Zee5 To Take On TikTok, Instagram With Hypershots Short Video Platform

Video streaming app Zee5 is now venturing into the short video territory to challenge ByteDance-owned TikTok, Facebook’s Instagram, and YouTube among other players.

Tarun Katial, CEO, Zee5 India, said that the company wants to be the super app of entertainment, a one-stop destination for digital videos. To begin with, Zee5 is launching short-form content, Hypershots, later this year.

Hypershots will have ad-supported content, but the intent is to become a subscription service in the long run. A media report said this will reportedly have 90-second user-generated content, created by celebrities and regular users. The intention behind the new Hypershots app is to drive engagement and increase the number of users.

Zee5 is home to over 100K hours of on-demand content and more than 80 live TV channels. The platform brings together originals, Indian and international movies and TV shows, music, kids content, cine-plays, live TV programming, and health and lifestyle content through a single window. Zee5 offers features like 11 navigational languages, content download option, seamless video playback and voice search.

It is now planning to launch at least 15-20 films a year. The company also said that it has increased its tech investment by over 100% in last one year. The OTT platform is planning to launch around 80-100 original shows this year.

“We will also try to cross the 15 Mn daily active mark and 100 Mn monthly active marks,” Katial added.

With India flocking to the app ever since it was launched in September 2017, TikTok has become a major force to reckon with in the Indian market. Two of the primary reasons for its India growth are increased internet penetration driven by low-priced Jio data and the new short-video format becoming a hit with users in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. TikTok was also one of the first international apps to sharpen its focus around Indian regional language apps.

According to another report by Kalagato last year, TikTok’s growth in India is not just in terms of downloads, but also in terms of engagement. On average, a TikTok user spends about 34 minutes using the app, which is just 10 minutes behind the average time spent on Facebook, the report said.

The number of monthly active users (MAUs) on TikTok increased by 90% to 81 Mn as of December 2019, as compared to the same period in the previous year, according to App Annie.

Invest India projects the Indian media and entertainment industry to touch $34.8 Bn by 2021. It further states that the industry is projected to grow at a CAGR of 14% over the period 2016-2021, outshining the global average of 4.2% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR), with advertising revenue expected to increase at a CAGR of 15.3% during the same period.

Besides Zee5, Google is also looking to replicate the success of TikTok with its new social platform, Tangi. Tangi is an experimental social video sharing app that showcases quick do-it-yourself (DIY) videos that help people learn new things every day.