with the audiences while keeping the user experience intact", said Iqubal. The app is available in several languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Assamese, Gujarati and Marathi.

Inshorts-backed social networking app Public raises ₹300 crore in latest funding

<ul><li>The ban on TikTok has helped many Indian video apps come to the forefront. </li><li>Homegrown app Public is now aiming to get 100 million+ users and be available in all Indian languages by the end of 2020. People use the app to raise and discuss their concerns with local authorities in video format. </li><li>Over 1000 politicians have joined the app like Hema Malini, Varun Dhawan, Kamal Nath, C.P. Joshi, Chandrabhan Singh, Bhopinder S Hooda, Deepender Singh Hooda, Om Prakash Dhankar, and Dr Alok Ranjan, to name a few. </li><li>Azhar Iqubal, Founder and CEO, Public shares his action plan with us, talks about evolving revenue model and what makes Public stand out in the clutter of video apps. </li></ul>Launched in April 2019, homegrown short-form video app Public has been on an exponential growth trajectory. Within six months of the launch, it became one of the fastest-growing Indian social apps and ranked 1 on Play store for providing local updates in a video format. After the whole boycott Chinese product sentiment emerged in June, Public saw its users sky-rocketing. It added 50 million plus users that month. While many TikTok-clones cropped up to eat into its space, Public claims to stand out in the clutter for offering informative videos through real-time updates, unlike TikTok which was an entertainment app. <keyword id="9617663" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="public-app">Public app</keyword> acts as a bridge between local authorities and common people. It allows its users to share their opinion on the status quo, ask questions directly to the concerned authority or raise a complaint against an issue they are facing in their city. Another thing that has helped Public stand out in the clutter is the brains behind it, Azhar Iqubal. He is well-known in the industry for another short-form news app, InShorts. He is now focusing on taking his short-form video app to the forefront and is aiming to get 100 million plus users by the end of 2020 and be available in all Indian languages. Telling us the reasons behind this success, Iqubal, Founder and CEO, Public said, “We attribute this success solely to our team for recognizing the gaps that existed in the social media space and offering a product that addresses it perfectly. Our past or future success has little to do with the ban of other apps as we are on track to reach the numbers irrespective.” Iqubal also said that the idea behind launching Public app was not to offer just any video-sharing platform ‘but one that makes a difference and helps people stay informed.’ Target Audience Public’s user base is a mix of diverse sets of audiences from metros and Tier III cities. It has about 5,000 influencers ranging from top politicians to local authorities to budding influencers. Indian Youth Congress, Hema Malini, Bhopinder S Hooda, Ranveer Brar and Sadhguru are some prominent public figures on the platform. “We have users in the biggest of metros to the remotest of cities, and Public app serves a completely different purpose for them, than entertainment focused apps – that is, to create and consume informative video content. Several of our users at local and national levels have emerged as influencers on the platform by providing content related to current affairs, politics, local updates, interesting facts and general knowledge,” shared Iqubal. On its way to monetisation The app has reached here mainly through word-of-mouth and on the back of the ‘Vocal for Local’ trend. It is now working on a way to launch non-intrusive ads on its platform like InShorts. “We have not yet started monetising Public, but it is on the charts and we are going to start soon through advertisements. Our major focus would be to deliver innovative and non-intrusive ad formats to users and the best in class UI experience. For advertisers, we are committed to providing a brand safe environment, quality content and reliable brand affinity uplift metrics. Once we start advertising on the platform, we will welcome like-minded brands who want to connect with influencers to reach out to consumers,” said Iqubal. Building user loyalty Iqubal isn’t worried about the ban lifting up and TikTok coming back. He believes in his product offering. “Creating and consuming informational content is a need that will continue as it is human nature to be inquisitive about our surroundings. With Public app, the sense of proximity is much higher amongst users, and therefore we expect the surge to continue. I am confident that users that are looking to consume, share credible and informative content will continue to stay on the app, despite any external factors,” said he.

