CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Abhijeet Rajpurohit, COO and Co-Founder, Cloud TV
- As CloudTV is a homegrown brand, can you please share an insight into the journey and its growth story over the years?
CloudTV OS was developed to unlock the full potential of Smart TVs and democratize content streaming. In a market where Smart TVs predominantly focus on pre-installed social media apps to mirror the smartphone experience, we envisioned a Smart TV explicitly tailored for the Indian audience. Thus, we launched our TV brand, CloudWalker, with this vision.
Furthermore, in 2017, we embarked on developing our TV operating system to cater to the unique needs of Indian users. Our product quickly garnered popularity among end users as the only Smart TV that simplifies OTT content discovery and makes it affordable. Recognizing the distinct requirements of the Indian Smart TV market, we identified the necessity for a solution designed and produced locally.
Unlike International Operating Systems, which are heavily reliant on the overseas market for their distribution or not optimized for Indian preferences, our Made-in-India approach addressed a significant gap. As we expanded our offerings to other Indian manufacturers, we collaborated closely with our partners and TV brands to achieve numerous milestones over the years. Today, our impact resonates across the Indian Smart TV landscape, powering approximately 6 million Smart TVs in India through 23+ manufacturers, supporting over 160 brands, and serving a user base of approximately 12 million.
- What is the significance of Cloud TV 3.0, especially with its features such as the enhanced user interface and voice control?
India’s diverse landscape presents both challenges and opportunities, and CloudTV 3.0 is designed to cater to this complexity. To address varying user needs, we offer multiple user interfaces for TV brands to choose from, ensuring a tailored experience.
Our Voice Assistant stands out as one of the most utilized features by end-users, streamlining content search and playback with remarkable ease and intuitiveness. We modified it to run seamlessly on even the most affordable hardware available for Indian TVs, ensuring widespread adoption. Moreover, it also supports regional languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, and Haryanvi, with plans to introduce support for additional Indian languages targeted for rollout this year.
- How has Cloud TV leveraged partnerships and collaborations to enhance its product offerings and market reach?
We collaborated with leading OTT apps and FAST channels in India to ensure our users can access their favourite apps and channels directly on their TVs. Our partnerships include renowned platforms such as Disney+Hotstar, Amazon Prime, Jio Cinema, Zee5, and SonyLIV, among others.
Additionally, we offer a selection of FAST channels like TV Today Network (Aaj Tak and India Today), Network18, TV9 Network, Republic TV, and India TV. To optimize content discovery for our users, we closely engage with over 200 content partners, staying attuned to trending and popular content. This allows us to propose tailored recommendations that enhance the overall viewing experience and help customers to take an informed decision in their Smart TV purchase.
- In what ways is CTV OS enhancing the performance and user experience of affordable smart TVs in India?
Cloud TV’s Operating System is designed to work across various hardware, including low-end devices, enabling TV manufacturers and brands to produce cost-effective products. By optimizing performance on lower hardware, our user-friendly, intuitive interface supports a wide range of popular OTT apps like Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, JioCinema, Zee5, and SonyLIV. It also integrates FAST news and entertainment channels such as Aaj Tak, TV9, News18, Pitaara, Dangal, and Saregama Music, providing free access to millions of our customers. Overall, Cloud TV OS makes high-quality entertainment on affordable Smart TVs in India, making it accessible to a larger audience of potential buyers.
- What future innovations and expansions can we expect from Cloud TV in the coming years?
In the near future, Cloud TV is set to introduce several innovations aimed at enhancing the user experience and broadening our market reach. We are focusing on integrating advanced AI and algorithms to provide more personalized content recommendations and improve user engagement. Additionally, we plan to expand our partnership network to include more global OTT platforms and FAST channels, offering a wider variety of content options to our users.
We are continuously upgrading our product features, including the development of more interactive applications such as voice control, PC Mode, Kids Mode, and others, allowing users to seamlessly control their TVs and connected devices. To enhance accessibility, we aim to optimize our operating system for a broader range of hardware, ensuring smooth performance even on the most affordable devices.
Apart from delivering high-quality, affordable products to end-users, Cloud TV’s ecosystem offers significant growth and expansion opportunities to all our partners, including mainboard suppliers, TV manufacturers/brands, content partners & advertisers. Recently, we opened our platform to allow advertisers to promote their brands and products to a larger audience on larger screens, enhancing brand recall and awareness. With millions of users in our database, advertising on our platform has the potential to strongly influence potential customers.
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