Nickhil Jakatdar, CEO and Founder, Vuclip is a serial entrepreneur from Silicon Valley. Prior to Vuclip, Nickhil was instrumental in the founding and running of three successful startups. Nickhil led Praesaugus, CommandCAD, and Timbre Technologies through financing, tremendous growth and eventual acquisition. Nickhil received his M.S. and Ph.D. from University of California Berkeley and has been the recipient of many awards from various organizations. He has to his credit more than 30 patents and 20 conference papers.

In an exclusive interaction with India Digital Review, Nickhil talks about the recently launched buffer-free mobile video tech and the shaping up of the overall mobile landscape in the near future.

Tell us more the new buffer-free mobile video technology that you have launched recently?

Vuclip recently launched the company’s latest innovation Vuclip app for Android powered by the patent-pending Dynamic Adaptive Transcoding technology. The app represents a breakthrough combination of innovative technology and amazing content. Video loading times and frequent buffering often exasperates consumers, the Dynamic Adaptive Transcoding combats this frustration by creating a quality experience across device and network types. This innovative technology enables the simultaneous transcoding or optimization of the content to each specific device and dynamically adapts the video stream to the constantly varying bandwidth of carrier and Wi-Fi networks. With the new Android app, consumers all around the world can now enjoy their favorite content such as Bollywood movies and songs, the latest billboard hits in the U.S., crucial soccer game highlights in Latin America as well as longer duration content such as TV serials, movies and sports programmes. With more than 1.75 million downloads to date, the app already has 120,000 monthly active users consuming short and long form global and regional content and it has garnered more than 3500 reviews. The Vuclip Android app witnesses engagement levels of approximately 95 video minutes per active user each month.

How willing are brands to adopt the mobile video platform for marketing and advertising?

Consumers have moved from prime time to palm time – meaning consumers decide when and where they watch videos and the content they choose to watch. The insatiable appetite for news, fashion, sports, music and movies is fueling consumption of content on mobile devices. Brands have already acknowledged this shift and they want to be present on the mobile platform because that’s fast becoming the preferred screen for the consumers. In fact, in a country like India, mobile is the first and the only screen for millions of people. For brands, this represents an unprecedented opportunity to reach this previously untapped audience in a targeted manner. Brands are keen to work with strategic partners who understand the mobile video space, offer the widest reach and deepest engagement and provide true brand metrics beyond CPMs and CTRs for analyzing campaign effectiveness. Vuclip has worked with over 50 brands by offering them innovative reach, attention and loyalty solutions.

How many users do you currently have? How has been the growth curve for Vuclip in India?

Vuclip globally has over 80 million unique monthly users out of which 20 million are from India. India is a key market for us. While the number of viewers has been on a fast rise, we also continue to create growth opportunities for all parts of the mobile ecosystem in India including consumers, mobile operators, content providers, brands and OEMs.

Vuclip powers the entire video section of Airtel’s Re.1 entertainment store, which has been a huge success with consumers with its attractive pricing, engaging content and excellent viewing experience. Vuclip also works with other key carriers in India such as Vodafone and Idea to offer customized video solutions and has witnessed rapid growth for mobile videos across carriers.

Our premium content partnerships have grown at a fast pace as we help our partners monetize their digital assets in an easy and secure environment. On the advertising side as well, we have seen increasing traction from top brands to reach their audience in a targeted and engaging manner.

Vuclip is increasingly working with the makers of low cost Android devices to ensure that the video experience is optimized for those devices on the 2G and 3G networks available in India.

What is the reason behind Vuclip’s focused strategy for mobile only?

In many developing countries around the world, people have directly caught onto the mobile wave without ever having the opportunity to experience Internet. Vuclip was founded with the goal of democratizing mobile video so people around the world can enjoy their favorite content on any network and on any device.  As mentioned previously, mobile is the first and only screen for millions in emerging countries like India and people are keen to access their favorite content within the comforts of their handsets. While the potential for mobile video is tremendous, when compared with the desktop world, the mobile ecosystem is much more complex with hundreds of different devices and constantly varying network speeds. Given this fragmentation of the market, serving videos on the mobile platform is far more challenging from a technology standpoint and we decided to convert this challenge into an opportunity. We are excited with our journey so far to reach over 80 million users globally per month.

How has been the response from advertisers for your mobile platform?

The response has been really great- Vuclip has worked with over 50 brands like Cadbury, HUL, P&G, Red Bull, Samsung and many more. The advertisers are extremely happy with the Vuclip platform as it resolves several key challenges that they face on the mobile platform such as reach, engagement and measurability.

