Smartphone company Xiaomi India has announced the launch of its on-demand music and video streaming apps, Mi Music and Mi Video. This is part of company’s strategy to build the content ecosystem inside its MIUI, its customized operating system on Android. Notably, the two apps will only be available to Xiaomi phone users.
“Mi Music” will be a revamped version of an app that comes pre-installed in the brand’s mobile phones, and is being launched in partnership with Hungama.com. The company says that it already has nearly seven million daily active users in India, adding that the new version would be available starting May 2.
According to the company, Mi Music will offer over 10 million tracks in 13 Indic and other languages. The app will come with new features like dynamic lyrics and offline storage. Mi Music comes in a market with multiple options, where it will compete with other music streaming apps like Gaana, Saavn, Wynk, Amazon Prime Music, Apple Music, Google Play Music, among others. The one advantage it has is that MiMusic comes pre-installed in Xiaomi phones.
Mi Video, on the contrary, will be available from the second week of May. Following the trend of on-demand apps by players in the telecom sector, MiVideo will act like an integration platform and has content partnerships with Sony Liv, Voot, Hungama Play, Sun NXT, ALT Balaji, Zee, Viu, TVF and Flickstree. The app has video content in 15 Indic languages and will allow screencasting, according to the company.
Language and online streaming
On-demand video and music streaming have now become the most likely reasons for users in India going to the internet, and players in the segment have responded. The popularity of audio and video content for entertainment was recently quantified by an IAMAI report, as it found 68% of internet usage in India was for such content. Original video streaming platforms have mushroomed and players in the telecom sector have also rushed to grab a share of the pie. Both Airtel and Jio both offer over-the-top (OTT) video streaming apps for free, for all their mobile network users.
Just days ago, Airtel’s representative said that the Airtel TV app has 26-27 million monthly active customers. The focus for the app is to get customers, and have them spend more time on the app and consume more content. “Once we get that behavior going, charging a price for that content will be easier,” Airtel added.
The other clear focus from Mi’s content strategy is Indic languages, as it offers both music and video content in multiple Indian regional and international languages. Reports have earlier pointed out that language could be a game-changer in the Indian market, as it serves as the largest driver for potential regions. Nearly 23% of all non-users consider indic content a key motivator to get online. In rural India, 76% current users access the internet in Indic languages, and there is a potential to 732 million new such users. Similarly, urban areas have 160 million potential Indic users.
