iWorld
Solo video viewers on the rise in India: Ampere Analysis research
MUMBAI: Going solo! That’s something Indian streaming services have been working hard to get viewers to do with their video apps – especially in a mobile-first country like India.
Apparently, it seems to be working, according to a new research report put out by UK research firm Ampere Analysis, late last month.
It stated that 15 per cent of viewers in India went in for solo viewing of video content in Q3 2019-2020 as against 10 per cent in Q1. While 50 per cent growth in two quarters will have the streaming service heads grinning in glees, the Indian consumer has some way to go before reaching the high solo viewing habits of those in Europen markets.
In Sweden, for instance 45 per cent of internet users watched video and TV alone in Q3 2019, up from a little over 40 per cent in Q1; in Denmark, the figure went up to 35 per cent in Q3 2019 from 30 per cent in Q1-2019. The Netherlands had a smarter jump growing from 25 per cent in Q1 to 35 per cent in Q3. The UK shares similar numbers.
The research revealed that solo viewing is high in markets where OTT usage is high clearly indicating that video on demand content is driving this behaviour. Research also showed that these viewers believe that family viewing is no longer important.
This trend will only gather momentum as existing leaders like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and new streamers like Disney+, Peacock, HBO Max, and other country players like Hotstar, Zee5, Voot, SonyLiv aggressively roll out and push their offerings globally and localise content.
The trend must specially give some satisfaction to Star India and Disney APAC big boss Uday Shankar. It was in 2015 that the network had launched its Hotstar “Go Solo” campaign.
“We were talking to young Indians, who prize individuality and non-conformity. Those who weren’t satisfied with the traditional viewing in India, sitting around a living room TV set, watching a channel that someone else had chosen,” the network says.
“She is always on top of news and opinion articles, yet I have never seen her hold a physical newspaper,” Uday is quoted as saying on the Star website, referring to the young women in India who are changing how they consume media. "Her daily dose comes exclusively from the digital universe. She is a voracious consumer of movies and drama; yet goes to theatres more for fun than for creative consumption. Fixed schedule programming sounds as bizarre to her as silent movies to us.”
With Disney announcing the launch of Disney+ as a tab on Hotstar by March 2020, this solo viewing trend can only head further northwards.
iWorld
WhatsApp may soon let users to pick who sees their status updates
The messaging giant is borrowing a page from Instagram’s playbook as it pushes to give users finer control over their social circles.
CALIFORNIA: WhatsApp is quietly working on a feature that could make its Status function considerably smarter and considerably more private.
According to reports from beta tracking platforms, the app is testing a tool called Status lists, which would allow users to create named groups such as close friends, family and colleagues, and control precisely which group sees each update. It is a meaningful step up from the platform’s current blunt instruments, which offer only three options: share with all contacts, exclude specific people, or manually select individuals each time.
The new feature draws an obvious comparison with Instagram’s Close Friends function, and the resemblance is unlikely to be accidental. Both platforms sit within Meta’s family, and the company has been nudging them toward a common logic of audience segmentation for some time.
The move also fits neatly into WhatsApp’s broader privacy push. The platform has been rolling out enhanced chat protections and is exploring the introduction of usernames, which would allow users to connect without exchanging phone numbers. Status lists extend that philosophy from messaging into broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Status itself has been evolving well beyond its origins as a simple photo-and-text slideshow. The feature now supports music stickers, collages, longer videos and interactive elements, pushing it closer to the social-media-style story format pioneered by Snapchat and refined by Instagram. In that context, finer audience controls are not merely a privacy feature. They are a precondition for people sharing more.
The feature remains in development and has not been confirmed for release. WhatsApp routinely tests tools that are later modified or quietly shelved. But the direction of travel is clear: the app wants Status to be a destination, not an afterthought. Letting users decide exactly who is in the audience is how it gets there.