Public app aims to get 100 million users by end of 2020 on the back of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat movement

<ul><li><keyword id="2690137" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lee-Fixel">Lee Fixel</keyword> is leading a $35 million round in <keyword id="2976225" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Inshorts">Inshorts</keyword> through his recently launched investment firm Addition. </li><li>Inshorts has raised the latest funding from Addition, SIG Global and Tanglin Venture Partners, and the investment is for their social media app – Public. </li><li>Public, available in various Indian languages offers its users content, updates on jobs, classifieds and more.</li></ul>Lee Fixel, the former <keyword id="526777" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tiger-Global">Tiger Global</keyword> executive, who has led some of the firm’s best bets, is back with an investment in India. Fixel is leading a $35 million round in Inshorts, according to an <a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/startups/lee-fixel-returns-to-india-makes-first-investment-from-new-fund-addition/78399638">ET report.</a> Fixel had invested in Inshorts in 2015 through Tiger Global. The latest investment comes from his newly launched fund Addition. Fixel has raised $1.3 billion for his fund Addition through which he will invest in multi-stage startups, he told <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2020/07/01/lee-fixel-raises-1-billion-fund-addition/#4683a62419a1">Forbes</a> in August. In India, Fixel is credited for Tiger Global’s biggest investment here – Flipkart and for being an investor who didn’t wait around to hand out cheques. Tiger Global made $3.5 billion from the Walmart-Flipkart deal. Inshorts funds will go to its social media app Public Inshorts has raised the latest funding from Addition, SIG Global and Tanglin Venture Partners, and the investment is for their social media app – Public. "With more than 50 million active users and over one million videos being created every month on the app, Public aims to connect the local communities of Bharat and become the one stop solution for all their local needs,” said Azhar Iqubal, Founder and CEO, <keyword id="9617663" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="public-app">Public App</keyword>. Public, available in Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Assamese, Gujarati and Marathi, offers its users content, updates on jobs, classifieds and more. "The plan is to utilise the funding towards rapid scaling up of tech infrastructure, content offerings and employee base to further speed up the growth and continue improving on retention and engagement," said the company. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/reliance-retail-seals-its-third-deal-this-month-general-atlantic-to-invest-3675-crore/articleshow/78397878.cms">Reliance Retail seals its third deal this month – General Atlantic to invest ₹3,675 crore</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/cams-ipo-shares-are-trading-at-over-25-premium-in-the-grey-market/articleshow/78400317.cms">CAMS to list tomorrow — trades at over 25% grey market premium despite volatile market conditions</a>

Lee Fixel’s India comeback – former Tiger Global head leads a $35 million round in Inshorts for its social media app Public

