UC Browser bets big on short videos for 2019

Short-form content, including short videos and snackable content, is UC Browser's top content priority for 2019.

Short-video content has seen a surge in 2018 with over 3.6 crore short-videos aggregated on UC Browser, the world's leading third-party mobile browser and a content platform. Short videos account for over 40 per cent of overall content consumption on the platform. Daily video uploads have increased 100 per cent in the last 6 months, while daily video consumption has increased 3 times on VMate, a life-recording short video app specifically for India market.

Addressing the audience at StreamCon Asia 2019, Damon Xi, General Manager-UC Global Business, Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group said, "2018 has proved to be a great year for short videos and we are glad to see a rapid growth of short video creators on UC platform. As smartphones become more popular and mobile data gets more affordable there will be explosive growth of video content consumption. Short-form and snackable content is already driving the growth in the consumption of digital media and re-shaping the content space. The next few years will usher in a new era of content creation and distribution, even monetization."

UC, with its user-oriented localisation strategy, has captured the trend well. In 2018, UC aggregated 3.6 crore short videos, which is around 1 lakh for each day. The UC platform has witnessed strong increase of 1 crore short video viewers. Besides, the company has partnered with more than 350 media groups in India to enrich the content supply. UC data shows that each user spends, on an average, 20 minutes a day reading and watching content provided by UC news feed.

In terms of genre, entertainment remains the most popular category for Indian users on the UC platform. According to an internal study, Indian smartphone users spend 1.1 hours on average on entertainment content every day. UC aims to deliver enjoyable content to 130 million of its India users. The company has successfully partnered with multiple Bollywood production houses such as Zee Studios, RSVP and Red Chillies as Online Entertainment Trending Partner for many movies including URI: The Surgical Strike, Kedarnath, Zero, Batti Gul Meter Chalu and Baazaar.

The strategic tie-up provides exclusive movie content and celebrity engagement activities on the UC platform. Benefiting from the partnership, production houses are able to reach to the huge user base of UC around 130 million in India.

"While UC is expanding its operations in India, we are also looking at investments and opportunities in the content industry. Since India has a lot of diversity, we are looking at content players across various languages. Apart from entertainment content, we will provide more localized content in various formats and vernacular languages. Meanwhile, through the UC campus projects, we have set up platforms for young talents to showcase their creativity," Damon added.

UC We-Media creator Robin Sharma has won the Emerging Short-format Content Creator of the Year at the recently-concluded StreamCon Asia Awards 2019. Arti Soni and Sana Khan, short video creators on VMate, won the Best Short-format UGC Content Creator Award. (This story is provided by NewsVoir.