Digital Entertainment Is Growing In India – Curt Marvis, CEO & Co-founder, QYou

Curt Marvis, CEO & Co-founder, QYou in an interview with BW BusinessWorld discusses the growth opportunities for digital media companies in India and talks about how the American based company (QYou) has started to run operations in providing and packaging content for Indian audiences. The MTV Lifetime Achievement Award winner in his interview also states that, “Digital entertainment is growing in India and that’s the reason why we are here.” In the interview, he elaborates how QIndia was formed and more insights about the digital entertainment industry of the world. QYou, also known as The QYou since 2013 was formed as a media and production business that provides curated internet video content for television, mobile and video on demand viewing.

What was the idea behind launching The QYou in India?

I have a long history in television, digital and produced a lot of music videos for MTV which started in the early 1980’s. When we started QYou we really looked at YouTube videos because they are the new music videos for the younger millennial and Gen Z age kids. The idea behind what we’re doing with the Q was the latest statistics from YouTube was that 600 hours of content is uploaded every minute. We also believe that after mobile phones became a device to screen content there has been more video viewing than ever in history. We looked at that and then we saw a business opportunity and said that there should be a platform that is curating the best of that video content either through subjects or genres etc. We also believed there was an opportunity to package the video and distribute it to television providers like Tata Sky and emerging distribution channels like Jio. We were starting to make a pivot in our business when I first came to India 2 years ago. That pivot was originally when we started the idea and the concept we thought if we curated content from all over the world we could distribute it with an international appeal which wasn’t really true because we needed content creators from respective countries.

After observing Indian YouTube content creators I was quickly blown away with the fact that it was high-quality content and engaging at the same time. The third component that we worked upon was to have boots on the ground that understands the market and I was originally introduced to Sundar S. Aaron, Partner, Locomotive Films through our mutual friend. Sundar has a long experience in running channels and production. Hence Sundar’s business acumen and knowledge in the content distribution has been very valuable for us.

We then got all elements in place to make this pivot into locally focused versions of our product which eventually led to a QYou India.

How would you describe the digital entertainment industry in the USA?

I have been in the digital business for 18 years and 15 years in that experience I only witnessed less encouragement and support from everyone else around me when it came to digital. This all changed according to me after Netflix entered the digital market where initially it did not gain much popularity even though it was a highly established business selling DVD’s through the U.S. Postal Service. 2 years after entering the business when Netflix started gaining attraction, that’s when digital was taken seriously. I would like to say that 1 years after understanding the digital market I would say less than a half of times digital was treated with respect.

Now we see that content provided by Netflix is no longer just for digital and most of the shows that get nominated for Emmy awards either from there or Amazon. Digital received a big push especially in the USA after OTT platforms gained a huge audience.

Where does India stand in creating digital content and OTT platforms?

India has the fastest growing middle class than any country in the world and has a millennial in Gen Z along with a population strength that is highly motivated to take India up by a notch over the decade. The government too is highly motivated to bring in hardware and built-in technology along with content creation. Apart from Bollywood, there is quite a lot of content that is spreading more knowledge about the Indian culture. Personally, India will eclipse China over the next decade in terms of media, technology, economics over the next decade and its ultimately driven by a more westernized entrepreneurial attitude that most businessmen follow over here. Having said that, India is also a number one priority for us to do business here and bring QYou India as one of the most recognized digital platforms to view content that appeals to most of the country.

What are The QYou’s expansion plans for the year ahead?

Last month in November we launched QIndia which became the first version of the channel that not only features content all over the world but specifically was tailored with program block of local creators. We also did the same thing in Poland where we launched QPolska because the country has a very high penetration of cables and satellite. Poland consists a population of 40 million people and also has a huge amount of YouTube creators. The reason why we thought of tapping the Polish market was because even they have a fast-growing middle and upper middle class driven economy. In 2018 what you will really see is the number of new channel launches of a localized version of The Q (QYou) which would be a big push for us. We also began to create our own programming for millennial and Gen Z audience because we have our own distribution channels. We recently announced that we are doing an e-sports channel in January 2018 called HUD known as Heads Up Daily which is a daily 1-hour show consisting of news and talks specifically targeting the world of e-sports. This show will be launched in January of 2018. We pretty much have the coming year mapped out when it comes to all those areas.

Can you share QYou Media’s investment plans?

We have an odd financial structure and we’re a publically listed company in a very early revenue business. The reason we are a public company is because our chairman who was also responsible for investing and starting Lionsgate in 1997 in Canada. Canada at that time did not have a big venture capital and there’s a small cap public market called the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture Market and Canadian Stock Exchange and these markets specialized sub 100 Million Dollars market cap companies. The big difference was that investments that came into the company were liquid and Lionsgate then reversed into a company called Barringer Gold we then did a reverse takeover from a mining company called Galleria Opportunities Corporation whose transaction we completed in March 2017.

From a financial structure, we followed the same processes which we did at Lionsgate which was intentional. We have raised 18-22 Million U.S. Dollars in the history of the company (QYou). We also completed a financing worth 5.75 Million Canadian Dollars and we are always looking for strategic, merger and acquisition opportunities. We are also considering of a separate investment to finance our operations in India primarily because the market potential is really high over here.

How would you describe your time at Lionsgate and what encouraged you to form QYou Media?

When I started my non-employee relationship at Lionsgate the stock at that time traded at 1.50-2 Dollars and they were struggling in making profits. When I joined them in 2008 that was not long before the big stock market crash and there were tough times for everyone. A corporate raider by the name Carl Ichann came knocking at the company’s door to take over Lionsgate. Lionsgate ultimately won that battle in 3 years’ time because of strong management. Later during an executive meeting, Allison Shearmur discussed the possibility of creating a movie series out of the novel ‘Hunger Games’. The movie was a hit in the history of movies and it changed the fortune of Lionsgate forever. The same stock price in 1997 which was 2 Dollars catapulted now to 31 Dollars and its enterprise value today is worth 10 Billion US Dollars.

The enterprise value of QYou today is worth 30 Million Dollars but we certainly are following a strong revenue growth path of over 200%projected over the next 2-3 years on an annual basis and we are following the footsteps of Lionsgate but the learnings I received over there were quite impactful and we wish to take the same learnings and push our business forward.

Is digital as a medium taking over television?

I think the death of television is being greatly exaggerated and if you talk about India then television over here is specifically growing. I am a big believer of a multi-screen universe and watching content on a large format particularly like sports. Many have spoken of the death of movie theatres for 30 years when the home video started but I’m not a big believer in that but what I do believe is that any pure form television provider like Tata Sky must develop a multi-screen experience and many of them will be eclipsed by mobile providers. For example, at&t bought DirecTV because they wanted its customer base but that doesn’t mean they will shut down. It means that 20 years from now it will evolve overtime under the at&t umbrella but the screens on which content will be viewed on will be in a multi-screen world. I think the change and the activity that is taking place in developing nations the media is fascinating than any place in the world and the government’s push towards progress will get India there first than many other countries.

Bhaktvatsal Sharma

BW Reporters The author is a journalist with BW Businessworld