Guest: Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
Host: Kiruba Shankar - PodTech

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
Hello and welcome. You're listening to the Kiruba Show at PodTech India. This is the show where we get to speak with leading newsmakers from the Indian IT industry. In this interview, we speak with Kanwaldeep Kalsi, the founding CEO of MeraVedio.com, an Indian version of YouTube. The site is close to getting $1.5 million in BC funding. We asked CEO, what are the revenue models and its chances of success? Will an Indian version of an international success story he'd paid out. Let's hear it from the man himself. Kanwaldeep, thank you for coming on to the show.

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
Thanks a lot, Kiruba.

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
First question, is it true that MeraVideo has signed a Virtual Capital Fund of $1.5 million?

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
Well, actually the first statement itself, the first word does that make was, we've not signed any, we're in extensive negotiations. Actually, not even with a fund, with a couple of funds.

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
I see, okay. I've seen MeraVideo and also ApnaTube and couple of other India's centric video sites. What is your differentiating factor from the other sites?

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
First, distinguishing factor that -- there are only a couple of players in the Indian space, if you might want to call it. The first distinguishing factor with that you might see is we have very, very little easy content as of now and second is we are very stringent on copyrights. We being a part or the Indian being a part of the producers guild union of India. We consciously make an effort so that none of the TV shows or any of the snippets from TV shows, XYZ don't make it through the website, that's the first thing. But the other distinguishing factor that you probably will notice on our site is, 30-40% of the content that you see on our site is user-generated and created, which is pretty unique that you may not even find on other global webs.

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
Okay. You must have been a very, very happy man to hear about the Google's acquisition of YouTube.

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
Well, actually I'll be honest. It was much relief or you might want to say, much caution relief both ways and couldn't have come at a better time because we've been in the market, when I say for fund raising and all that, for at least a couple of months, I had been talking to venture capitalists, angel investors and all that. Initially, there was a huge hesitation amongst the financial sector to go in for something like a Video Sharing site especially focused at the Indians, keeping in mind the copyright violations and the N number of various variations there-of that can arise out of copyrights. So, when Google acquired YouTube, it came as a blessing in disguise where people actually started believing that there is a huge market opportunity barring the litigations and the lawsuits that yes, there is content that can be aggregated on a site, that can be sold there-of. So, one was that and second is, Google and the YouTube News actually became so prominent across all channels including Hindi channels like Channel 7 and Aaj Tak that even a common man on the streets or even a shopkeeper started talking about YouTube and Video Sharing. So, I essentially didn't have to go out and explain to people what we are trying to do, as far as the Indian business scene is concerned.

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
Okay. There has been some kind of a talk at least as a Blogosphere that says that MeraTube is run out of a off-the-shelf script that one can buy. Well, that necessarily, it's not a bad thing. How do you counter if someone says like that?

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
Well, it's a free democracy, free world, everybody is allowed to say anything. What is essential and what is more important is to look inside, come to our office facilities and see what kind of work we're trying to do. The product that you see out there, which is currently running is just an alpha version. We planned to take out a beta version, which will be totally different and will be more focused on the mobile platform as opposed to a plain vanilla uploading and downloading of videos by a basic software.

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
Did you mention mobile?

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
Yes, that is one of the key major factors with which, we want to go out in the market. We have not done any PR, any publicity. If you look at the speed at which we are growing, it's pretty slow compared to a normal website that is because we are very cautious. As an example, the number of registered users we have are pretty less because these are the type of users that are actually uploading content, not just casual browsing users. So, what we're trying to do here is go at a slow pace, when we want to unleash our major platform, which we are pilot-testing right now, be available both on WAP, that is GPRS enabled phone as well as any other phone that has probably SMS capability.

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
Is this a right time for a video site in India, considering the bandwidth issues? Broadband is just about beginning to come up.

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
Answer to this question lies in previous answer that I gave you. Our strength is our weakness and our weakness could be our strength. Our weakness is, the broadband penetration and the type of connections we have, that's our weakness, but our strength is in mobile penetration. Today we are at 110 million mobile phones across India. So, that is where we want to leverage the strength and where a normal user who takes a 3GP or an MP4 Video on his phone and wants to share it, doesn't necessarily need to log on to the Internet but can directly upload it on to our servers, could be a MeraVideo server, could be a MeraMMS server and then probably can send the same SMS to another phone, that phone could be situated in the US or in a remote area in UP or MP and that video would be transmitted, that's probably what we're trying to leverage at and that will be primarily in our main monetization model also.

