Audio platform Pocket FM will launch in the US and has a $25 million annual revenue
- ByStartupStory | November 9, 2022
The audio series platform Pocket FM today announced its entry into the US market and international development. The company published a performance update for the period October 2021–September 2022 after finishing its fourth year of operations in September 2022. Due to the launch of the micro payment model and advertising solutions, the company’s ARR (Annualized Revenue Run-rate), as recorded till October 2022, has surpassed US$25 million.In its fourth year of operation, the platform has seen a 10X increase in revenue thanks to the addition of micro payments, with 500,000+ weekly transactions.
With 733 audio series, the audio series platform has expanded its selection of material. As a result, consumption of audio series, a fictional long-form audio narrative category that Pocket FM established and pioneered, has increased by 270% and now accounts for over 90% of time spent on the platform.
The company’s creator community has grown to over 500,000 people worldwide, and its listener community has increased to over 80 million people. In its fourth year, streaming on Pocket FM has climbed by 75% and surpassed 40 billion minutes. The age range of its listeners, which makes up more than 80%, is 15 to 35. The majority of people in this category enjoy family drama, romantic suspense, and thrillers. In addition to these well-liked genres, Pocket FM has observed a positive trend of consumption in the fantasy area, which has seen a 4X increase in listening minutes. With a median age of only 28.4 years, India is a young country, and younger people have found Pocket FM’s narrative to be engaging. 85% of all Pocket FM listeners are younger than 35, with 68% falling under the age of 25. Due to its extensive collection of programming, Pocket FM is incredibly well-liked in rural areas as well as small towns, yet among the top 5 cities on the platform are Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, and Hyderabad.
Over 50 million people listen to audio series, a long-form storytelling genre that Pocket FM developed and promotes. Of these listeners, 26% are romance junkies and 20% are thriller fans. Its audience listens for more than 100 minutes every day on average. 31% of Pocket FM listeners tune in to their preferred programming while in motion, primarily during their commute to and from work between the hours of 9 am and 12 noon and 6 pm and 9 pm. It’s interesting to note that listeners are more attentive to the platform before bed or when they are unwinding. During the hours of 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight, about 45% of listeners tune into Pocket FM.
In addition to its audio programming, Pocket FM launched its online reading service, “Pocket Novel,” in October 2021. More than 100,000 books have been uploaded by the writer community to Pocket Novel in the past year or so.
Similar to Pocket FM, Pocket Novel has seen daily user time averages of more than 100 minutes. During that time, it has recorded far over 400 million reads. Additionally, the company has begun turning the best-selling novels into audio series and built a robust pipeline across genres. To increase user engagement and retention, Pocket FM is tripling its expenditures in its AI and ML capabilities and focusing on developing a sophisticated, personalised content recommendation engine. Additionally, it is developing cutting-edge text-to-speech, picture, and NLP generative AI capabilities, which will accelerate content testing and creation.Additionally, it is enhancing its AI skills for content monitoring and quality testing that are automated.
With two rounds of capital injection in its fourth year, Pocket FM is in a strong financial position. In December 2021 the firm raised $22.4 million in Series B funding, and in March 2022 it raised US$65 million in Series C funding.The company has raised $93.5 million in total. The co-founder and CEO of Pocket FM, Rohan Nayak, commented on the company’s fourth-year performance update, saying, “We started with a vision to redefine the audio entertainment space, reviving it as a mainstream entertainment form with audio series, unearthing unique and unheard stories for our listeners worldwide. As we scale up to become the global audio series platform, we will continue to strengthen our content library, and nurture and grow our creator community across the world to kee.
“We are pleased to have pioneered this category development with sustainable and profitable growth,” he continued, “as our revenue has increased 10X to US$25mn ARR in just one year as a result of our successful discovery of the content monetisation model in the audio arena. We anticipate another 4X rise in our revenue during our fifth year of operations, joining the US$100mn ARR club within five years of our operations, given the current momentum and anticipated growth ambitions. In 2018, Pocket FM was established with the goal of creating the audio-series category and revolutionising the audio OTT industry. We take satisfaction in integrating the storytelling components with a layer of content personalization in the longer format, which led to the development of the consumption behaviour known as “binge listening.” We have been the go-to digital audio destination for a sophisticated audio-series storytelling experience because we are the only audio entertainment OTT, thanks to our rich and interesting content.
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