Guvera aims high in India
Australia’s music streaming service Guvera is putting into place a number of strategies to secure more users in the strongest of its 20 markets, India.
Since its launch there in November 2014, it built up to 7 million users (globally it claims 16 million) and 30 million songs. The average time on the app has grown by 22%. Guvera is targeting 21 million users by the end of 2017, Ananya Amin, Chief Commercial Officer for India and Middle-East, told BusinessLine.
It will actively source more brand partners from its current 40 to a targeted 500so it can continue with its ad-supported model, encourage OEM players to embed its app in smartphones and increase its regional language offerings in Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, Bengali and Oriya. Only 10.3% of India’s 1.3 billion population speaks English. Digital music marks 55% of total sales.
The underlying strategy is to provide users with more than just music. For instance, its tie-up as official music partner of the IPL (Indian Premier League) cricket team Mumbai Indians goes beyond creating a playlist of the team members’ favourite tunes. It also posts photo galleries and team features and sells merchandise and tickets to its games.
Partnering with Harley Davidson for the Megadeth-headlined rock music festival Harley Rock Riders allows users to also check out the brand’s motorbikes along with its integrated brands’ social media pages.
Other international brands that Guvera already works with in India are Amazon, Yes Bank and McDonald’s. It plans to widen to lifestyle and fashion content. Guvera is the first app to team with Indian mobile, broadband and digital company Jio to distribute the app through its retail and digital platforms, which are set to cover 80% of India by December 2016.
Amin wants to increase percentage of original content (working with 140 artists) to 30% – 35% and set up its live music/brand hub House of Guvera in Mumbai.
Elsewhere in Asia, Guvera also struck a sponsorship deal with the current season 4 of Asia’s Next Top Model (AsNTM). Aired on StarWorld, the show pulls about 30 million viewers through Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam as well as Arab World. Guvera curates the runway music and through a dedicated AsNTM brand channel on its app, where members can watch videos that feature AsNTM models and runway music from around the globe.