LeTV is rumoured to hit the Indian market with the launch of its Super phones bundled with local content giving users a first-of-its-kind experience at disruptive pricing. It is also reported that the company is in an advanced stage of talks with local partners.

The partnership would entail acquiring locally relevant content, with the objective of creating an ecosystem experience for its Indian users. The company is expected to bring in key differentiators which can certainly be a game changer in the Indian market.

LeTV has been improving user experiences and content delivery by implementing a series of marketing strategies, including extensive copyrights acquisition of famous TV shows and films as well as marketing and operations through a multi-screen strategy.

LeTV has acquired a huge content library which has more than 100,000 episodes of TV shows and over 5,000 copyrighted films in China. It is the industry leader in terms of quantity and quality of content, containing the most comprehensive and varied video library in the country.

To add to its extensive content collection, the company has established its own production house – Le Vision Pictures [LeVP] and also acquired Flower Film & TV. LeTV has created new film production trends for the Internet era by roping in leading celebrities from the film fraternity in China as content creators. This includes some eminent names like:

  • TV Series Director – Zheng Xiaolong
  • Film Director, Screenwriter and Producer – Tsui Hark
  • Chinese Musician, Songwriter, Producer, Director and Talk Show Host – Gao Xiaosong

LeTV’s unique O2O [Online to Offline] distribution system, content production and library have been major factors for the success of Le Content Ecosystem. LeTV is a celebrated enterprise that maintains its popularity due to its stronghold on the content market and ecosystem. LeTV is said to redefine the boundaries of media with its ‘Six Screens/One Cloud’ approach by delivering a premium content experience across every screen: mobile, tablet, computer, cinema, TV and soon electric cars.

[Image Source* – Letv]

About Letv

LeTV is an iconic global technology company that converges culture, content, innovation, lifestyle and entertainment around the world in a way no other company to date has been able to do. LeTV opens new opportunities for consumers and the technology and entertainment industries with a jaw-dropping array of products and devices that fit perfectly into a broad spectrum of lifestyles – along with exciting content that keeps the innovations fresh, relevant and always compelling. The LeTV ecosystem includes smartphones, TVs, transportation, film and entertainment. Letv is not a lifestyle brand, but a brand built to fit the consumer’s lifestyle!

In a move that will delight Indian movie buffs the world over, YuppTV, the World’s largest Over-The-Top [OTT] provider for Indian content, recently launched its on-demand movie streaming service YuppFlix.

Backed by its extensive library of more than 5000+ movies in 12 languages, YuppFlix will offer its users on-the-go entertainment across genres like Comedy, Thriller, Romance, Action, Drama, Devotional & more. Users will never miss another movie from the Thalaiva Rajnikanth or the smashing Joseph Vijay ‘Anna’!

Keeping in line with its global promise, the latest offering by YuppTV caters to the varied entertainment demands of the Indian Diaspora across the world. YuppFlix will keep its users up to date with all the latest blockbusters by providing instant movie updates through ad campaigns & push notifications, internet premiers of upcoming movies and blockbusters made available.

Speaking on the launch, Uday Reddy, Founder & CEO, YuppTV said

The Indian expat communities living overseas have limited access to legal regional movie content. Having established YuppTV as the digital destination for over-the-top Indian content, we felt the time was right for us to launch YuppFlix as the premier on-demand digital movie solution for Indian expats. With our extensive database of movies in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Punjabi and Kannada, we are confident of delivering high-quality digital movie solutions for our users across the globe.

YuppFlix currently has the biggest catalogue in the industry with over 25000 hours of on-demand content accessible with a subscription and an internet connection. With the catalogue refreshed every week and new entertainment content added daily to YuppFlix’s library, Indian entertainment fans will now be able access their favorite movies anytime, anywhere at the click of a button.

About YuppTV

YuppTV is one of the world’s leading Over-the-top [OTT] content providers for South Asian Content. YuppTV was founded in 2006, with headquarters in Atlanta, GA and has branch offices in the USA and India. YuppTV started with two channels and has grown to deliver more than 200+ TV Channels today.  YuppTV is accessible on more than 25 internet enabled – Connected TVs, Internet STBs, Smart Blu-ray players, PCs, Smart Phones and Tablets.

