‘Indians Are Opinionated And Culturally Expressive’

The Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor promoted platform Indi.com is targeting the millennial who aspire to achieve stardom and fame by showcasing their talent to the world with the help of their smartphone.

Neel Grover, the global CEO of Indi.com spoke to BW Businessworld about their platform which claims to give everyone a chance to be seen, heard and discovered.

Excerpts:

Which were the things that drove Indi.com to start operations in India?
There were a few factors which we took into account. The most immediate were the explosive growth of smartphone penetration and the imminent rollout of advanced 4G and upgraded 3G networks which would obviously be spurring an increase in video consumption and demand. The facts that India has a rapidly growing middle class along with an opinionated and culturally expressive society were also assessed as positive indicators for us.

Your success depends upon internet penetration. How upbeat are you about your prospect?
Very! Clearly we are about to see an explosion of high speed networks roll out and become available to Indians of all walks of life. Reliance’s Jio 4G network is going to change the game and the telecom operators are continuing to upgrade and expand their 3G networks. We feel we are going to be ideally positioned to take advantage of the demand for video content that will accompany the widespread and affordable glut of fast and stable data inventory Indians will soon be enjoying.

How unique this platform would be when we have content sharing tool such as YouTube?
We feel the distinction is clear and situates Indi as a once of its kind platform. YouTube is a content consumption platform, you make content and place it there for others to view. Indi is an engagement platform where all social networks can be leveraged to give brands maximum organic reach while users get to participate and earn prizes and opportunities.

A large chunk of India’s talent pool lives in rural areas where your content can’t be accessed? What and how would you do to promote those talents?

As mentioned earlier, that situation is changing very, very quickly and we don’t expect it to be the case much longer. As it is, India is expected to have 700 million plus smartphone users by 2020. The size of the market and accessibility are going to be an advantage rather than a difficulty.

How does it work and on which platform/s?
Indi has users self promote videos they create in response to brand challenges or other calls to action throughout each of their own social networks. This means that a user Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and many other networks followers can be activated for organic reach. This type of user self promotion is allowed by the social networks to freely penetrate into the social network stream as opposed to the ever more restrictive access for brands. Our interactive customized video challenges generate the ultimate reach, engagement, and viral content companies and celebrities are dying for, for free!

How Anil Kapoor is mentoring and nurturing talent and the amount he had invested into it?
Although we don’t discuss specifics of his arrangement, I can tell you that Anil has been an inspiration to millions and continues to play the same role with Indi. He has already run an acting challenge where a lucky user will have a chance to audition live in front of him for a spot on his hit TV show 24. He has also been watching some of the other entries and has sent encouraging video messages. Having him on board has been a tremendous boon for us and we are certain he will continue to be a strong driver of interest for Indi as well as giving further opportunities to aspiring Indians.