Rizzle upbeat about becoming India's top short video platform in next 1-year

Short video platform Rizzle has seen exponential growth in the last one and half year during this pandemic period. Its user base has grown by 300 per cent in last six months alone. The company feels that much of this adoption has less to do with the pandemic, when people are at home with more time to watch such videos, but with its unique experience driven by content creators. In a conversation with Bizz Buzz, company's Co-Founder and CEO Vidya Narayanan, said that Rizzle is confident of sustaining the growth momentum in coming years and hopeful being the top short video platform in India in next one year

How was the business during the pandemic? Have you seen wide adoption of Rizzle during this period? How has Rizzle's user base grown in the last one year?

We have grown our user base by leaps and bounds in the last one and half year. Our user base has grown by 300 per cent in the last six months. In the last four months, our daily videos have grown 130 times. So, the growth has been relentless.

If you observe the time pattern, then you can see the time spent on the video platforms have increased. And the short video platforms like us exhibit certain characteristics. User spend some time on the platform and he or she comes back several times on the day. Some people may be coming back 20 times a day to consume the content. That's the behaviour of the short video platforms.

Also, it is not automatic that the pandemic has led to higher viewing of the short video platforms. It is entirely dependent on the kind of platform and the kind of product that the platform has to offer. From the market perspective in India now, we definitely have a product and technology-driven approach to the market. Rizzle is the only platform where most of the organic content gets created on a daily basis. That is due to the differentiated creation tools we bring to the platform.

Do you feel that the growth curve of Rizzle will sustain in the coming months given that offices are slowly opening up? How has the ban on many Chinese apps helped the short video apps ecosystem?

I think, the growth is very much sustainable. I see growth continuing at the similar pace or at a faster rate in coming months. That is due to some interesting features, we are about to release in the market.

As far as ban on Chinese apps are concerned, you must be aware that Rizzle as an app has existed before the Chinese apps were banned. We are not one of the apps that were launched immediately after the ban on Chinese apps. Therefore, I expect good growth prospects for short video platforms in general and definitely, for Rizzle because there are many creators who are committed to the platform and create many numbers of videos per day.

Is India the primary market for Rizzle? Is Rizzle available in other geographies except India and US?

We are primarily focused on these two markets - India and the US. We have global usage from other areas but that is very small. We are not present in EU and Australia, but we are available in all other markets other than these two geographies. In EU, there is specific regulations with regard to privacy and copy rights. We will back in EU because we have very committed users from the UK and other European countries. For now, our split is 85 per cent India from overall perspective.

How far have you monetized your content? What are your fund raising plans?

From fund raising perspective, the market has seen a lot of momentum. From publicly available data base, you can see that we are not far behind of those apps which have raised 100 times more money than us. We are pretty close in terms of ranks (with our peers). That is a demonstration of the strength of the platform that we are building. We are not a marketing-driven platform. We have not chased celebrities. We kept our focus on everyday creators. We firmly believe that for a platform to succeed big, it has to create its own class of stars. For us, a product-led growth with everyday creators is our focus. We will succeed with far less money than our competitors.

As far as funding is concerned, we have raised pretty good money recently and all of it is not in public domain. We are raising our next round as well and probably, we will have something to announce in the next three-four months.

We are happy, where we are. Our attrition is extremely low. I don't have an iota of doubt that we will be the top platform in India in the next 12 months. Some people think that the market has already been taken by a few players. It's not the reality. There is not much loyalty to platforms. That loyalty comes up when a platform doesn't only provide monetary benefit but also makes the creation a fun. Then, it makes their passion. The creators in Rizzle are here because they want to be here. They feel that the platform is theirs.

As far as monetization is concerned, we are not in a hurry. In a consumer space, it is way too early to monetise. It takes many of the known names three to four years to make their first dollar. That is the typical time frame wherein the apps make money. We will be in a similar timeline of three and half to four years. We are only two years into our timeline and we are not in a rush. We know the monetization areas and we will get there when we get there.

What are the new technological features Rizzle has introduced recently?

On technology side, we have a team which relentlessly innovates. We have several features that are different from others. Our focus is on camera-driven front, we are giving AI-driven experiences. On the music-driven front, we have gone beyond what other platforms support.