“When People Don’t Read News With Perspective, We Get Things Like ISIS”

News Republic, a global news syndicator with mobile apps for smartphones, tablets and wearables, aggregates and disseminates news, over 50,000 plus articles per day through news stories, photographs, and videos from more than 1,500 global media partners.

News Republic is also emerging as the one-stop-shop for international and local news which will be very useful like a news consuming nations like India.

Shafi Saxena, Chief Brand Officer at News Republic, talks to BW Businessworld about the buzz New Republic is going to create in India

Excerpts:

Why should one download and subscribe to New Republic?
Indian news agencies and news channels will be telling one thing and Guardian and BBC might approach the same story with a different angle. News Republic can be your global resource and business intelligence to proof-read the same story with various versions.

We have 1,500 news partners throughout the world including 107 Indian ones. It just gives the user more perspective and knowledge.

What is India for News Republic?
India for us is an absolutely critical market and one cannot have global conversation without India. In future, India will be the leading market for us. In December, India will be the most connected market in the world after China. There will 400 million internet users, which is larger than the population of the US. You cannot be a digital media, if you are not present in India.

Why has your growth been stagnant in developed nations?
Today 73 per cent of the world’s population is connected to Internet, the number of people joining the internet are much higher in developing nations as compared to developed nations as the saturation point has been achieved in the developed countries.

How this will be going to affect India?
With more people are joining from the developing nations like India, the perspective of the west will change. They will not only focus on the news of rapes and acid attacks but, business and politics.

India is critical because the population is young and smart and the 1/7th of the world’s population lives in India.

What will be the consequences of Paris Attack?
The consequences of Paris attack will be terrible especially on the migrants as European countries are closing their borders. Terrorists are hurting Muslims than anyone else.

When people don’t read the news with perspective, we get things like ISIS. We have huge consumption in Middle-East countries like Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Any global recognition which News Republic has got?
Yes. GQ calls us the “best-dressed accessories”, Elle said, “change your life app” and the Jury of World Mobile Congress calls us “360 degree news separation”. There is a global traction and which is very much different from the news app available in the Indian market.

What are your future plans for India?
Our aim is, not make profit but change the perception and involvement of India in the dialogue processes. Currently, we are only investing in India and not looking at the profit making aspects as of now.

We have 12 million active users globally. We have American and European investors only.