Kuku FM: Case Study, Business Model, Revenue Model, Competitors, and Many More

Introduction:

An informal podcasting platform called Kuku FM produces and offers premium audiobooks that are exclusively available there. By making it simple for users to get fresh, cutting-edge, and varied audio material, the Mumbai-based podcast platform KuKu FM is reinventing traditional radio.

In India, the radio is being re-invented so that listeners can easily construct their own personal radio stations and listen to whatever they choose. Here are the steps offered for individualized personalization: Make audio, Add details, Choose and upload your audio, then publish it and watch how it performs.

Company Highlights:

Kuku FM About:

Kuku FM (Image Source: thebusinessrule.com)

As an audio content platform, it develops, produces, markets, and disseminates premium audio content in the form of audiobooks, stories, summaries, courses, and other genres via its mobile app and website, both of which are available for Android and iOS.

For all user segments in India, from age range 6 to 60+ years, it provides material spanning 50+ genres in 5+ languages. We are the fastest-growing premium audio content platform in India with more than 10 million downloads and 300,000+ paying members.

Industry:

An Indian audio platform with a wide selection of audio content is called Kuku FM. It consists of audiobooks, narratives, podcasts, and self-help material.

Founder & Team:

Mumbai, India serves as the company’s base of operations. The three founders were Vinod Kumar Meena, Lal Chand Bisu, and Vikas Goyal.

Kuku FM Founders (Image Source: yourstory.com)

Startup Story:

Lal Chand Bisu, a co-founder of the company, spoke about the company’s history and the decision it made to stand out in the competitive market by providing distinctive programming. Speaking at Inc42’s The Makers Summit, Bisu revealed that it has 2.68 million active subscribers and has experienced a 4X growth in the last 12 months.

In addition to adding UPSC content, Kuku FM, which provides audio programming in a number of Indian regional languages, has also branched out to include upskilling programmes and kid-friendly educational material.

Mission & Vision:

By producing long-form audio stories, quick podcasts, fiction and non-fiction audiobooks in local Indian languages, it seeks to reimagine traditional radio.

Business Model:

A variety of audiobooks, podcasts, and other audio content are available to users of Kuku FM, a podcast platform. By providing more diversified content than traditional radio or other podcast apps, it distinguishes itself by concentrating on solving the differentiation puzzle. The public in India was largely unaware of the audio content at the time of its launch.

It now has more than 26 lakh customers, nevertheless. Through its customers, it generates a sizable portion of its income. It provides a large selection of audio programming in many different Indian languages, spanning many different genres. You can discover the following categories of material on the platform:

• Audiobooks: It has a substantial library of audiobooks in a variety of categories, including fiction, nonfiction, self-help, and biographies. These novels are available in several Indian languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi, and English.
• Podcasts: It offers an extensive library of shows on a range of subjects, including news, politics, health, education, spirituality, and lifestyle.
• Stories: It features a substantial collection of narratives, including short stories, fairy tales, folktales, and bedtime stories. From a variety of genres, including drama, comedy, romance, and horror, you can pick your favourites.
• Bhajans, aartis, mantras, and other religious content are all available on it’s devotional playlist.
• Comedy Programs: It offers its users a variety of stand-up comedy performances and comedy shows.
• It provides a range of inspirational content, such as self-improvement, success stories, and motivational lectures.
• Radio Programmes: It offers a selection of radio shows in a number of different languages, giving listeners a mix of music, news, and entertainment.

As a result, listeners’ interests are satisfied by the wide variety of audio content Kuku FM offers. Different age groups and ethnic backgrounds make up its audience. It predominantly employs a free + ad-supported model as its primary form of operation. It implies that its audio content is available without charge. But you’ll also have to deal with the advertising for that. For financial gain, it shows adverts. You should watch the paid material if you find those adverts upsetting.

It has little overhead expenses. In other words, they can maintain a large percentage of users without imposing a major additional cost. As a result, their business model is both profitable and scalable.

Revenue Model:

Due to it’s subscription-based business model, listeners can enjoy ad-free listening and unique access to premium programming. The platform will receive consistent income thanks to this business model. There are many appealing features available with the Kuku FM premium subscription package, including:

• Downloads.
• High-quality audio.
• Ad-free experience.
• Car mode.

It charges a subscription for its users to access its premium content. The name of its subscription package is “KukuFM Premium,” as was previously mentioned. The company’s entire revenue greatly benefits from this source of income. There are two types of plans available here, namely:

• Annual Plan: Rs.899
• Monthly Plan: Rs.99

You may have heard a number of commercials while listening to the free content. because it uses audio advertisements to monetize its free content. Due of the company’s large user base, advertisers trying to target local consumers may find it to be an appealing platform.

