inshorts Becomes Profitable; Advertising Drives Revenue for the News Aggregator

NEW DELHI, January 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Delhi-based content discovery and distribution platform, inshorts, has become operationally profitable in November 2017. Hitting a net revenue run rate of Rs. 25 crore in 2017, as compared to Rs. 3 crore in 2016, the company is targeting a net revenue rate of Rs. 100 crore in FY2018, with revenue coming in through branded partnerships and sponsored content.

The profitability factor can be largely attributed to revenue from advertising. The company posted its first ad on its app in July 2016 and started monetization with Airtel, Omega and Audi. Currently, they are working with over 200 advertisers and have been adding around 10 new advertisers every month.

The news aggregator aims to get 100 more advertisers on-board in 2018. Their list of advertising clientele boasts of brands like Vodafone, OnePlus, Mercedes and Myntra, which has increased by 10x in 2017.

Speaking about this, Azhar Iqubal, CEO and Co-founder, inshorts, said, "Our journey from TLabs incubator in 2013 to being profitable has been really exciting. inshorts started off as a Facebook page and now, the app has over 10 million downloads."

"To penetrate deeper into tier 2 and tier 3 cities of the country, this year we plan to enter the video news segment while exploring other Indian languages too. With this, we hope to create more simplified and promising content consumption platform for all our diverse spectrum of readers," added Iqubal.

According to Manish Dhingra, an angel investor in inshorts, "inshorts is an innovative company which is leveraging technology to create a scalable content discovery platform with huge potential. By capturing an opportunity with strong tailwinds, this business model has the ability to change the way content is consumed in India. The team's focus on driving growth and operational excellence has been extremely impressive and we are happy to have partnered with them in taking up the profitable road."

inshorts provides innovative and non-intrusive ad formats, thereby giving these advertisers a relief from intrusiveness. Brands typically sign up for both - ads and sponsored content together - through annual contracts, and pay on the basis of impressions (views) and engagements (likes and shares). The app which is available in English and Hindi, will also explore the availability of other Indian languages this year and focus on targeting tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

About inshorts  

inshorts is India's highest-rated news app, with more than 10 million downloads on Android and iOS. The app curates the most significant news items of the day, across categories like national, world, politics, business, sports, technology and entertainment, in just 60 words with a link to read the stories that interest them, in detail.

This enterprise was set up by a team of IITians, Azhar Iqubal and Anunay Arunav of IIT Delhi, and Deepit Purkayastha of IIT Kharagpur in 2013. Their entrepreneurial journey began from TLabs incubator in 2013 which was followed by a seed round from Times Internet and a group of angel investors including the founders of Flipkart. In 2015, inshorts raised a Series A round from Tiger Global and Rebright Partners, landing its Series B within four months, from Tiger Global.

inshorts also continues to be India's highest-rated news app on Android since January 2014 with a rating of 4.6, and in 2015 was included by Google India in its list of 50 best Android apps from India. By mid-2016, Inshorts garnered more than 8 million downloads on Android and iOS and is serving more than One billion page views every month since.

To know more, please visit: http://www.inshorts.com.

Media Contact:
Dipti Shah
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PR Executive
Boring Brands