YourQuote — building the next vernacular and video-led consumer platform of choice
As per a KPMG/Google report, 88% of the Indian population is non-English speaking. Between 2011 and 2016, Indian language internet user base grew at a CAGR of 41%, which has surpassed the English internet user base. By 2021, Indian language users will grow to 536M versus English internet user base of 199M. This presents a natural need not only for discovery and consumption of vernacular platform but also for a self-expression platform. Another dimension will be the rise in original content due to increasing penetration of affordable Indian language enabled smartphones. The report also states that 70 percent of Indians found local language digital content more reliable.
Furthermore, video consumption has seen unprecedented growth due to rise in affordable internet services penetration and explosive adoption of smartphones. As per an EY Report, video traffic in India in 2018 is expected to be 72% of all Indian Internet traffic, with 93% of the time spent on videos in Hindi and other regional languages. Even today, an average mobile web user in India consumes about 6.2 hours of media daily which includes 102 minutes of mobile media (video and audio) and 79 minutes of desktop media consumption.
The paucity of content that is relevant and contextual to users beyond the Top 20 cities is acute. Repackaging content from elsewhere or just pushing it on YouTube doesn’t solve the inherent need of the user. Therefore, the next frontier for mass content consumption will be original content-led vernacular content, largely in the video form, which is able to reach users in the far reaches of India. Taking this belief forward is YQ, which has generated 6.5 million original video and written content in 15 languages to cater to its 600,000 users across 90 cities in India. Besides English, YQ offers content in Hindi, Tamil, Bangla, Kannada, and Punjabi, among others.
What is unique about the platform is the consumer-first approach, amazingly simple UX and an opportunity for the users to get their content discovered and appreciated, very quickly. The platform has been witnessing 30% growth in MAU (Monthly Active Users) without spending any marketing dollars. Not only the growth numbers are encouraging, the repeat engagement and the wow factor of the product (users referring one another with no incentives attached) is high and starting to show signs of a strong network effects. This is reflected in the fact that an active YQ user uses the app for over 16 minutes per day across 4–5 sessions.
YQ is co-founded by Harsh and Ashish — Harsh, a writer himself with published books to his credit is very passionate about building an ecosystem to enable everyone to write/share something that they feel most connected with. Ashish, on the other hand, is a product geek who has worked at various startups in the past and built full-stack scalable platforms.
As content volume scales, the distribution will become important towards building a vernacular social platform, where engagement is high and accentuated via video. In a very short time, YQ has been able to grow both offline and online channels for content distribution rapidly. Through the offline channels, they engage their users through various Open Mics that happens throughout the country including Tier-II/III cities like Bhopal and Gorakhpur. YQ has so far organized more than 300 offline open mic events across the country in more than 35 cities and colleges to expand its geographical footprint.
We are very excited to partner with Harsh and Ashish in building the next vernacular consumer platform of choice!
With inputs from Karan Mohla
If you’re building a unique product and are irrationally passionate about taking it to the next level, please reach out to me at arpit_mittal@idgvcindia.com!