For more information, please visit YuppTV

Hike messenger, India’s biggest local messaging app and one of the fastest growing internet company have announced that its users are exchanging over 1 billion messages per day, amounting to over a mammoth 30 billion messages per month.

The company has crossed this milestone a month before it anticipated. This number has grown by 50% in a span of 3 months, since the company’s previous announcement of 20 billion message exchanges in August this year.

This upsurge in messaging volume has been observed post launch of latest version of Hike, Hike 4.0. The latest version came packed with some brand new experiences such as automatic sticker suggestions, hike direct, which allows users to chat and share files without the internet, 500 member group chat with multi-admins, free group calling with up to 100 people, News in English and Hindi, coupons from over 100 brands and special photo filters and doodles.

The upgraded version of hike is available free for android consumers on the Google Play store & for Apple consumers on the iOS App store.

Commenting on the growth, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder & CEO Hike messenger said

We are now doing over a billion messages per day. That’s no small feat. We got there quicker than we expected. It’s incredible how well hike 4.0 is doing. The year still isn’t over and there’s a lot still more to come. Stay tuned.

The company recently crossed 70 million users in October this year, making it by far the 2nd largest messaging app of the country. On an average a user spends also over 140 minutes per week on Hike messenger.

Hike’s Growth Story

  • Dec 2012 – Global launch
  • Feb 2013 – Messaging traffic grows 10X week on week
  • April 2013 – Hit the first 5M user milestone in just 4 months of its launch | Raised $7M from BSB
  • Feb 2014 – Hit the 15M user mark
  • April 2014 – Received $14M fresh funding from BSB
  • June 2014 – Crossed 20M user mark, launched first TVC
  • July 2014 – Hit #1 rank on App stores
  • August 2014 – Crossed 35M user mark, receives $65M fresh funding led by Tiger Global & BSB
  • November 2014 – Launches regional stickers on hike
  • January 2015 – Launched free Hike Calls
  • February 2015 – Launched Cricket Scores on hike
  • Aug 2015: Hike announces 20 billion messages per month and launched Hike News
  • Sep 2015: Launched Group Calling with upto 100 people

Additional information

You can download the app at – http://get.hike.in For more information, please visit the Hike Blog

Malware attacks in Point-of-Sale has been there for a while but most interesting is that cyber-criminals have shifted from using targeted-attacking format to traditional mass-infection tools like spam, bot nets & exploit kits.

Note – In the article, We refers to Trend Micro

According to TrendLabs, attackers went after as many vulnerable PoS devices as possible in hopes of hitting the jackpot. They relied on tried-and-tested tactics like spamming as well as tools like macro malware, exploit kits, and bot nets. They must have done something right because the PoS malware detection volume grew 66% Q1-Q3. SMB’s, which had poorer protections in place compared with large enterprises, suffered most.

SMB’s proved lucrative and easy point-of-sale [PoS] malware attack targets this quarter. This could be due to the extensive customer databases they keep with minimal to non-existent security. We’ll likely see more of such attacks in the future. The slow adoption of next-generation payment technologies like the Europay, MasterCard, and Visa [EMV] and contact less Radio-Frequency-Identification [RFID] – enabled credit cards, mobile wallets (Apple Pay & Android Pay] and new payment-processing architectures could also adversely affect the security landscape.

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in security software, strives to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Trend Micro enables the smart protection of information, with innovative security technology that is simple to deploy and manage, and fits an evolving ecosystem. Their solutions are powered by cloud-based global threat intelligence, the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ infrastructure & are supported by more than 1,200 threat experts around the globe.  For more information, visit TrendMicro

Delhi-based Wigzo, an enterprise marketing automation suite has raised $500K [INR 3 Crore] in Pre-Series A round of funding led by led by Aarin Capital Partners and chairman of Manipal Global Education, TV Mohandas Pai, AdvantEdge Partners, Singapore Angel Network, ah! Ventures, Sachin Bhatia [CEO & co-founder of TrulyMadly & MakeMyTrip], Kunal Khattar [Serial entrepreneur & angel investor], Akshay Garg [Co-founder, Komli Media].