New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) The ban on 59 Chinese apps has given homegrown app developers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create world-class products across chat, short videos, and photo/video sharing segments and led by ShareChat, desi apps are now scouting for fresh finds to invest intelligently into scaling their platforms and handle the upcoming rush. In a country where nearly 300 million people are on Facebook, another 400 million on WhatsApp and over 120 million on Chinese app TikTok -- not to forget the millions who are hooked to Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat -- there has not been a single social media platform to date with its roots in India that has created headlines globally. The time is ripe to rise to the occasion and show that Indian programmers can build top-notch social media apps right here, without going to the US or other countries. The regional language social media platform ShareChat is changing the way in which the next billion users will interact on the internet. With over 1 billion monthly Whatsapp shares, users spend more than 25 minutes daily on the platform. ShareChat has a user base of over 60 million monthly active users spread across the country and available in 15 languages including Hindi, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Odia, Kannada, Assamese, Haryanvi, Rajasthani, Bhojpuri and Urdu. The Bengaluru-based regional language social platform has become so popular that even Twitter came onboard when the four-year-old company raised $100 million in its Series D round of funding last year. "ShareChat is silently leading a social media revolution with a strong focus on regional outreach keeping its Bharat connect pristine," said Berges Y Malu, Director, Public Policy, ShareChat. "We welcome the move from the government against platforms that have had serious privacy, cyber security and national security risks. We expect the government to continue their support for the Indian startup ecosystem," Malu added in a statement. Public is a video-only social platform and has already registered 50 million users, with more than one million videos being created every month. According to Azhar Iqubal, Founder and CEO of Public, we have immense talent and resources in India and the vacuum created by this ban is a great opportunity for Indian app makers to launch products that have the potential to do well globally. "It will also make users more vigilant in checking what permissions they have given to apps as smartphones store sensitive information," said Iqubal. Public is currently available in five Indian languages: Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil and Telugu, and aims to have over 100 million users by the end of the year. Roposo is another leading homegrown short-video making app with more than 65 million downloads in the country. TikTok users, including influencers with huge fan followings, have started switching to Roposo in large numbers after the ban. "We have built Roposo as a clean and ethical platform. The unique idea of channels in Roposo provides every talented Indian with an opportunity to grow rapidly," said Mayank Bhangadia, co-founder of Roposo. Indians have rushed to download social app Chingari, a desi alternative to Chinese TikTok, which is witnessing nearly 1 lakh downloads and over 2 million views per hour since the government banned 59 Chinese apps over national security concerns. Already downloaded over 3 million times, the app which was founded by Bengaluru-based programmers Biswatma Nayak and Siddharth Gautam last year, was trending at the top spot on Google Play Store. "As Chingari is setting new benchmarks, a lot of investors are showing interest in our app. We are holding crucial discussions to get a good investor(s) on board so as to scale up our free-of-cost social platform," informed Nayak. Launched in October 2017, Khabri is another fastest-growing digital audio platform providing content in the regional language. "We urge Indian corporate leaders to come forward and reclaim the country's business ecosystem and consumers through supporting/investing in Indian startups," said Sandeep Singh, co-founder and president, Khabri. "Since the word spread that Indians now have a homegrown and more entertaining alternative to TikTok, we have been recording traffic beyond expectations on our app," said Nayak. Lifestyle community commerce platform Trell has witnessed more than 1 million downloads after India banned Chinese apps. With over 30 million downloads and 9 million monthly active users on its app, Trell has witnessed a 25 times growth within one year. "We welcome all the Tiktok and Chinese apps content creators with open arms to come and engage on Trell. As the largest Indian lifestyle social app, we will continue to ensure that the privacy and data of users will be protected," said Pulkit Agarwal, Co-Founder, Trell. --IANS na/in

