At a time when downloading and sharing user-generated and user-uploaded contents is the trend, Yahoo! India came up with a premium licensed video destination. Strictly featuring licensed contents, the free online platform is expected to change the video-viewing pattern of Indian netizens expected to help Yahoo! secure the ad revenues it was eyeing in India. Arun Tadanki, managing director of Yahoo! India, in an interview with Piyali Mandal, talks about why the internet firm is betting on this video destination. Edited excerpts:
While you were present in the Indian market for quite some time, you were late in entering the online video space. Why?
The market is still nascent, but it is growing. Right now, we estimate 60-65 per cent of internet users consume some video in any given month. The market is growing at more than 30 per cent annually. More and more users are coming online, using the internet. We think this the right time.
At a time when user-generated content rules the popularity charts, why did you choose the premium licensed video space?
The key point is most of the contents available in Indian sites are user-uploaded contents and not user-generated. It is someone ripping a video from somewhere and uploading it on the site. The current video consumption pattern is not good. It is mostly unlicensed, illegal content. We very clearly believe there is space for premium licensed video content.
How would you attract traffic to your site, given the limited content? What is in it for the users?
From the user's point of view, it is great to have a destination in which if you search a video clip, you know what you would get: You know you get high quality, HD quality video, and you are sure it is not a ripped clip or spoof. If you offer that, I think there would be consumers who would want to watch this high-quality content. We are launching with 35 partners. In the coming months, we would sign up many more. So, the content won't be limited.
What kind of market opportunities do you see emerging from this platform?
A lot of what we are doing today is based on where the market would be five years down the line. If you see the global trend, most of the video advertising revenue growth is driven by premium contents. Premium contents have the best monetising potential over time. We are trying to predict the curve ahead and invest.
Your competitors are generating more traffic. In that scenario, how do you convince advertisers to put their commercials on your site?
As an advertiser, you don't want to be associated with a site that has illegal content. Big brands don't want to put their advertisements (in the context of a video content) where they don't know what the content is. User-generated content can create users and traffic, but those do not attract advertisers.
What is in there for content providers collaborating with you?
A lot of these content owners want a place where they can upload their content in a legal way, and generate revenues from it. Moreover, at Yahoo!, they would get more visibility. Our data shows for the same video clip posted on other sites, Yahoo! is getting more views. We are already outperforming them 20 times to one already. We also protect their content. We use a rip-proof video player. With that player, you cannot download a video.
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What kind of revenue would the premium online video destination offer you?
Advertising is still at an early stage. The focus is on building the audience. We want to build a lot of traction with consumers. First, consumers have to come before advertisers follow in a big way. Usually, the lag could be a couple of years. LG and Maruti have already been associating with us and sponsoring content on our site. Many more would follow. It's just a matter of time.
After the launch, do you expect India to become your biggest revenue contributor?
It is a very nascent market. So, we can't predict revenues. But we certainly think India would be the biggest contributor of new users for the Yahoo! network globally.