2011 Mobile Video Trends in India - The Dirty Picture leads ahead of Ra.One and Kolaveri Di

Vuclip, one of the world’s largest independent mobile video company, has announced the findings of mobile video trends in India in 2011. With more and more Indians switching to the mobile screen to watch multimedia content, Vuclip analyzes key highlights of 2011 and sheds light on emerging trends that can help mobile marketers, content providers, aggregators and broadcasters to align their efforts to meet the growing video viewing patterns of Indian mobile consumers.Among the most watched Indian videos, it was clearly cinema that ruled supreme, with the top three video themes turning out to be movie-related clips. Mobile videos relating to Vidya Balan’s The Dirty Picture were the most watched, with over 13 lakh 24 thousand views on mobiles. Shahrukh Khan starrer Ra.One, with more than 8 lakh video views, emerged as the runner-up this year in terms of most-watched Indian videos relating to the sci-fi movie, which had more than double the mobile video views than any content relating to the much hyped Kolaveri Di song from the upcoming Tamil movie ‘3’. Interestingly, even for all videos relating to Kolaveri Di, what found more mobile video interest was Kiddy Kolaveri: Sonu Niigaam's son sings Milk-u, with over 2 lakh 86 thousand mobile video views, compared to the original Tam-English song, which was viewed just over 56,000 times by Indian mobile audiences!

This year, some of the hot new properties in Indian entertainment also battled it out for the top spot, though the competition was short-lived as model Poonam Pandey emerged as the clear leader with over 1 lakh mobile video views, much ahead of Pakistan’s model and actress Veena Malik, who was in news over her controversial nude picture on a magazine’s cover, securing only 18,697 mobile video views. Even out of these, a larger chunk was on a public message against Veena Malik. Porn star Sunny Leone’s entry into Bigg Boss 5 saw a relatively cold response from Indian users with just under 2,500 mobile video views.

In sports, India’s win in the ICC World Cup 2011 made it one of the favorite themes to watch on mobiles. Three of the key videos relating to ICC World Cup included India vs. Pakistan match, India Australia innings highlights, and India innings sixes. Indians watched more videos on Virender Sehwag’s 219 runs off 149 balls against West Indies, as compared to the total mobile video views for the IPL series this year!However, moral support for the Tsunami and Earthquake in Japan that shook entire India, made it the most watched mobile video with almost 24 lakh video views. The century’s longest total lunar eclipse lasting 100 minutes in June 2011 also found great interest with Indian audiences with over 1 lakh video views.

Among news from India, the mobile videos of Mumbai bomb blast and train derailment near Fatehpur in July 2011 were watched a lakh times each. Videos on Indian social activist and leader Anna Hazare’s fight against corruption and demand for a strong Lokpal bill secured about 33,000 mobile views, whereas content relating to the CD scandal of Bhanwari Devi and former Rajasthan minister Mahipal Maderna was watched over 25,000 times. The news on three members of a family drowning during family picnic in Indore’s Patalpani in Madhya Pradesh had nearly 10,000 video views.

Analyzing the mobile video viewing trends, Salman Hussain, Vuclip’s Vice President - Business Development and Managing Director, India & Middle East, says, “When we launched Starlight Cinema last month, we were convinced that Indian mobile users love Bollywood and regional language cinema. Findings of our year-ender trend analysis for India re-affirm our belief. However, the astounding 24 lakh mobile video views for the tsunami in Japan show that in today’s networked world, geographies melt away while sending wishes to the fellow brethren in any part of the globe.  These trends also hold great lessons for mobile content providers and marketers – videos with a strong visual element typically generate more interest among mobile users. As more and more Indians switch to the mobile screen as their preferred mode of sourcing video content, we hope to see other news videos on crime, politics and gadget launches also coming into the mainstream on smart phones and feature phones in the coming years.”

Although Hindi continues to remain the most popular language in mobile video views in India, we’re also seeing an increasing pick-up for other language videos as well, says Salman.

Vuclip’s monthly Global Video Insights Report, capturing trends for the month of November from over 138 million monthly video searches and over 570 million mobile video views on Vuclip, featured as many as four Indian Bollywood celebrities among the top 10 mobile mega stars, with Sonakshi Sinha at the top spot ahead of Ashley Tisdale (#2), Kim Kardashian (#8) and Paris Hilton (#10). Other Indian stars most searched on mobile videos last month included Kareena Kapoor (#3), Malaika Arora Khan (#5) and Katrina Kaif (#7). Sri Lankan actress and model Jacqueline Fernandez, known for her roles in Bollywood films such as Murder 2, Raaz 3D, and Race 2, was at #9 in the list of top 10 mobile celebrities in Vuclip’s Global Video Insights Report.