Bharti Softbank acquires 36.5% stake in ScoopWhoop

According to industry sources the deal is worth Rs 10 crore

Bharti Softbank, a joint venture company of Bharti Enterprises and Japan-based Softbank Corporation, today said it has acquired 36.5% equity stake in entertainment media startup ScoopWhoop.

Though the company did not disclose value of the deal but industry sources said it is worth Rs 10 crore.

"That it has acquired equity stake in ScoopWhoop Media Private Limited (ScoopWhoop) through BSB Portal Limited," Bharti Softbank (BSB) said in a statement.

BSB Portal Limited is a joint venture of BSY Pte. Ltd, which is a JV between BSB and Yahoo Japan Corporation.

"The partnership will combine the strengths of both - i.e., content creation for Indian youth by ScoopWhoop and mobile-optimised technology platform and distribution by BSB for Indian consumers," the company said.

ScoopWhoop is an India focused entertainment media startup that creates and curates content that gets shared through social networks.

Its website and mobile application clock approximately 20 million monthly page views and have over 8 million unique visitors each month.

Over half of all the page views are accessed via smartphones, underlining the strong mobile play.

"About a half of India's population are under 25 years old and the use of social networks with smartphones is growing rapidly among this segment. We believe the partnership offers immense synergies for both parties to create great content experience for India's mobile internet population," BSB Portal Limited CEO Madhu Nori said.

India is the world's second largest mobile market with over 900 million subscribers. A vast youth population and a fast growing economy are expected to drive data usage on mobiles with the proliferation of 3G and 4G services and increasing smartphone penetration.

According to the GSMA, India will become the second largest mobile broadband market globally within the next four years with 367 million mobile broadband connections by 2016.

"We are really happy with what we have achieved in the last one year since we started ScoopWhoop in August 2013, but we also know that we have a long road ahead," ScoopWhoop Co-Founder and CEO Sattvik Mishra said.