Bharti SoftBank acquires stake in ScoopWhoop

Bharti Softbank (BSB), a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Japanese telecom firm Softbank Corp, has acquired 36.5-per cent stake in ScoopWhoop Media Pvt Ltd. The acquisition was made through BSB Portal Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BSY Pte Ltd, a JV between BSB and Yahoo! Japan Corporation.

ScoopWhoop is an India-focused entertainment media startup that creates and curates content that is shared through social networks.

Its website and mobile application get about 20 million monthly page views and have over 8 million unique visitors each month.

Over half of all the page views are accessed via smartphones, underlining the strong mobile play.

The partnership will combine the strengths of both – that is content creation for Indian youth by ScoopWhoop and mobile-optimised technology platform and distribution by BSB for Indian consumers.

Madhu Nori, CEO, BSB Portal, said, ''About half of India's population is under 25 years old and the use of social networks with smartphones is growing rapidly among this segment. As a result, media consumption patterns are rapidly evolving and this space is ready for disruption. The team at ScoopWhoop has demonstrated significant growth by leveraging their strength in understanding and creating locally relevant content for India's young audience. We believe the partnership offers immense synergies for both parties to create great content experience for India's mobile internet population.''

India is the world's second largest mobile market with over 900 million subscribers.

A vast youth population and a fast growing economy are expected to drive data usage on mobiles with the proliferation of 3G and 4G services and increasing smartphone penetration.

According to the GSM Alliance, India will become the second largest mobile broadband market globally within the next four years with 367 million mobile broadband connections by 2016.