The deal was advised and syndicated by ah! Ventures and led to closure on its private equity investment platform, CLUBah.com

Wigzo was founded in 2013 by Umair Mohammed, Himanshu Kaushik, Shamail Tayyab & Vikrant Khushu. It is an Enterprise marketing automation suite built on top of proprietary Machine Learning Algorithms and a Predictive Engine. The suite allows brands and marketers to personalise any form of communication across multiple channels including Email, Push, Browser Push as well as Facebook and Google Ads from a single infinitely-scalable dashboard.

Wigzo enables a brand to understand and communicate with its customers on a one-on-one basis by creating personalized content, based on context and usage patterns of the user, across all customer touch points from a single, integrated digital marketing platform without changing service providers.

The funds raised will be used to expand its team and build out its delivery channels – including mobile, email, and web.

In the coming months, Wigzo also plans to aggressively improve its algorithms, work on industry-specific requirements in terms of machine learning communications, deepen its APAC market penetration and provide customised solutions to the content, media, e-commerce and BFSI sectors to scale their SAAS model.

Umair Mohammed, CEO, Wigzo, stated

Larger organizations have built excellent engagement channels with their subscribers using a Data-driven Approach. We want to take the same capabilities to all online businesses, irrespective of their size and scale, and allow them to leverage our machine learning capabilities and Predictive Technology to Hyper Personalise to each individual user.

Pranav Pai, investing on behalf of Mohandas Pai, said

As enterprises and brands compete in the new mobile economy, their ability to engage and retain their customers across multiple channels will help them differentiate their offerings in their respective categories. Re-engaging your customers effectively builds brand recall and loyalty, and multi-channel strategies that utilise real-time analytics will be the most efficient mechanism. We are excited about working with Wigzo because we see tremendous potential for an Indian company to work with brands and drive them to rise above the plateau of standard customer re-targeting and engagement strategies.

Giving an investor perspective, Harshad Lahoti, Founder & CEO, ah! Ventures, said

We have been always interested in technology startups and Wigzo is definitely a promising one. The fact that they are the only tech company in Asia – Pacific, which combines ‘Predictive Insights’ with ‘Personalisation’ to enhance the brand’s ability to convert its customer centric data into customized messages, should be reason enough for heightened investor interest. Their IP is much robust, scalable and privacy driven targeted approach is set to redefine the next level of consumer engagement. The deal was concluded on private equity investment platform, CLUBah.com.

Wigzo will be the second consumer engagement tech startup in recent times that ah! Ventures has helped raised capital for apart from Singapore based Eywa Media. Wigzo had earlier raised $100K in seed funding led by Nikunj Jain, Outbox ventures & Ritesh Malik.

ah! Ventures is in the process of closing 2 more deals in the coming weeks.

About Wigzo

Wigzo is an Enterprise marketing automation suite built on top of proprietary Machine learning algorithms and a Predictive engine that allows Brands and Marketeers to personalise any form of communication across multiple channels including Email, Push, Browser Push as well as Facebook and Google Ads from a single infinitely-scalable dashboard. In layman terms, Wigzo empowers brands to send marketing content that people want to receive.

About ah! Ventures

ah! Ventures is a startup focused growth catalyst that brings together promising businesses and investors by creating wealth creation opportunities for both. ah!’s unique model serves investors, entrepreneurs and enablers through a unique blend of customized services, skill, and industry & domain experience.

Founded in 2010, ah! Ventures has systematically disrupted India’s early stage funding ecosystem through its innovative approach toward startup investing. First of its kind initiatives like the CLUB ah! network & platform, ah! Angels (India’s largest angel network), ah! Seeders and ah! VC networks (India’s first seed & VC investment networks respectively), have brought together and integrated the otherwise previously segregated startup funding life-cycle, under one roof.