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
Talking of Monetization Models, what are your various revenue generate ideas?

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
As I mentioned earlier, mobile platform is going to be a major thrust in the market. We've always -- till now, we have not spoken about this model, but yes, I think now the time is right. We're getting a lot of traffic on this site and we would want to inform the users that another couple of months, we'll be launching our mobile services, which we're pilot-testing right now. So, monetization of downloads, uploads through the mobile phones, that's one...

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
So, the operators will share their revenues with you?

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
Correct, correct. And we will choose two routes for that, both of them. One, as I said, if you have a GPRS enabled phone, we'll give you a WAP version of the same or if you don't, we'll give you a short code facility wherein you can SMS through the short code and something, a video will come back to you or you can send a video to that. We have talked to operators regarding this. That's why I said, there are lot of things that are being happening in the background which are of more critical nature to this business rather than just plain vanilla sharing. And second is, a syndication of content where I would like to re-adulate that the opportunity is not in Video Sharing, the opportunity lies in exploring the market of video creation in India, which till date only exists in marriage parties and birthday parties. So, we want to explore, we want to get that creative or stimulant out of those people who really want to go out on picnics, even if it's small party, a Dom party or whatever, even if a fancy video you want to create. Yes, this is the place to be at and don't feel shy, broadcast yourself, and that's the opportunity, that's the second monetization opportunity when we say syndicate comment - so, essentially we're going to be like a media content aggregator. I wouldn't delve into bad points more apart from a fact that it might end up being like an eBay for videos, where you could put a price to your video, if you think it has a resale value.

Third one is, Subscriber Based Model. Currently, you might have an 100MB space, tomorrow you want 1GB and you want your own channel on MeraVideo, yes, you can have it but with different silver and gold and platinum level schemes. And the fourth one, which I believe is pretty small considering the type of hosting requirements and costs involved in the video sharing site is obviously a regular mean to see advertise.

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
You just talked about the bandwidth cost. It must be pretty higher, right? So, is that your single biggest cost...?

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
Yes...well, not really. I would always say talent is the biggest cost, nothing comes cheap. So, you have to pay the right kind of money to get the right talent. So, that's one, and hosting obviously. If let's say, if I spend hundred, hundred is my burn rate, you can comfortably say, 30-40% that is 30-40 would actually go on hosting of this.

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
Talking of talent, how big is your team now?

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
We have about eight people currently on board.

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
Okay. What are your marketing strategies?

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
Well, the first one is, it's pretty obvious, which is on the website. We really want to go out in the market and launch the college video contest. This in a way, would be our acid test where we are trying -- it's like a litmus test where we're trying to test the market because our target group is between the ages of 16 and 35. So, we really want to go out to the campuses and see, create a little buzz, initial buzz, give a little monetary compensation to the guys with some gadgets as well. So, that's the first thing we're trying to do, launches December 1st. There are two tactics that we want to deploy. One is, which we call Gorilla Marketing and second is, which is right in your face kind of publicity. Right in the face kind of publicity will only happen once we close on the funds and we have funds to splurge, but yes in the right manner and the Gorilla Marketing tactics will carry on.

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
You also are thinking about sharing your revenue with the content creator too.

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
Yes, and that also will comprise of -- in our Beta release, wherein ads would be slabbed at the end of a video, not the beginning, not in the middle, and based upon the click through rate if an ad gets clicked, and if MeraVideo gets, let's say, one rupee then a certain portion of that money would go to the guy who uploaded the content. So, there is an incentive to upload a video. So, basic mathematics, more the number of videos, more clicks you might get and more money you might make or better the quality of a video, so more clicks you'll get and more...

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
Right, so great. Kalsi, thank you so much for explaining about MeraVideo. Here's wishing you the very best.

Kanwaldeep Kalsi - MeraVideo.com
Thanks a lot Kiruba, it was a nice talk.

Kiruba Shankar - PodTech
You were listening to Kanwaldeep Kalsi, CEO of MeraVideo.com. Thanks for listening. B-bye!

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