Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is planning to launch an over the top (OTT) video service in India.
According to a report by The Ken, the video service will be powered by Paytm and UCWeb. The OTT service will also utilise the technology from Alibaba’s native OTT app in China Youku Todou.
The report further stated that senior Alibaba officials from China have visited India over the last few months to understand the market. The officials have also met content creators and production houses in Mumbai.
Alibaba could use user-generated content for its OTT service. Interestingly, the e-commerce giant has also followed the same strategy for UC Web, which offers services like UCNews and UC Browser.
According to a study by Counterpoint research, the Indian OTT content market is currently valued at $280 million with nearly 100 million subscribers and it is poised to grow at 35% YoY.
Star India’s Hotstar is India’s top video streaming market with 75 million subscribers followed by Viacom18’s Voot at the second position with 22 million subscribers. Video streaming biggies Amazon Prime Video and Netflix are at third and fifth positions with 11 and 5 million subscribers respectively. Sony Pictures Networks India’s Sony Liv is at number 4 with 5 million subscribers.
As per the research, Indians still prefer free or ad-supported streaming platforms as several options including web-series and stand-up comedies are already available on YouTube free of cost.
The study noted that only 2-3% of the total subscriber base of Hotstar actually pays for services. In the case of Netflix, just 6% of the subscriber base takes the paid subscription while the rest take advantage of the ‘free first-month’ offer.
The report further stated that the Indian OTT market is expected to see tremendous growth with increasing smartphone penetration across India.
With the availability of high-speed 4G networks coupled with 130 million+ (and growing) smartphones being sold in India, video content consumption is expected to grow significantly in coming years, it stated.