Homegrown social media apps turn restless for big leap

<ul><li><keyword id="1004414" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Social-media-apps">Social media apps</keyword> kept us together, even from miles apart, in 2020. </li><li>It will continue to play an important role in our lives in 2021 and beyond. </li><li>So, from our trends series today, we look back at 2020 and bring you some of the biggest <keyword id="1965440" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Social-media-trends">social media trends</keyword> for the year 2021. </li></ul>Ever wondered how difficult 2020 would have been without technology and social media apps? We would have spent hours playing the snake game on Nokia, stared at the ceiling roof and probably played Dumb Charades with our neighbours. Social media apps made surviving 2020 a little easier for us. While distance apart, it kept us together with our loved ones. We experimented with virtual dining, watched movies together over Zoom calls with our friends and even attended virtual birthday parties. If it wasn’t for YouTube, we have no idea how we would have looked up recipes. Brands also followed the consumers and relied on social media apps to lure them and stay connected. Social media has never been more powerful as a marketing tool as it is today. According to Socialbakers, brands dramatically increased their investment on social media advertising in 2020. At its peak in Q4, worldwide ad spend increased by 50.3% compared to the holiday peak in Q4 2019. Video posts on Twitter jumped by 26.7% in Q4. Video accounted for 17.9% of all posts on Instagram, and 18.1% of all posts on Facebook, in Q4 2020. In terms of format, Facebook Live was by far the most engaging type of post on that platform in Q4 2020. Statista predicts that one of the main trends within Social Media Advertising is monetization of social networks and messenger apps. The integration of shopping and payment solutions into social networks combined with exact localisation will increase user engagement, conversions, and performance of advanced targeting. Besides the growth potential in the field of social networks, an integration or proliferation of advertising spaces within messenger apps such as WhatsApp or Instagram will rapidly increase the revenue potential of current market key players like Facebook. So, as we move forward in 2021, what kind of role will social media play in our lives and what would be some of the marketing trends that would continue to penetrate in 2021? Here are some key trends, according to experts, to look forward to: <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Kanika Mittal, Business Head, Twitter India:" text="Kanika Mittal, Business Head, Twitter India:">Kanika Mittal, Business Head, <keyword id="749437" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Twitter-India">Twitter India</keyword>:</cmsannotation> In 2020, with more people than ever on the Internet, Twitter saw the emergence of many new conversations and trends. We saw a number of interests gain popularity including hobbies like gaming, fitness, cooking, animal-Twitter, etc. These new conversations have uncovered opportunities for brands to take consumer engagement a step ahead by connecting around these themes that are fresh and relevant. We've worked with brands, and witnessed them be more open to experimentation and innovation in order to reach consumers where they are -- their homes and their timelines. We've also seen several businesses stand up and make a statement in these tough times. Bold and thoughtful innovation has emerged as a prevalent trend this year, and we foresee that continuing in the coming year too as businesses test and learn to adapt to these waves of change. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Durgesh Kaushik, Head - Market Development, Snap inc, India:" text="Durgesh Kaushik, Head - Market Development, Snap inc, India:">Durgesh Kaushik, Head - Market Development, Snap inc, India: </cmsannotation> A trend we’ve seen accelerate in 2020 is the importance of visual communication and how platforms like ours can help empower it. Globally, we saw an average of 4 billion snaps created every day in the first quarter of the year. Our Friendship Report showed that 91% of Indians - regardless of age - felt like digital communication helped them maintain their friendships during isolation. For example, we normally gather together to celebrate festivals, but were unable to do that this year. Through AR on <keyword id="6358096" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="snapchat">Snapchat</keyword>, we’ve helped Indians across the country celebrate over 20 cultural moments with friends. We believe Snapchat is a complement to real friendships and are grateful to be able to serve our community at such a moment in time. As we have continued to invest in our camera and augmented reality platforms, we have been able to see the power and potential of this technology when it is accessible to everyone. From our Lensathon in partnership with Skillenza where 70% of submittants said they had no prior AR or 3D design skills, to a university student who created a Lens which went viral in India and across Southeast Asia, garnering billions of views on Snapchat. AR provides a unique opportunity to build the creative digital skills that we believe - and already see - are vital to the new digital economy.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Azhar Iqubal, Founder and CEO, Public App and InShorts:" text="Azhar Iqubal, Founder and CEO, Public App and InShorts:">Azhar Iqubal, Founder and CEO, Public App and InShorts:</cmsannotation> 2020 was a high decibel year unlike any for our sector. On one hand, social media apps saw an unprecedented surge in user base, fuelled by the lockdown. On the other, our sector received backlash for circulation of unverified content. The government has done a commendable job by introducing guidelines to curb misinformation and create an enabling environment for homegrown apps to thrive responsibly. The digital content consumption habits formed during the lockdown will continue to drive growth for the sector in the new year, and I foresee fresh infusion of funds and talent to sustain this progress. At the same time, there will a far greater responsibility on us to prove that social media apps can serve as credible sources of information in addition to connecting users and communities. We have recently raised funding for the Public app and hired over 300 employees in 2020 to bolster our expansion plans in the coming year. We will continue investing in people and technologies like AI and ML for content monitoring and personalization as per user interest. We plan to hire an additional 300 employees and will start monetizing the app to make it self-sustaining. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Kyle Fernandes, CEO &amp; Co-Founder of MemeChat:" text="Kyle Fernandes, CEO &amp; Co-Founder of MemeChat:">Kyle Fernandes, CEO &amp; Co-Founder of MemeChat: </cmsannotation> 2020 was a unique year where digital-first companies were offered a chance to make a real impact. At MemeChat we saw tremendous growth with our user base multiplying in just a few months. It has been an eventful year where we have made decisive steps towards our long-term plan of working towards expanding our user-base while working on more innovative technologies. In 2021, we are hoping to keep pushing on our growth accelerator. We will see more participation by users in terms of viewership and meme creation. As a means of marketing and advertising, we will see memes going mainstream. 2021 will be the year meme marketing will come of age as more and more brands use it for their promotional activities.

