Bengaluru: Chinese technology and media groups are increasingly backing news and content apps operating in India as they look to replicate their success back home. Most of these players — which target nonmetro, vernacular speaking audiences — are tapping into the growing base of a smartphone-using population outside big cities.
NewsDog, a Hong Kongheadquartered news-aggregating app, has held talks with China's Tencent to raise funds. One of the top news apps in India on the Google Play Store, News-Dog — just like UCWeb, which is backed by Tencent's rival Alibaba — aggregates news and other types of content. UCWeb is a browsing platform that offers a range of news and entertainment content.
One of the oldest players in the space, Bengaluru-based DailyHunt, too, racked up $25 million in funding from China's ByteDance in 2016. ByteDance, valued at $20 billion, runs the popular news reader app Toutiao, which has more than 120 million daily users spending 74 minutes a day on the platform, according to international reports.
A venture capitalist who has investments in media and content said that online content startups have registered massive growth in China. "With players like Toutiao, Kuai Shou and others, most Chinese firms are looking to replicate their success here in India and want a play here too."
But Chinese money in news sites is a hot-button issue. TOI reported last year that the Indian government was considering banning Alibaba's UCWeb here since it received complaints of data theft by the platform. UCWeb has about 130 million active monthly users in India, according to latest numbers by the company.
Rakesh Jariwala, partner (media & entertainment) at EY India, said, "From an investment perspective, this is just smart Chinese capital backing interesting opportunities in this space. From a national security perspective, I am sure the government can initiate necessary steps if it sees any risks with these companies picking up stakes."
Industry experts say a major chunk of users on these platforms come from the non-metro towns of India. Other popular social networking sites in local languages like ShareChat and Clip App too have Chinese investors, like mobile phone manufacturer Xiaomi and its founder Lei Jun's venture capital fund Shunwei Capital.
NewsDog, a Hong Kongheadquartered news-aggregating app, has held talks with China's Tencent to raise funds. One of the top news apps in India on the Google Play Store, News-Dog — just like UCWeb, which is backed by Tencent's rival Alibaba — aggregates news and other types of content. UCWeb is a browsing platform that offers a range of news and entertainment content.
One of the oldest players in the space, Bengaluru-based DailyHunt, too, racked up $25 million in funding from China's ByteDance in 2016. ByteDance, valued at $20 billion, runs the popular news reader app Toutiao, which has more than 120 million daily users spending 74 minutes a day on the platform, according to international reports.
A venture capitalist who has investments in media and content said that online content startups have registered massive growth in China. "With players like Toutiao, Kuai Shou and others, most Chinese firms are looking to replicate their success here in India and want a play here too."
But Chinese money in news sites is a hot-button issue. TOI reported last year that the Indian government was considering banning Alibaba's UCWeb here since it received complaints of data theft by the platform. UCWeb has about 130 million active monthly users in India, according to latest numbers by the company.
Rakesh Jariwala, partner (media & entertainment) at EY India, said, "From an investment perspective, this is just smart Chinese capital backing interesting opportunities in this space. From a national security perspective, I am sure the government can initiate necessary steps if it sees any risks with these companies picking up stakes."
Industry experts say a major chunk of users on these platforms come from the non-metro towns of India. Other popular social networking sites in local languages like ShareChat and Clip App too have Chinese investors, like mobile phone manufacturer Xiaomi and its founder Lei Jun's venture capital fund Shunwei Capital.
0 comments:
Post a Comment