Gaana expects to reach 500M subscriber base in 3 years, turn profitable in 2 years

Music app Gaana is expecting to reach a 500 million subscriber base in the next three years with diversification on content in regional languages, independent music, and traction overseas, a top official of the company said.

The company is also expecting to start making a profit in two years' time, and has a strategy to expand content and enhance its overseas customer base.

"Even though we have reached significant numbers, the potential to reach 500 million is very imminent in terms of listeners with Gaana. We are currently at 185 million monthly active users and are continuing to push the limits to half a billion users because that is the potential we see for Gaana," Times Internet and Gaana CEO Gautam Sinha said.

Gaana leads the music app category in terms of subscribers and has set a target to cross a 250 million customer base this year.

The company expects to reach half a billion mark in terms of subscriber base in the next three years.

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Sinha said overseas is a very important market for Gaana from the monetisation perspective.

"From an app point of view, it is easier to convert from a user to a subscribed user in the overseas market than the Indian markets. The overseas market also has regional differences with Bollywood being the crux but regional content also has a preference.

"We are making sure the content of Andhra and Telangana, which the audience based out of the US wants to stream, is readily available. We are marketing in a very segmented way that will boost viewership in length and breadth all across the world," Sinha said.

Focus on overseas subscribers

At present, overseas subscribers contribute 10 per cent in overall revenue of the company.

Gaana has seen high demand for Malayalam content in the Middle East, whereas in the US it is Tamil, Telugu and Punjabi content. In Australia, the demand for Punjabi content is more, he explained.

"We are marketing in a very segmented way that will boost viewership in length and breadth all across the world. It is a global product. There are users from all over the world, be it Asian countries like Thailand and Indonesia; basically Indians who have migrated and immigrated anywhere they confide in Gaana as a brand," Sinha said.

The company is deploying new technology for surround sound experience and is exploring the potential of 5G to enhance music experience on the app.

Sinha said 5G tremendously increases the ability to compute and transmit high fidelity and these are important components for compression and be able to deliver high fidelity to the end users.

"5G has a certain advantage, but if you look at Dolby Atmos they have come up with variants where you can listen to music as if it a surround sound. Gaana is working actively to make sure we bring both these benefits to the end user," Sinha said.

He said that the company wants to make Gaana synonymous with online Indian music.