Celkon Mobiles, one of the leading Indian mobile brands have launched its most technologically innovated 7” Tablet CT722. The CT722 is a feature rich yet economical model from the Celkon stable which has been introducing several high performance yet affordable smartphones and Tablets in the market. The model was launched by Sri K.T Rama Rao, the Hon ‘Ble Minister for I.T and Panchayati Raj, Govt of Telangana who has shared the stage with representatives from Intel and  Mr. Karan Khara from snapdeal along with Celkon Leadership.

CT722 packs in delightful features and exciting specs for the range. The Android Lollipop 5.1, powered by the Intel Atom X3 C3230RK processor comes with 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM and 32GB expandable memory. This Single Sim model is powered by the 1.2 GHz Quad core Intel Atom processor.

This tablet also has a 3.2 MP Rear and front Camera. CT722 supports 3G & OTG, with a 7” WSVGA Display and a powerfully packed 2800mAh battery. Priced at Rs. 4999 , it will be available in retail stores and exclusively online on Snapdeal.

Commenting on the launch, Y Guru, Chairman and Managing Director – Celkon Mobiles, said

We are making great progress towards being one of the leading players in the country and offerings such as the new CT722 will help us grow stronger. We aim to become a leading player in the country and in International markets. We are proud to say that this is the most innovative yet affordable Tablet in the country, thanks to Intel for supporting us on the innovation.

Murali Retineni, Executive Director-Celkon Mobiles said

We are pleased to introduce yet another exciting model in the tablet segment. The CT722 is the best in line in its category with  matching those of high-end Tablets and smart phones. Moreover it is also supported by the Intel Atom x3 processor and Lollipop 5.1 making it the perfect choice in the Generation of Tablets.

Anand Ramamoorthy, Director, Consumption Sales, Intel South Asia, while talking about the product said

Intel continues to be committed towards revolutionizing technology to bring to customers the best of devices across price points and form factors. The CT722 is significant addition to the growing list of powerful small form-actor devices being powered by Intel technology. This device comprises of a cost effective integrated single chip solution packed with functionality and performance into a sleek form factor. We are confident that the users will appreciate this tablet and look forward to supporting more such device innovations in future.

Celkon Mobiles has constantly launched innovative offerings in Tablets, smartphone and feature phone categories. The company pioneered the Android Kitkat model in sub 3K category; the first ever by an Indian Brand with its Campus A35K. Celkon Mobiles is present in 10 international destinations including Africa, Sri Lanka, Nepal etc apart from India.

Public Transportation is one of the most discussed topics & connected transport is still one of the issues that needs to be fixed in India. Today we have a chat with the founders of a Mumbai based startup TransitPedia that aims to Transform city travel by use of this smart app making it a Smart City

TransitPedia was co-founded by Mehul Sutariya & Vaibhav Vasa who quit their cushy jobs in USA to make Daily Commute Smarter in India. Without further ado, we start our Q&A with them.

transitpedia

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and its founders ?

Mehul Sutariya and Vaibhav Vasa [Co-Founders of TransitPedia], having been friends for 15 years and having studied and worked in the USA for over half a decade, decided to launch an application that would change the public transportation scene in India, helping the 55 million commuters travelling daily by clubbing all user specific needs in an all-in-one app.

TransitPedia has been operating successfully for 4 months now with a team of 8 people operating from Mumbai and a user base of 9,000 already. The app is designed to cover time, cost, distance, and mode of transit as well as onward route displaying the most effective solutions to reach a destination. From informing a commuter about how to get from ‘Place A to Place B’ using the easiest and shortest routes, to helping one out with information about the most appropriate transportation vehicle, this app gives the user one platform to connect with the people travelling to and from their location and how!

The primary idea behind our venture is to compile multi-city data in a single application and provide a multi-mode transit solution in order to turn the public transportation scene in India to a “well-organized technology aided system”. The app currently covers data for Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.

Mehul, a sports and coding fanatic, completed his MS in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and worked for Google and Amazon, USA as a software engineer responsible for creating scalable and distributed solutions. On the other hand, Vaibhav completed his MS in Operations Research from Case Western University, Ohio, followed by a job as a planning/project manager at Avery Dennison for over 5 years.