Social Media Platforms: The trends to watch out for in 2021

<ul><li>InShorts, that started with a simple idea of summarizing news in 60 words, has now achieved a revenue run rate of $10 million per annum in FY19 and is aiming to double the figure this year. </li><li>InShorts has more than 300 advertisers and adds around 10 new advertisers every month. Its clientele list includes global <keyword id="31174" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="brands">brands</keyword> like Vodafone, OnePlus, Mercedez, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Myntra, among others. </li><li>The last big brand to leverage InShorts’ branded content was Netflix for 13 Reasons Why, Ghoul, Narcos</li></ul> It was in 2013 when Azhar Iqubal, Anunay Arunav of IIT Delhi, and Deepit Purkayastha of IIT Kharagpur came up with the idea of curating the most significant news items of the day and serving them in 60-word summaries. This was later tested on a Facebook page which quickly got the reader’s attention and within a few months, the team launched a mobile app called ‘News in Shorts.’ Cut to now, InShorts has around 300 advertisers investing on their platform and around 10 new advertisers come on board every month. The first brand to advertise on its platform was Airtel and now its clientele includes global brands like Vodafone, OnePlus, Mercedez, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Myntra. “We have done multiple campaigns with Netflix for their web series like Narcos, 13 Reasons Why, The Umbrella Academy, and Ghoul. For Amazon Prime, we have done a campaign around Oscar-nominated sci-fi movie - Ready Player One, a Comedy-drama series - Whiskey Cavalier and many more. We have also partnered with brands like Toyota, Levis, etc, in the past,” shares <keyword id="38485" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tarun-Arora">Tarun Arora</keyword>, CMO, Inshorts. InShorts has achieved a revenue run rate of $10 million per annum in FY19 and is aiming to double it this year. It further aims to increase its user base by 3X in three years from its current user base of 10 million people on the back of its unique advertising model. It targets the smartphone generation who are short on time and want to stay updated with the current affairs. Hence, the majority of readers are from metros and Tier I cities. It gets 38% of traction from the age group of 18-24 and 40% of its users are in the age group of 24 - 35 years. Advertising Model It was InShorts’ advertising model that became a hit in a few years and helped it become operationally profitable in 2017. On the other hand, Circa, a short-form content portal, failed to monetize its platform despite raising $5.7 million. Inshorts pioneered the concept of short-form branded content on its app, which is the driving wheel for its growth and profitability. Arora says a few more content platforms followed their suit later. Currently, the platform has non-intrusive ads, broadly divided into six categories -- out of which ‘60 words branded story’ is the most preferred one. Whereas the most engaging formats are ‘Digital Magazines’ and ‘Fact Cards’; the former is a mix of creatives with gifs, videos, and polls and latter is a compilation of interesting facts about a brand, industry or an occasion day. Fact Cards are highly engaging as they get shared on social media very often. ‘Digital Magazines’, on the other side, helped Netflix get 3X more engagement as compared to text ads for its series - ‘The Umbrella Academy,’ within two weeks of its release. Plan Ahead After building a strong user base in Tier I cities, InShorts is now betting big on Tier II and Tier III cities. “The app now is pretty popular amongst influencers like enterprise professionals, politicians and CXOs throughout the spectrum. We are also trying to penetrate into Tier III cities, where we have seen a high potential of users. The future looks even more exciting with this next half of the population joining the digital generation. Our plan is to continuously work on solutions that would best suit the content needs of these new internet users,” concludes Arora.

