MAM
Sony Pictures India, Dentsu Webchutney launch interactive game on YouTube
MUMBAI: Touted to be one of the largest video streaming platforms of today, YouTube is undoubtedly the world’s largest repository of videos. In fact, the average number of mobile views via this platform alone is more than 1000 million; and yet, never ever has this platform been used beyond visual content to interact with its users. Thus, to engage with this ever-abundant content-loving population that sits on this platform, Sony Pictures Entertainment, in partnership with Dentsu Webchutney, has created the first-ever gaming video for YouTube.
Inspired from Sony Pictures Entertainment’s latest release, Zombieland: Double Tap, the gaming video features zombies and guns. Taking cue from the movie tagline – Double Tap, the game asks users to double tap on their screens to shoot the zombies with different weapons. For instance, a single double tap could lead the user to kill the zombies with a pistol, a shot gun and/or a machine gun. Double tapping on the video at different indicated times will also enable the user to reach interesting milestones within the gaming story. For the record, Zombieland: Double Tap is a post-apocalyptic horror zombie comedy film. It is about Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock who square off against the undead.
The video has already received more than 1,000 views in the first hour of its upload. More than hundreds have already shared screenshots of their entries via direct messages.
Sony Pictures Entertainment India Director & Head – Marketing Shony Panjikaran said, “Zombieland is one of the few unique films which has a cult following since years. This is despite the fact that the subject and its treatment is a bit niche for the Indian market. We recognized that a huge chunk of the target audiences are gamers. Therefore, to engage them with a thematic game was our unique proposition. After analyzing what platforms would be the best to use based on numbers and also creatively befitting, we thought YouTube would be the most ideal platform for this. Also, the YouTube feature of double tap to forward was a perfect tool for us to display the tag line of our film. Hence, the team came up with a game around the feature. It is the first of its kind, simple and ingenious and is particularly apt to market a film such as this to our young TG. We have gamified the experience and have added levels to the 'double tap' to shoot and complete the user journey with a CTA to book tickets.”
Dentsu Webchutney Executive Creative Director Pravin Sutar said, “Social media numbers for YouTube say that it’s one of the most popular platforms and happens to entertain millions of people daily. With so much content being watched without having any interaction from the user’s end was an opportunity waiting for us to be explored. We changed the notion of just watching a video on YouTube by introducing an interactive element to the video wherein one could kill zombies by double tapping the video. Such small gaming hacks on a video platform results in disruption of sorts, which in turn creates a lot of engagement for the user.”
Brands
Google nears Nvidia in race for world’s most valuable company
Market cap gap narrows as Google hits $4.65 trillion, Nvidia at $4.86 trillion.
MUMBAI: In the AI gold rush, even the giants are sprinting and Google is suddenly gaining ground. Google is rapidly closing in on Nvidia in the race to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, with the gap between the two narrowing sharply amid diverging stock momentum. The tech giant’s market capitalisation has surged to around $4.65 trillion, following a more than 140 per cent rise in its share price over the past year.
That rally has added over $2.6 trillion in value in just 12 months, including nearly $900 billion since January alone. Its stock recently hovered at $381.80, slipping marginally by 0.04 per cent, but still reflecting strong upward momentum.
Nvidia, meanwhile, continues to hold the top spot with a valuation of approximately $4.86 trillion. The chipmaker crossed the $5 trillion milestone in October last year and peaked at $5.27 trillion on 27 April. However, its shares have largely plateaued over the past six months, rising just 0.2 per cent recently to $199.99.
The contrast in trajectories is striking. While Nvidia has seen relatively flat movement, Google has gained over 36 per cent in the same six-month period. Barron’s estimates suggest that if current trends hold, the valuation gap could shrink to as little as $190 million by the time Nvidia reports its first-quarter earnings on 20 May.
Daily momentum paints a similar picture. Nvidia recorded average daily gains of about 0.66 per cent last month, compared to Google’s stronger 1.42 per cent, an edge that could prove decisive in the short term.
Driving Google’s resurgence is its aggressive push into artificial intelligence across its ecosystem, from search and YouTube to cloud computing. The company has already invested $144 billion in capital expenditure over the past two years and plans to deploy a further $490 billion over the next two.
Its cloud division is also gathering pace. Google Cloud reported an order backlog of nearly $220 billion in the latest quarter, with total backlog touching a record $462 billion, around half of which is expected to be realised within two years. The company’s entry into chip sales is also beginning to factor into its growth narrative.
The last time Google briefly topped the S&P 500 by market value was in February 2016, when it edged past Apple for just two days. This time, the stakes and the numbers are far higher.
At the heart of the contest lies a single force: artificial intelligence. As both companies pour billions into infrastructure, chips and platforms, the leaderboard is no longer just about size, it is about who can scale the future faster.
