Vuclip

Vuclip
Vuclip Logo
Type Private
Founded July 2008
Headquarters Milpitas, California, United States
No. of locations Beijing, New Delhi, Mumbai, Shenzhen
Area served Worldwide
Key people Nickhil Jakatdar, CEO and founder
Industry Mobile video entertainment
Slogan(s) Any video, any time, anywhere
Website vuclip.com
Alexa rank negative increase 37,666 (November 2014)[1]

Vuclip is the leading premium mobile video on demand service for emerging markets with more than 5 million subscribers per quarter across six different countries. Through strategic partnerships with more than 200 top studios around the world, Vuclip brings to subscribers blockbuster Hollywood and regional movies, TV shows and music videos in 20 different languages. Vuclip's Dynamic Adaptive Transcoding™ provides an amazing unbuffered viewing experience to consumers across all mobile devices and on any network. Vuclip is headquartered in Milpitas, California with a presence in Dubai, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Delhi, Jakarta and Bangkok.[2]

Through its freely downloadable Android and Windows apps as well as through its mobile website [m.vuclip.com], viewers can access a variety of videos, including full-length movies and clips, in more than 20 languages across popular genres such as gossip, comedy, movie, news, television, lifestyle and sports. [3]

Overview

Popularity

Like Google, Vuclip started indexing videos on the web. Consumers found Vuclip and started forwarding its videos via SMS messages to their friends. About 5,000 early adopters started watching and sharing videos, leading to viral dissemination. Carriers like Vodafone and Airtel in India started finding Vuclip on their logs and started promoting it because it led to greater data consumption. Handset manufacturers started preloading the Vuclip launcher on their devices to make themselves more attractive to consumers. In early 2008, Vuclip had 8,000 to 9,000 users. As of December 2013, Vuclip registered a 100 million active users.[4] Vuclip expects its userbase to expand to 500 million over the next few years. Vuclip users enjoy over 2 billion minutes of videos each month via a unique, unbuffered viewing experience regardless of network variability and on all devices from feature phones to smartphones.[5] Sixty-five per cent of videos consumed via Vuclip are shared.[6]

Founders and Investors

Vuclip was incorporated as a Milpitas-based mobile video search company by Nickhil Jakatdar (Founder and CEO, Vuclip) and Xinhui Niu (President, Vuclip) in July 2008.[7] The company raised $13 million in Series D, led by a new investor,SingTel Innov8 as the lead investor to further expand into new geographies and innovate on its platform.[6] Since inception in 2008, Vuclip has attracted more than $40 million in investment from outfits including U.S. venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates and Jafco Ventures and Singapore’s SingTel Innov8.[8]

Business Developments

Vuclip opened a research and development (R&D) center in Pune, India in February 2015. This is Vuclip's first R&D center in India and its third globally, with the other two located in Silicon Valley and Beijing. The 15,000 square foot center in Pune includes a mobile lab supporting 8,500 different mobile devices from over 200 manufacturers. This new center will attract top talent in India to drive research, innovation and development of Vuclip's mobile video on demand subscription services. It will provide employment opportunities for professionals with research and development expertise in mobile app development, mobile micro payment technological innovations, mobile testing and big data insights.[9]

Products

Vuclip App on Android,[10] Java,[11] Windows[12]

Vuclip's patent-pending Dynamic Adaptive Transcoding technology enables the simultaneous transcoding or optimization of the content to each specific device and dynamically adapts the video stream to the constantly varying bandwidth of carrier and Wi-Fi networks. Dynamic Adaptive Transcoding creates a quality experience across device and network types.

App Features:

m.vuclip.com[6]

The mobile site delivers videos on any network and on any device without buffering. The browser-based approach ensures accessibility for consumers in emerging markets where penetration of smart phones is limited.

Partners

Vuclip works with all constituents of the mobile ecosystem:

Mobile operators: Vuclip has partnered with leading carriers in South East Asia, Middle East and India including, Maxis, Telkomsel, AIS, Airtel, Vodafone, IDEA and many more to bring mobile video to masses.[13] Vuclip powers video section of Airtel Entertainment Store,[14] the Telkomsel Video 500 mobile video store [15] and more.

Mobile browsers and OEMs: Vuclip has partnered with mobile browsers like UCWeb and handset manufactures like Nokia to bring mobile video to consumers [16]

Content partners: : Vuclip works with more than 200 global and local content partners[2] to offer Hollywood and regional movies, TV shows and music videos in 20 different languages. Vuclip has partners that include Rajshri, Tips, Balaji Motion Pictures, ESPN, Graphic India, NDTV, Zoom, UTV, TV5 Philippines, Fox News and several more content providers [17]

Advertisers: Vuclip has worked with over 150 brands like Perfetti, Old Spice, Pepsi, Cadbury, and more to help them reach their target audience, through an immersive experience of mobile video advertising solutions [18]

Acquisitions

In February 2013, Vuclip made its first acquisition; the mobile video company Jigsee, to expand its own premium content inventory and app capabilities in India, one of Vuclip’s biggest markets[19]

Awards & Recognitions

Mobby's Award for Best New App at the Mobile Digital and Marketing Summit [2013][19] Smarties India Award for the publisher/media company of the year {2013}[20] Impact’s Icons of India’s Digital Ecosystem.[21]

References

  1. ↑ "Vuclip.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-11-17.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Vuclip's new R&D center to source talent from Pune". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 2015-02-11.
  3. ↑ "Vuclip releases Android app update". ET Telecom. Retrieved 2014-03-19.
  4. ↑ "Vuclip’s Nickhil Jakatdar: Bringing ‘Must-have’ Mobile Video to Emerging Markets". Knowledge@Wharton. Retrieved 2014-03-13.
  5. ↑ "Emerging markets to help Vuclip reach 500 million users: CEO". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Vuclip secures $13M in Series D from SingTel Innov8, existing investors". VC Circle. Retrieved 2012-11-15.
  7. ↑ "Name change for Milpitas mobile software firm". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
  8. ↑ "Vuclip Strikes Bollywood Content Deal With Balaji". Variety. Retrieved 2014-07-02.
  9. ↑ "Vuclip opens R&D centre in India". Telecompaper. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
  10. ↑ "Vuclip on Android".
  11. ↑ "Vuclip on Java".
  12. ↑ "Vuclip on Windows".
  13. ↑ "Emerging markets to help mobile video streaming co Vuclip reach 500 million users". Retrieved 2014-03-23.
  14. ↑ "Vuclip will be providing technology, product, analytics and content aggregation engine for the video section of the Airtel's Re 1-entertainment store".
  15. ↑ "Vuclip, Telkomsel launch mobile video store". Retrieved 2014-04-17.
  16. ↑ "Vuclip to offer full length Bollywood movies from Balaji Motion Pictures". Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  17. ↑ "MediAvataar India caught up with Meera to know more about the soaring Mobile marketing in our country also to identify Vuclip’s role in pushing it forward". Retrieved 2014-05-23.
  18. ↑ "Mobile Video Startup Vuclip Buys Jigsee To Target Emerging Markets With Apps".
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Vuclip Wins Mobbys Awards 2013 For Innovation In The Mobile Industry".
  20. ↑ "Vuclip wins Smarties India Award". India Infoline. Retrieved 2013-09-07.
  21. ↑ Icons of India's Digital Ecosystem (Report).

External links