Vidooly rides the online streaming wave in India to make ad dollars count

Rising internet usage in India presents the right opportunity for online video analytics start-up Vidooly to scale up

When Prince Raj learnt about opportunities on YouTube in 2013, he thought he had a fresh chance to rekindle his music career. The 21-year-old from Bhubaneshwar, who had left his band three years ago to study economics, started with a YouTube channel the same year but abandoned it months later. “It started well but soon lack of guidance weighed in. The subscriber count almost froze and revenue never came in,” he says.
 
Except for a few talented independent artists, making it big in social media requires proper planning and analytical insights. Most of these platforms do not reveal much data and this is where analytics firms come in. One such start-up Vidooly recently raised Rs 15.08 crore as part of Series C funding, according to reports. The company’s co-founder Subrat Kar, however, declined to confirm these reports.
 

Subrat Kar, co-founders of Vidooly

Founded in 2014 by Kar, Ajay Mishra and Nishant Radia, Vidooly specialises in video analytics. The platform caters not just for creators but also for multi-channel networks (MCNs) and businesses. It started with just YouTube but now it analyses videos in most social media platforms and over-the-top (OTT) media streaming platforms like Amazon and Hotstar.
 
Though the company doesn’t face any direct competition in India, Kar counts global firms that are into analytics like Nielson and Oracle among its competitors.
 
How the platform works
 
The company, according to Kar, uses data crunching tools and artificial intelligence to track video contents across platforms. The generated data is then used to prepare meaningful analytics, which is used to provide a host of services to its clients.
 
The company’s website shows three verticles — each for creators, MCNs and brands. For creators, the listed services include actionable insights, video optimisation, competitor mapping, content ideas and cross-platform intelligence. For brands, the services include consumer & campaign insights, content strategy and brand safety.
 
The company counts The Viral Fever, Tata Housing and Hindustan Unilever among its customers.
 
Opportunities
 
With more and more Indians moving over television to consume video content on the internet, the online video market in India set for fast-paced growth in the coming years. A recent survey by the Boston Consulting Group believes the OTT content market will reach $5 billion in India by 2023. As more and more content will move online, so will advertisements. And hence, the demand for video analytics will rise.
 
Similarly, the rising penetration of the internet is expected to boost the online gaming market, which Vidooly entered in 2018 with its new product — e-Sport Analytics. The industry in India was believed to be worth over $890 million in 2018; it is expected to rise to $1.1 billion by 2020. The number of users is projected to rise to 628 million by then.
 

Nishant Radia, co-founders of Vidooly

Revenues
 
The company works on a subscription-based model. Depending on the services one subscribes to, Vidooly's monthly plans range from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh per month.
 
Kar refused to disclose the company's financial numbers but said it was clocking a 150-200 per cent growth every year. ‘We have achieved operational breakeven but are yet to make a profit because a lot of money is going into funding growth,” he says.
 
 
The road ahead
 
The firm is looking to expand with a focus on tech innovation in the coming years. Vidooly, Kar says, is now working to integrate with new platforms like TikTok.
 
Apart from the expansion, Kar says Vidooly aims to address the challenges that it faces at present. “Convincing OTT platforms to make more data public is among the biggest hurdles,’ the co-founder says.
 
The other challenge that the company faces is hiring and retaining the right talent. “As a start-up, we fail to compete with deep-pocket multinational firms in acquiring the best talents in the field,” Kar explains.

How analytics helps advertisers
 
The rise in online video viewership has disrupted the advertising industry. Unlike TV, advertising on online platforms allows brands to target a specific audience and ensure that the ad dollars are spent wisely.
 

Ajay Mishra, co-founders of Vidooly

This is where the availability of video analytics becomes crucial. Here are a few advantages of the technology:
 
Media planning: Helps brands understand which platform and what type of content fits the campaign objective
 
Content strategy: He users find out the types of content that drive high engagement and viewership
 
Audience insights: Psychographic and demographic data about the audience and of competitors