MAM
Pocket FM introduces ad solutions to increase revenue growth
Mumbai: Pocket FM, a personalized audio streaming service, has launched ad solutions on the app to accelerate its revenue growth. In order to discover the best audio innovations, the company has conducted numerous experimental campaigns with more than 100 brands. It has also offered engaging brand solutions to companies like One Plus, Croma, Amazon Prime, Fino Banking Payments, Hero Vired, and others.
While ensuring a clutter-free and smooth advertising experience with little ad interference for its listener community throughout the test period, Pocket FM achieved enormous engagement for these brands on its platform. Brands can engage with the listener community using a customised strategy thanks to Pocket FM’s solution’s precise targeting choices.
Pocket FM head – agency relationship Manish Nagar said, “We have been spearheading the category creation for audio streaming with innovations and our unique storytelling capabilities guiding us towards sustainable and profitable growth. The marketing and advertising community has shown immense interest in our ad solutions due to its strength to optimise brand engagement without disrupting listeners’ experience.”
The project undertaken by Fino Banking Payments with Pocket FM garnered immense industry appreciation for its innovative approach to audio.
FINO Banking Payments chief marketing officer Anand Bhatia said, “For a relatively new platform to churn out such innovations in the audio OTT category is a great thing. But to win an award for it within the first six months itself is an even greater achievement. We are glad to have associated with Pocket FM and tried, tested, and approved of its prowess. A first of its kind for our category, really!”
In the last quarter, Pocket FM introduced the micro-payment module for its listener to imbibe piecemeal content consumption habits and witnessed an exponential growth trajectory in content monetization, setting the trend for a micro-payment mechanism.
Having over 1,00,000 hours of audio content, Pocket FM is focused on building the largest audio-streaming repository across multiple formats, including audio series, audiobooks, podcasts, and others. With more than 15 million monthly active listeners on the app, and a daily average time spent of over 100 minutes, the app has emerged as a preferred media category for brands and marketers.
Pocket FM has raised $93.6 million till date and is backed by some marquee investors like Lightspeed, Times Internet, Tanglin Venture Partners, Goodwater Capital, and Naver.
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