The widest reach: Vuclip serves videos on any network and on any device thus offering the widest reach. Vuclip is a youth platform with over 65 per cent of the audience in the 18-35 age group – a demographic that brands are eager to tap into. In addition to urban areas, we have significant number of viewers from tier II and tier III towns, broadening the reach for brands. With a buffer–free experience, Vuclip is in a unique, advantageous position to keep the audience engaged.     

Customized solutions: Vuclip offers a portfolio of solutions, including ad units and vertical channels, to capture the attention of relevant viewers as well as programs that help with user engagement and loyalty.

True brand metrics: In addition to standard measurement tools such as CPM and CTRs, Vuclip is also the first company in mobile advertising to introduce key brand metrics in partnership with Millward Brown. These brand metrics such as purchase intent and brand favorability empower advertisers to evaluate and optimize the performance of mobile ad campaigns toward their overall marketing goals.

And how are content providers faring? Is it all Bollywood-driven or you also see an uptake for other content?

Currently, content providers’ strategic digital assets get lumped in with the clutter of user generated content and those assets aren’t given the special treatment they deserve when it comes to monetization. We pride ourselves on being the only mobile provider that makes this differentiation for content providers. A key part of this is educating consumers. The mobile content ecosystem is heavy on piracy and free ad supported content, but when educated, we find that consumers are interested in and willing to pay for premium content.

We serve global as well as regional content tailored to our consumers’ interests. In different parts of the world, different genres of content are popular. For example in Latin America, soccer videos are popular, in Middle East devotional content is popular and in SEA local pop music videos are popular. In India, Bollywood inspires the most viewership and Astrology, Cricket and Devotional are also very popular.

How do you see the overall mobile landscape shaping up in near future?

The mobile landscape is very exciting today. The lines between smart phones and feature phones have blurred. There are several sub $100 mobile phones available, opening up mobile internet opportunities for millions of people around the world. Mobile video is going to be at the forefront of mobile internet revolution. According to recent reports mobile video consumption is poised to grow 16 fold till 2017. The app space is abuzz with consumers wanting a ‘smart inside beautiful outside’ experience when viewing mobile videos.

There are some other interesting trends that we have discovered in terms of consumer preferences that will shape the mobile video space. One of our recent studies indicated that people are eager to share mobile video on social networks with their friends and families and this is becoming a social phenomenon. Another interesting trend in this space is that people want to watch long-form content such as movies and soaps on mobile phones and the youth are clearly leading this shift. Our latest study pointed that over 80 per cent of Indians are keen to watch their favourite movies and TV serials on mobile phones.

Besides India, which other geographies are you focusing on currently and what has been the response there?

We are expanding rapidly in Middle East, South East Asia, Africa and Latin America. Consumer response from these markets is soaring because our deep understanding of consumer preferences helps us in serving content tailored to their likings. Additionally, we serve mobile videos on any network and on any device which is further fuelling the existing demand for mobile videos in these markets. We are working with top carriers in the Middle East and South East Asia to introduce models similar to Airtel Entertainment Store to take mobile videos to the masses at a very affordable price via a transparent and safe environment for consumers. This will democratize mobile video content in these countries and rapidly increase data penetration in a way that’s respectful of carriers’ bandwidth.

Vuclip has also started conducting other surveys as well. Is it just an add-on service or do you see it as integral to Vuclip’s business strategy in near future?

Surveys provide us important insights that help us understand pulse of the consumers so that we can tailor our offerings better, serving exactly what consumers in different parts of the world like. This is at the foundation of the great success Vuclip has witnessed. We conduct surveys every quarter and share the findings in the form of a Global Video Insight [GVI] report that shines light on current consumer preferences and trends.

We also do topical surveys on important social issues to provide a gauge of public mood. For example, we conducted a survey after the Delhi rape case to understand public opinion on the reasons, preventive measures and punishment for tackling the heinous crime.

Lastly, we also conduct brand surveys to gather insights on crucial brand metrics to understand effectiveness of mobile ad campaigns.

What are your future plans?

Vuclip is to mobile what YouTube is to the desktop. We are about powering the entire mobile ecosystem today and in the future, specifically:

• -As mentioned before, we have seen tremendous success of Airtel Re. 1 Entertainment Store, which is powered by Vuclip. We want to help all the carriers in emerging markets ramp up data revenues by offering customized and innovative mobile video solutions in a friction free way for consumers. Data is the future of carriers.

• -Content is at the center of our strategy. For consumers, we offer a world of amazing videos accessible on their fingertips and these videos are optimized for whatever device or network they may be on. To this end, we are focused on offering more localized content and will continue to forge new partnerships towards this goal.

• -Given that on mobile we have the widest reach, highly engaged consumers and meaningful ROI metrics, our focus is to partner with more brands to help them connect with consumers. For those brands we deliver unparalleled reach, attention, engagement and loyalty, even with consumers who could never be reached before.