Goldman’s billion-dollar babies include this polyglot Indian app
Mobile app Dailyhunt claims 90 million downloads as it taps demand among the hundreds of millions of Indians who don't speak English
New Delhi: An app Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lists as one of the possible “billion-dollar babies” among India’s Internet start-ups shows how local language content is becoming key to expanding the nation’s online population.
Dailyhunt, a Sequoia Capital-backed news aggregator and e-book store, offers content in a dozen of India’s 122 languages including Hindi and Urdu. The mobile application claims 90 million downloads as it taps demand among the hundreds of millions of Indians who don’t speak English.
Dailyhunt is “closing the digital divide by focusing on vernacular content,” said Neil Shah, an analyst with Counterpoint Technology Market Research in Mumbai.
Other popular polyglot Indian apps include 21st Century Fox Inc.’s Hotstar, which streams drama and sports, and messaging service Hike. Goldman Sachs sees a $300 billion domestic e-commerce market by 2030, and said in a note Dailyhunt could in time join Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd and Snapdeal.com in being valued at more than $1 billion.
Dailyhunt, until recently known as Newshunt, got almost $10 million in revenue last year from selling e-books and advertisements, Virendra Gupta, chief executive officer of parent Verse Innovation Pvt. Ltd, said in an interview. The goal is to boost that fivefold in the year ending March 2016, Bengaluru-based Gupta said.
While globally popular apps such as those of Facebook Inc. are still getting Indians online, local ones like Hotstar and Dailyhunt will help keep them surfing for longer, according to Neha Dharia, an analyst at Ovum Plc in Bengaluru. Bloomberg
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First Published:9 Sep 2015, 01:28 AM IST
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