iWorld
BharatBox & GOQii launch healthcare metaverse platform
Mumbai: BharatBox, a metaverse venture between The Sandbox and Brinc, and GOQii, a smart-tech health and wellness platform, have launched a health and wellness platform in the metaverse. This partnership allows users to experience a digital world that integrates physical wellness routines with metaverse experiences, powered by the Universal Health Token (UHT).
The collaboration will use UHT to gamify preventive healthcare, enabling users to earn tokens for healthy actions, access health services, and benefit from a rewards system that promotes wellness behaviors.
As India’s metaverse adoption grows, this initiative aims to set a benchmark for integrating health and technology in a digital space. It offers experiences tailored for Indian users, combining fitness, mental well-being, and nutrition within an interactive metaverse.
UHT, an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum network, will incentivise healthy behaviors by rewarding users for fitness achievements, purchasing health services, and accessing consultations. It will also support decentralised governance (DAO) within the ecosystem.
Through GOQii’s ecosystem of wearables, coaching, and health insurance, the new metaverse platform will enhance users’ wellness journeys. BharatBox will create a culturally relevant, immersive experience, blending social interaction with health management.
India is rapidly becoming a key player in the metaverse market, which is growing at 13.93 per cent annually worldwide. India ranks among the top five countries in metaverse development, driven by strong investment, innovation, and employment growth, making this partnership well-positioned for widespread adoption.
BharatBox CEO Karan Keswani stated, “Our partnership with GOQii is grounded in the remarkable growth trajectory of both the Indian metaverse and the wellness industry. India’s digital health sector alone is projected to grow with the total count of recognized startups in the healthcare and life sciences space experiencing a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 127 per cent between 2016 and 2023. By integrating wellness into the metaverse, we’re tapping into a market that’s set to contribute billions in the near future from metaverse-focused opportunities.”
The Force of Good Foundation, which created UHT in collaboration with GOQii, will play a key role in aligning UHT with GOQii and BharatBox. It aims to promote a global movement for incentivized healthcare, connecting the platforms through shared values of preventive health, and using blockchain technology to deliver secure, user-driven healthcare experiences in the metaverse.
Force of Good Foundation director Agastya Samat said, “This partnership leverages two key trends: the exponential rise of the metaverse and the increasing demand for accessible preventive healthcare. The metaverse sector is increasingly adding jobs globally, indicating both a booming industry and growing user engagement. With this collaboration with BharatBox and integrating Universal Health Token (UHT) into our platform, we’re addressing a global shift towards incentivised health behaviour. Early projections show that tokenized ecosystems like ours could further increase user engagement, which is crucial as we scale to meet the evolving needs of Indian users, especially in a market where digital transformation in healthcare is now a key policy focus.”
iWorld
Banijay Asia’s The 50 tops OTT charts with 8.1 million JioHotstar views
Reality competition becomes most watched show on JioHotstar in debut week.
MUMBAI: Fifty contestants walked into a palace, but millions of viewers showed up for the drama. Reality competition The 50, produced by Banijay Asia, has emerged as the most watched show on JioHotstar, clocking 8.1 million views in its debut week. The figure, reported by Ormax Media, places the show at the top of the OTT viewership charts and marks a strong opening for the digital reality format.
Adapted from a popular French format, The 50 brings together 50 personalities from television, digital platforms, music and reality shows inside a grand palace setting. Over the course of a 50 day competition, participants form alliances, compete in unpredictable tasks and navigate eliminations as the field steadily narrows.
Guiding the game is a mysterious figure known as The Lion, an unseen game master whose voice introduces twists, challenges and strategic turns throughout the show, adding an extra layer of suspense to the contest.
What distinguishes The 50 from typical reality competitions is its audience driven prize structure. Instead of the winner taking home the final reward, the prize is awarded to one of the winner’s registered followers through the show’s dedicated app. The mechanism effectively turns viewers into participants, allowing fans to have a direct stake in the outcome.
The contestant lineup features a mix of television actors, reality stars and digital creators, including Karan Patel, Urvashi Dholakia, Divya Agarwal, Mr Faisu and Dushyant Kukreja, each bringing their own fan following to the show.
With its blend of celebrity personalities, strategic gameplay and interactive viewer participation, The 50 has quickly carved out a strong foothold in India’s digital entertainment landscape. Its 8.1 million views in the opening week underline the growing appetite for large scale reality formats designed specifically for OTT audiences.
