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Indian music streaming firm Hungama raising $100 mn

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Washington: Indian media company Hungama that provides music, videos and movies on mobile, desktop and beyond, is on the cusp of raising more than $100 million, according to a media report.

The media company is in “advanced” talks with existing investors Intel Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners, which fronted a $40 million raise last summer, TechCrunch reported citing sources close to the company.

Intel Capital invested an undisclosed sum in the business in 2012, it said.

Founded in 2005 as a marketing and communications agency, Hungama eyeing the growth of mobile branched out to entertainment in 2009 to today emerge as “arguably India’s most prominent player in that space.”

The soon-to-be-completed round will be used to grow the company’s footprint on mobile, tapping into the vast growth in adoption of smartphones that is expected in India, TechCrunch said.

More specifically Hungama will invest to develop its technology, platforms and increase its content libraries, it said.

The money could be used to acquire other market players, it said citing company sources.

The total audience for Hungama’s services hit 48 million users in February. Of that figure, a whopping 43 million consumed content on a mobile device, with 13.8 million paying for some form of content across its platform.

Hungama’s services were used by 227 million consumers during its last financial year, with around one-third spending money in some way.

Unlike it competitors in India like Times India-owned Gaana, Saavn and Rdio, Hungama goes beyond music to offer Netflix-like movies, TechCrunch said

“With India’s music and film scene closely tied together, the company is betting that this synergy and its international catalogue – which just added Disney and Marvel – will help it stand apart from the rest,” the web site said.

Being included on Facebook’s free Internet.org portal, which just arrived in India, doesn’t hurt too, it said.

Entertainment

Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.

Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.

The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.

Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile

The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.

CasinoDays India

The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.

“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.

Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings

Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.

 

CasinoDays India

Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).

Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.

The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.

Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.

Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities

The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.

On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.

Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.

“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.

The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.

 

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