Sponsorships are another source of income for it. To broaden their visibility and audience, brands can sponsor articles or podcasts on the site. In-app purchases for audiobooks and other premium content are another source of income for Kuku FM.

Kuku FM Services (Image Source: modapk.world)

Products & Services:

The podcast programming that Kuku FM began with didn’t do well on the site. The next section of the analysis focused on user-generated content (UGC), which Bisu described as “a Twitter thread of audio stuff.” Beginning with Hindi content, it has now introduced programming in seven additional regional languages in addition to English. Over 40,000 pieces of content are currently available on the platform of the startup.

Funding & Investors:

• Over 5 rounds, it has raised a total of $47.3M in investment.
• It received its first round of funding on September 9, 2018.
• The most recent investment round for it was a Series B round for $21.8M on August 29, 2022.
• In its most recent round, which was headed by Fundamentum, ten investors took part.
• Shunwei Capital, India Quotient, and 3one4 Capital are just a few of the 23 institutional investors in it.
• Shunwei Capital, India Quotient, and 3one4 Capital are significant investors.
• The principal institutional shareholder in Kuku FM is Vertex Ventures.
• Angel investors in Kuku FM include Aman Gupta and 23 others.
• According to the most recent post-round ownership report on March 28, 2022, the founders hold 33.13 percent with a net worth of INR 143Cr.
• Funds, who hold 48.51 percent of it’s shares, are followed by Founder, who hold 33.13 percent, Enterprise, who hold 12.09 percent, ESOP, who hold 4.73 percent, and Angel, who hold 1.53 percent.

Employees:

As of May 23, it employed 198 people. There are 2 fewer employees overall than there were on April 23.

Challenges Faced:

There is no data of it.

Acquisitions:

No acquisition has been done.

Growth:

The majority of audio OTT applications are still having trouble attracting paying users, despite a dramatic rise in consumption over the past several years in India. Kuku FM, a Mumbai-based radio platform, has defied this tendency.

Based on its vernacular content, it has 2.68 million active users, with the audio OTT platform experiencing a 4X increase in active paying customers over the last 12 months. 50,000 creators are currently using Kuku FM, and 60% of them are female. After being carefully selected by the platform’s personnel, a creator’s content is only ever released there.

Partners:

• Numerous brands and publishers have ties with it. This enables the business to increase the variety of material it offers and reach more people.
• To create unique material, it has collaborated with a number of content producers. Kuku FM has been able to stand out in the audio OTT market because to this tactic.

Competitors:

• With 964 active rivals, it is now ranked seventh.
• Of its rivals, 51 have funding, while 32 have given up.
• In total, 151 investment rounds with 404 investors saw almost $4.59B in funding raised by it and its rivals.
• The entire competition set has just one private unicorn.
• Spotify, Pocket FM, and Deezer are the main rivals.

Awards & Achievements:

It has not yet owned any awards.

Future Plan:

With significant financial support from Kuku FM, an internal voice recognition AI was created. This technology enhances the user experience by enabling it to provide special features like real-time subtitles and smooth content search.

It promotes user participation through interactive elements including ratings, reviews, and comments. This aids them in bettering the platform’s content offerings and understanding user preferences.

FAQs :

What does Kuku FM do?

Radio, podcasts, and audiobooks can all be streamed via a mobile device. Users are able to podcast news, speeches, and stories as well as broadcast live radio. It gives customers the option to stream content in a variety of languages and topics, including sports, politics, spirituality, and more. On the basis of the keywords, they are able to look for broadcasting titles. Both iOS and Android smartphones support the mobile application.

When was Kuku FM founded?

In 2018, it was established.

Who is the founder of Kuku FM Corporation?

Vikas Goyal, Lal Chand Bisu, and Vinod Kumar Meena are the creators of it.

Who is the CEO of Kuku FM Corporation?

Lal Chand Bisu is now the CEO.

Who are the main competitors of Kuku FM?

Spotify, Pocket FM, and Deezer are the main rivals.

Conclusion:

It gained popularity as a result of its remarkable material in regional languages in addition to English. Most audiences who do not speak English can benefit from this function. Additionally, it offers fascinating features to the audience and a host of advantages to the makers. The result was that it acquired almost 2.68 million paying customers.

We have covered Kuku FM’s sources of income in the section on revenue. This disproved the idea that non-English speaking or non-metro audiences never pay for content. They actually did! It is one of India’s most popular audio outlets as a result.

Sai Sandhya

My name is Sai Sandhya, and I work as a senior SEO strategist for the content writing team. I enjoy creating case studies, articles on startups, and listicles.