MAM
Kiko TV rebrands as ‘assisted shopping’ app
MUMBAI: Kiko TV has announced its repositioning from a short format video app to an assisted shopping experience platform, making it India’s first AI-powered video and live commerce platform in the assisted shopping segment.
Launched a few months ago amidst the pandemic, Kiko TV has been witnessing a 30 per cent month-on-month increase in the social commerce vertical and will now be focusing on the growing market opportunities present within the same. The start-up will be investing heavily in building the same by acquiring a larger user database and building an aggregator community for sellers.
In the current pandemic, with buyers not able to go to retail outlets or malls to shop, the experience of shopping is missing. Buyers are looking to get a live shopping experience digitally from their favourite stores and brands and Kiko TV aims to fill this gap and provide a solution to this exact need by introducing a two-way live video communication stage between merchants and buyers. Users of the app can now enjoy a seamless shopping experience and discuss the product with the seller before purchasing it. Keeping the current #VocalForLocal and #MadeInIndia sentiment, Kiko TV will feature products from local Indian vendors only.
The new business model will be entirely spearheaded by Kiko TV co-founder and CEO Shivam Varshney. He will be responsible for bringing in partnerships, associations and newer ways of growth strategies. Varshney is an IIT Bombay alumnus and has been closely associated with Kiko TV since inception.
Said Varshney said, “With the social commerce market booming in India and all businesses looking at new ways of reaching out to customers, we foresee this as an excessively big opportunity to capitalise and grow in. Live bidding, live shopping, live interaction with the vendors is a space that is not tapped yet and holds the potential to thrive. Kiko TV will be focusing on this in the coming months.”
Kiko TV has been adding new features and updates on a regular basis to provide users a new experience every time they come on the app. The start-up is consciously putting in efforts to provide the best when it comes to social commerce. Kiko TV is available on both android and iOS and the app has crossed 120k downloads since its launch, with a weekly increase in the active users by 20 per cent
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
