MX Player, a well-liked video app that provides each native playback and streaming companies, stated on Wednesday that it has raised $110.eight million in a brand new financing spherical led by Chinese web large Tencent because the video app appears to develop its enterprise in India and different worldwide markets.
Times Internet, which acquired a majority stake in MX Player in late 2017 for $140 million, additionally participated within the unnamed financing spherical. The post-money valuation of MX Player was over $500 million, an individual conversant in the matter instructed TechCrunch.
The addition of Tencent — which has invested in a handful of Indian startups together with Times Internet-owned Gaana, ride-hailing large Ola, ed tech startup Byju’s, B2B e-commerce startup Udaan and a bookkeeping service for retailers, Khatabook — “is a great sign of confidence,” stated Satyan Gajwani, vice chairman of Times Internet. “Tencent is a leading global force in music and video, and there’s a lot for us to learn and leverage from their capabilities,” he added.
Karan Bedi, CEO of MX Player, stated in an interview that the video app will use the contemporary capital to double down on producing unique TV reveals and broadening its catalog of licensed content material. The agency, which has thus far added 15 unique reveals to its platform, has already commissioned manufacturing of one other 20 by year-end, he stated.
The Singapore-headquartered agency’s push into unique reveals and licensed content material underscores one of many strangest evolution for a video app. MX Player originated in Korea as an app that might run video recordsdata in a wide-range of codecs domestically saved on a telephone.
The app did all of this whereas consuming little sources, a capability that helped it win tens of thousands and thousands of customers with low-cost Android smartphones in rising markets equivalent to India. In truth, India is MX Player’s largest market, with 175 million month-to-month energetic customers, Bedi stated. Globally, the app has amassed greater than 280 million customers.
MX Player is ad-supported and doesn’t cost customers any month-to-month subscription price. The service, which launched motion pictures and reveals streaming in mid-2017, right this moment additionally affords entry to about 200 TV channels, their present and again catalog of reveals, and a music streaming characteristic by an integration with Gaana.
Bedi stated the corporate has tied up with all-web present producers equivalent to HoiChoi in India and three of the highest 5 TV native cable networks, together with Sony and Sun. Missing from the record is Star India, the biggest TV community within the nation.
Thanks to the acquisition of 21st Century Fox, Disney now owns Star India. Star India has emerged as one of many gems in Disney’s new portfolio. The agency, which runs dozens of TV channels in India, operates Hotstar, the market-leading video streaming service.
Hotstar reported 300 million month-to-month energetic customers and 100 million each day energetic customers throughout the ICC Cricket World Cup match. The service has cashed in on the recognition of cricket to spice up its numbers.
Bedi stated MX Player is engaged on constructing new leisure experiences, however sports activities content material just isn’t one thing it’s exploring. The cause is straightforward: Cricket drives a lot of the sports activities streaming in India and Star India has secured rights to most of such content material. (Facebook lately grabbed a slice of it, too.)
But cricket alone can’t assist a streaming service win and maintain prospects. Even Hotstar’s month-to-month person base plummets beneath 60 million within the months following the cricketing season, individuals conversant in Hotstar’s inside figures have instructed TechCrunch.
Figuring out what precisely resonates with the customers in India, the world’s second largest web market, is the billion-dollar query. The video streaming market in India is on monitor to be price $1.7 billion within the subsequent 4 years, in response to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Bedi, who spearheaded Eros Now’s India enterprise earlier than becoming a member of MX Player, stated customers are more and more having fun with the unique reveals. Most of the reveals that MX…
