Glance Mmedia Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a bootstrapped technology startup from Delhi, has launched a comprehensive Hindi app for discovering curated information on 19th February 2016 by Rajneil Kamath, Banuchandar Nagarajan and Rohit Sakunia. The app, which provides users a mix of information discovery, aggregation and curation backed by machine learning to enhance relevance to users, has crossed over 20,000 downloads in a month since its launch. In addition to a streamlined interface and intuitive user experience, it also showcases original content developed by their in-house team. Glance envisions providing users the right information at the right time, in the language of their choice. In an interaction with BWdisrupt team, founders of Glance Mmedia Technologies talked about their product and the challenges they faced in their start-up journey.
What are your Product or Service / Offerings to Customer?• Our current offering is an Android app through which we offer short form content to users. We will be adding more information and services on our app to users across different genres and languages. We launched in Hindi first and will be launching English soon.
• Mobile website and iOS app are being developed as we type.
What were the challenges while setting up this startup?• Incorporation of a business: We continue to face issues and are engaged closely with authorities to solve the same.
• Technical talent: Getting the right technical talent who understand what we are trying to do and help us build the same
• Bootstrapping: We don’t view this as a challenge but a blessing as we are trying to get the maximum bang for the buck.
Who are your competitors?• We view ourselves as not another news app but an information discovery and curation service. We have started with Hindi news and expanding into English, but we will not be limited to the news alone.
• We will be competing with different players across different segments. We view for asco-optition than competition.
• In the current stage anyone who provides news in crisp format in multiple languages is a competition.
How is your business model different from the existing ones?• The existing ones themselves are yet to figure out a business model.
• We are currently focusing on building a great product for our users before our business model kicks in.
Who are your clients? How do you look at expanding?Our product is currently meant for mobile phone users. We will be expanding across platforms, screens and languages.
The best and worst memories while setting up …
Best memory while setting up: realizing that there is a gap we can fill.
Worst memory: nothing really. Realities can hit you in weird ways, but it’s always a learning.
What marketing strategy have you adopted?We believe the right glance can say a lot. So our marketing strategy is focused on generating moments that generate glances, glances that generate curiosity & that generate more users. You can already see and hear us on social, radio and offline modes of marketing and distribution. We will soon be across touch-points.
We are also using Facebook and Google channels to build base. Again, considering we are a Hindi first app, from creatives, to ad tonality, everything is what a Hindi user would like to see.
What is your funding status? How do you monetize?We are running a bootstrapped company and are currently in talks with a couple of investors. There are multiple plans and for a change we are not just looking at in-app advertisement as the only way out. But a lot of it is something we would not talk of now but when they happen
What is the market size and market opportunity? India has 350 million internet users, with 6 million users getting added every month. More than 60% access the internet through mobile. 120 million+ users speak fluent English but the rest use or want to use the internet in regional languages. 95% of online content and services is in English while 5% is in regional languages. Analysis of these numbers shows the opportunity and the gap. The next big feature release is happening in end July early August. What we release will generate a lot of user love and great Glance moments.
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This is Meghna Shukla. She lives in Delhi. She is an engineering graduate and currently pursuing MBA from Jaypee Business School. She has a work experience of 2 years in content development. She loves to read and write.