How InShorts garnered a revenue run rate of $10 million on the back of its advertising model

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/47735553.cms" /> News is an evitable price of information, without which people will wander clueless and be unobservant of the happening around them. But who has the time to go through detailed analysis. Most news mediums publish lengthy descriptions of news and smartphone users do not have the time to go through everything and in details. <keyword id="2908522" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="NewsInShorts">NewsInShorts</keyword> (NIS), as the name suggests, delivers news in a very succinct way, aimed to save your precious time. Targeted towards the mobile Indian, NIS aims to transform the news scenario of the country. 
 

	Founded by Iqubal Azhar and his two friends Deepit and Anunay, it has simultaneously made its way to the top 3 news apps on Google Play Store (News and Magazine section) with a 4.6 rating.
 
 With 5 lakh downloads, it currently ranks second in the Apple iStore and Google Playstore. The credit goes to the young innovative minds of the team who left IITs and started this <keyword id="6404679" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="start-up">start-up</keyword>. 
 

	 “It is the simplicity of the app that worked very well for the app. We are not focussed in generating any revenue now. We are solely focussed in enhancing user experience,” said Azhar Iqubal, co-founder of NewsInShorts.
 
 

	So what makes it better than the rest
 
 

	 “We have crossed half a million mark by the end of April. We plan to hit the million download mark sometime in June this year and at the rate at which we are going right now, it will surely happen,” he asserted.
 
 

	What is the driving force behind such ambitious target?
 
 

	Unlike others in the field, it is not an aggregator of news. It gives the headline and a 60 word summary. If one is interested he can read the detailed coverage of the story from any other news medium. The best part is by the summary, a person gets a fair idea of the news.
 
 

	“We (the founders) were among the ones who did not consume news. Partly, because we did not have time and mostly as we were too lazy to read the whole news. So we missed out on a lot. We realised this is the condition of today’s youth. Hence we made this,” said Iqubal.

	NewsInShorts have in-house team that manually curates and summarizes the news in categories like national, commercial enterprise, sports, engineering science, and so along.
 
 

	Besides, this first of its kind app makes browsing easier as one can easily flip between news, within few seconds.
 
 

	 Growth 
 
 

	Few interesting numbers to show their growth
 
 

	· 500k downloads in Google appstore.

	· They have more than 100K daily unique users.

	· A daily user of the app consumes more than 90% of the articles published. At present they publish around 60 news items a day, and a user browse through more than 50 of them.

	· The top 10 articles daily have views of more than 100 thousand.
 
 

	Challenges
 
 NewsInShorts faces two main challenges in the market, one in terms of algorithm and other in terms of competitoin in the market. Iqubal do not see any strong competitor as such, right now, but in the long run they see <keyword id="6354616" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Twitter">Twitter</keyword> as their competitor. 
 “<keyword id="1293640" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Yahoo-News">Yahoo news</keyword> is different. Unlike Yahoo news and news start-up <keyword id="1323837" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Circa">Circa</keyword>, they are a place of news discovery and not consumption,” he said. 
 

	Any technology is incomplete without updated algorithm. Updating algorithm according to users’ taste is a tedious brain cracking task but for these IITians it is a child’s play.
 
 

	“In a day thousands news get updated. The challenge is to develop an algorithm so that user can filter out which 100 news they want to read out of those 200-300 news items that we suggest to them. If everything goes well, by the end of June the product embedded with this algorithm should be ready,” said Iqubal.
 
 

	Future
 
 

	They plan to launch it in multiple languages by this year end. And in three months they will launch in Hindi.

	Also, at present we have 60 news items a day but they plan to extend that to 100 news items per day, said Iqubal.
 
 

	NewsInShorts in the news
 
 The unconventional news curator NewsInShorts recently raised Rs 25 crore in Series A funding. The investment is led by <keyword id="526777" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tiger-Global">Tiger Global</keyword>, with participation from Rebright Partners of Japan and existing investors Sachin and <keyword id="6364080" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Binny-Bansal">Binny Bansal</keyword>. 
 
(image credits: NewsInShorts)

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