Together with Mehul’s vast experience in software development and Vaibhav’s managerial skills in Operations Research, who also happens to have a Six Sigma Black Belt certificate in it, we have managed to set up a rather interesting venture and hope to see the changes we wish to bring about in the transportation system across the country.

Every idea is born out of a problem, what was the trigger of starting TransitPedia ?

Having studied and worked in USA for over 5 years, there was always some discussion about new technology and solution that we could bring about in India that would make life much easier. As we continued using public transport there like anyone else, we were amazed by the organized efficient nature of it.

Comparing this to what we experienced in India, there was a huge gap which also meant that there was immense room for improvement. Thus came up the idea to rectify the dismal state of public transportation in our country. We decided to quit our jobs, come back to India and venture into a startup.

We noticed that when people travelled to new cities, they had no idea about the routes or the best mode of transport to pick.  We also saw that people liked to travel in groups, may they be college students or office employees. Some travelled together because it was fun, while others to share their cost.

Unfortunately in India, people have become so used to the ongoing haphazard way of travelling that their daily commute hardly accesses technology, which could help them make better transit decisions in real time. This is where we thought we could help by providing the solution in the form of an application. We thought of building a platform that could help everyone travelling everyday anywhere in India, which led to the creation of TransitPedia.

Transport being an un-organized sector, what are some of the initial challenges face while working on TransitPedia ?

There are more than 1500 apps across the country that cater to the transportation sector, providing static/dynamic, mode specific/multi-mode information. Many of which comply with the needs specific to their city. The initial challenge was to figure out which way of presenting the results of the transit problems to the audience would be easy and most effective in helping improve travelling as we know it.

Mapping the exact timings of each transit was the toughest task and in the beginning the results were static and not very satisfying, but we realized that we must show people the next step in travelling by working on this and coming up with results not just related to the best transportation vehicle to opt for but also telling them of the shortest and easiest routes and the cheapest form of transit.

Which are the cities where TransitPedia is currently operational ?

TransitPedia is currently live in 5 cities, namely Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi.

What is the revenue model of TransitPedia ?

As our app provides information about all means of public transport to the daily commuter, it is and will always be free to use. There are several revenue generation streams that we are looking into, like cab/rickshaw bookings, featured destinations, car-pooling etc. We are also lining up with an update for national transit soon, which is when we are going to decide the revenue stream that we’d follow.

How do you keep your app updated with latest changes in train/bus timings as they are dynamic in nature ?

We keep a keen eye on websites and government agencies which cater to mass transportation in every city that we are present in. We keep a constant tab and refer to pre-existing data published by governmental bodies and get our live stream of information via Twitter, which has become our savior of sorts. All of this helps us keep our application and our users updated.

Do you plan to solve the issue of “Onward Travelling” with TransitPedia [Like take bus from Andheri and then have association with Ola for onward journey] ?

We are a multi-mode transit app. From bus to train to a rickshaw to your home – all such information rests within the app already. Associations with cab aggregators are under progress in order to make travelling simpler.

How has been the feedback so far for TransitPedia on Play Store? Any plans on releasing the iOS App ?

The response in the past 4 months we have been able to reach 10,000 downloads. Looking at our rate of growth, we will soon be launching an iOS application as well.

How does TransitPedia stake up against competitors like M-Indicator [in Mumbai] or startups catering to similar segment ?

M-Indicator is a front runner in Mumbai currently. This app has been really helpful for daily commuters in Mumbai and is somewhere installed in the Mumbaikar’s subconscious as the go-to app for public transport.

TransitPedia as compared to M-Indicator is providing a lot more when it comes to features, as the latter provides static timetables and single mode A2B which means one can search from ‘Point A to Point B’ in a city only for any one medium of transport. As compared to the others like ZopHop, Ridlr and other city specific apps, TransitPedia provides more of a consolidated platform that gives the most comprehensive information about your complete transit in major Indian cities which includes mode comparison, time adjustment, sorting of results, fares and maps, all under one roof.

