Homeveda crosses 200k subscribers combining the rise of alternative healthcare and video
The way people consume information has been changing rapidly and we're quickly moving towards more video content. Within healthcare, there is a tendency to use alternate healthcare treatment. Combining these two trends, Hitesh Bhagia, Harsh Rohatgi and Vinay Mishra got together in the middle of 2011 to start out with Homeveda.Homeveda creates do it yourself (DIY) content in the natural health & wellness space. The focus is on delivering high quality reliable information. The team has a strong background in media and analytics which helped them capitalize on the trend early. Hitesh and Vinay are IIM Kozhikode alumni and who have corporate as well as startup experience ( Vinay cofounded Marketics, an analytics firm which was acquired by WNS in 2007 for $65 million) . Harsh is an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus and has spent several years in the media world.
The first segment of videos they started out with was about home-made remedies giving information about alternative treatment using ingredients that users can find in their homes. All the videos are created by an in-house production team with guidance from experts in the space. "We've got some of the best people across the alternate healthcare domains on our panel who help create the content," says Hitesh. After home remedies, Homeveda entered into parenting with videos pertaining to first-time mothers, baby care and nutrition, etc.
Their primary mode of delivery has been YouTube where they have garnered over 200k subscribers with more than 31 million views across their videos. The traffic for these videos is from all across the globe (30% is India and the other majority is the US). "Our revenue model stands on three pillars -- content, community and commerce," says Hitesh. Till now, the main modes of revenue have been ads and a smaller chunk via subscriptions like Tata Sky, but with an active engaged community, the team is looking at opening other revenue streams now.
Homeveda is a 10-member team at the moment and the company also raised a seed round from Blume Ventures in the later part of 2013. "This funding is primarily being used to scale up the content and team," says Hitesh. The Homeveda website was also voted as the best website in the healthcare domain in 2013 by MetrixLabs. It is also the largest channel in the natural health wellness space worldwide. Apart from increasing the content on the site, a mobile app is the next thing on the product roadmap.
Homeveda has been able to begin early in a space which is pretty much open and also has competency in a mode where many others don't. The time is ripe for Homeveda to enter into eCommerce now and cater to the subscriber base they already have.