What are the major changes that you experienced when you moved from US to startup in India ?

Startup culture in India has grown rapidly over the past few years and they are now preferred over the traditional corporate companies. This will definitely help India turn into a country that innovates and not a country that does outsourced work as far as tech is concerned.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up ?

One of the most important things while starting up is setting your expectation right in terms of what you are signing up for. This includes your finances, your relationships, social pressures, etc. When you have your startup you are working all days of the week even if you are not at your desk. This will help you have a right mindset and in turn enable you to create great businesses.

What are some of the Growth-Hacking strategies that can be applied for an App-Based startup ?

App virality is one of the key features for any app. Right from the ability to share the content from your app to incentivising the users to install the app. The key factor is to find out by trial what marketing works for your app, what your target audience is and then doubling down on that. Finding the balance in long term vs short term marketing strategies is important.

Can you give some pointers on Scaling up & Customer Acquisition ?

As entrepreneurs, scaling up vs doing things right is always tricky. So, scaling fast while keeping existing customers happy is very important. Defining a target audience is very important for customer acquisition, spreading out thin makes it difficult to focus on what you want.

Bootstrapping or External Funding, what are your views on the same ?

Both are appropriate in their own phases. If you have an idea, you will have to bootstrap it or secure funds for it from your relatives. If you have a hyper-growth startup and your product has a market fit, you will need more funds to grow your business. If your business can grow without funding, even better. Managing the cash flow is more important in the early stages than profitability.

How important it for startups especially web, mobile to follow Lean Methodology ?

Talking about lean methodology is far easier than actually following it as it needs to be inculcated in your daily actions. You need to have a culture where every employee knows and follows it rigorously. I feel 1 startup month is equivalent to 1 corporate year and hence you want to validate things fast. Lean principles will help you to iterate faster without spending significant time in developing.

Any parting words from you for budding entrepreneurs ?

Entrepreneurship completely changes the way in which you think about businesses as opposed to doing a job. One is forced to wear multiple hats especially when the startup is young and that is quite educative. To stay focused is very important.

We thank the TransitPedia team for sharing insights into their entrepreneurial & providing useful tips to the budding entrepreneurs. If you have any questions for the TransitPedia team or want to share feedback about the TransitPedia app, please let them in the comments section.

[Image Credit* – IndianExpress]

After the successful completion of its flagship conference Apps India 2015, Brite Exhibitions has announced the launch of Incubation India 2015. A conference of its time where startups and incubation are the new whiz kids of the resurgent emerging India. Incubation India is the first of its kind niche conference attracting delegates from the startups/VC/incubation business eco-system to be held on 2nd December 2015 at Hotel The Grand, New Delhi.

Themed Creating value 360o, the Conference will highlight specific areas of growth opportunities and challenges being faced in and by the incubation ecosystem.

Incubation India 2015 event offers an ideal interactive business platform for the key decision makers, Start-ups & young entrepreneurs alike across the Incubation business ecosystem in India [Incubators, Corporate Biz labs, Co-Working spaces, VC’s, Accelerators, Angel Investors, Advisory & Consultancy firms & many more]

The Incubation India 2015 conference will include panel discussions on Creating Value 360o, Initiatives taken to promote the concept of technology and business incubation in India, Marketing & communications strategies for early stage startups, Incubating in Healthcare sector.

Panelists/speakers at Incubation India 2015

Detailed agenda is below

[Click on the image to Enlarge]

Apart from the varied experienced speakers/panelists, the conference has two niche concurrent programs :

  • Biz Zone – An exclusive Business Zone for the ecosystem to introduce their technology and solutions to a focused audience.
  • Startup idea to IPO – A workshop conducted by Rajan Bhatia on behalf of NSE Emerge

Ms. Bunny Sidhu, Project Director, Brite Exhibitions, organizer of the conference said

Brite Exhibitions serves as a representative office and sales agent in India for international exhibition organizers. The young at heart team has combined experience of 50 + years in exhibitions industry. We are a group of professionals, who believe in working with passion to create various niche business networking platforms.

For more information, please refer IncubationIndia