ICC Women’s World Cup Final Creates a New Record on Hotstar

India's leading video on demand platform, Hotstar today announced record viewership for the ICC Women's World Cup 2017 final match played between host England and India. For some it may be surprising to hear this news but for me it is something which was expected and I have my reasons for that. Let me take you 12 years back  to 2005 when India was in Finals, Mithali Raj led the team and lost to Australia in the pen ultimate match. Next day we woke up to the news, not covered with great depth but many of  us came to know that India is represented in Women Cricket as well and not only that we have reached till finals. May be that was the only peak point of popularity at that stage. But 2017 is different, its different in many ways, the advertisements are  at the par of the men tournaments, the internet penetration is way too high and the accessibility is again one another factor. Thanks to apps like Hotstar which have made it possible to seamlessly stream live matches on the go.

Indian Women Cricket Team posing for cameras

From the very first match when India beat England by 35 runs, it was part of the discussion even though the Indian fans were just coming out the shocker of Champions Trophy defeat in Finals. The players were now being called by name, they were no longer discussed as statistics. Smriti Mandhana became national crush and Harmanpreet Kaur's 171 run made her a household name. Mithali Raj became the highest ODI scorer in women's cricket. India defeated the defending champions Australia in Semi-Finals. All this was not going to go un-noticed. 

The match peaked in the contentious 48^th over with India needing 11 runs to win off 12 balls, recording a peak concurrency of 1.9 million simultaneous viewers. This was higher than the average concurrency of many of the marquee men’s cricket tournaments on Hotstar in the last year, a feat in its own right and an inflection point in women’s sports. While Vivo IPL 2017 saw a predictable list of state-wise tune-ins, consistent with team loyalties, the Women’s World Cup saw a surprise entrant in UP, which along with Maharashtra, contributed to 25% of total viewership.

This is just the beginning, the sports has already garnered much support and recognition from local audience with this tournament we believe and wish there is more to this success story.

Read More

OPPO will be the next Indian Cricket Jersey sponsor after successful bid of $162 million

OPPO , one of leading smartphone brand from China has bragged rights for Indian Cricket Team sponsorship after successful bid of $162 million (1079 crore INR). The partnership with BCCI will start from 1st April 2017. OPPO outbid Vivo, another smartphone brand from China for the sponsorship rights. Vivo offered $115 million for a period of 5 years where as OPPO offered $162 million for same time period to become proud sponsor of Team India. 

This is a new step of OPPO in the field of cricket after becoming the official Global Partners of the International Cricket Council for 4 years from 2016 onwards.

Sky Li (President OPPO), Rahul Johri(CEO, BCCI) and Diana Edulji (BCCI)

Speaking on the partnership, Mr. Rahul Johri, CEO, BCCI said “On behalf of the BCCI, I would like to congratulate OPPO Mobiles India Pvt. Ltd., on winning the rights and welcome them to the BCCI family. OPPO Mobiles and the BCCI share a common vision and I am confident that we will work together to further grow Indian cricket.”

The team sponsorship rights include the right to be called the official team sponsor, and to display a commercial logo on the National Men's, Women's, Under-19 and India A teams' kits.

Mr. Sky Li, Global VP & President of OPPO India said, “Cricket in India is not just a sport, but also a way of life and culture, especially amongst the youth. The Indian National Cricket Team is the essence of cricket in India and the team’s spirit of marching forward and pursuing newer heights is highly consistent with OPPO’s pursuit of products with unmatched photography experience.”

Sky added, “The Indian national team receives high reputation and influence among young people. By partnering with the team, OPPO will not only further enhance its connection with the young consumers, but also engage with the country’s youth in its endeavor of providing them with the outstanding selfie-led photography experience.”

OPPO leads the smartphone photography developments in the industry. It started the trend of selfie beautification, first launched the motorized rotating camera phone N3, screen flash and other photography feature. In 2015, in line with its deep insight of young people’s behavior, OPPO first launched selfie focused smartphones——Selfie Expert F series in India. And its first batch products F1, F1 Plus and F1s received warm welcome and the brand leads the selfie trend in the country. Now the brand’s share in the offline market reached 11.7 percent and is ranked No.2 in the market, as of Jan 2017, as reported by research firm GFK.

OPPO is a young and dynamic company and has already established itself as one of the world’s leading smartphone brand with a base of more than 100 million young customers using OPPO mobile phones globally and the brand has become the most welcomed camera phone brand across the young Indians.

Read More

OPPO Launches "Game On, Selfie On" charity campaign in partnership with Yuvraj Singh's 'YouWeCan'

OPPO, the global smartphone vendor (Currently in top 5 list of global smartphone vendors), today announced launch of "Game On, Selfie On" charity campaign as part of its corporate social responsibility. The campaign aims to raise awareness about cancer and facilitate cancer screening. OPPO has partnered with Yuvraj Singh's 'YouWeCan' foundation.

Game On Selfie On

The campaign by OPPO aims to bring hope and light to society by helping the foundation in facilitating cancer screenings for maximum people. By associating with ‘YouWeCan’, OPPO wants to expand horizons and spread the message of hope via an influential platform. It will be launched with a series of social media posts on facts about cancer in order to create sustainable conversations amongst audiences and especially amongst millennials. The more these posts are shared by users on their personal networks, more will be the level of awareness. OPPO will donate Rs.10 for every single ‘Share’ of the post to ‘YouWeCan’ Foundation. Upon hitting 50,000 ‘Shares’, OPPO will donate Rs. 5 Lakh and on exceeding 50,000, OPPO will double the donation amount to Rs. 10 Lakh. There’s also a surprise for the fans. Every week lucky fans stand a chance to win one OPPO F1 Plus [autographed by OPPO’s first sports ambassador for this cricket season, Yuvraj Singh] and one OPPO F1.

The initiative is open to all residents of India aged 13 years or above. There is no entry fee or purchase necessary to join the campaign. Every participant must access the campaign through their own social media assets. The campaign will launch on social media on Saturday, 30th April 2016, at 9:00AM which is when the first post goes live. All shares on the post from 9 AM on Saturday to 11:50 PM on corresponding Sunday will be taken into consideration for the donation. The dates for the campaign post are 30th April to 1st May, 6th May to 7th May, 12th May to 13th May, 20th May to 21st May.

“YouWeCan is a very good initiative and we are proud to be associating with it. As a brand, we would like to give back to the society in a way that helps millions. And with this campaign we would like to reach out to people, educate them, spread awareness and bring hope.” said Mr. Sky Li, OPPO VP, Managing Director of International Mobile Business and President of OPPO India.

“I think it is a great step taken by OPPO in launching such an initiative and the fact that they are not only donating to the ‘YouWeCan’ Foundation, but are also committing themselves in being actively involved in spreading awareness. I would encourage everyone and especially my fans to participate in this initiative.” said ace cricketer and OPPO’s first sports ambassador for this cricket season, Yuvraj Singh.

The promoter reserves the right to cancel or amend these terms and conditions without notice. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook or any other Social Network. All data provided is in no way the IP of Facebook or any other Social Network.

Read More

9Apps reported 450% surge in App downloads during Cricketing season, maximum downloads during India Vs Pak match

World T20 championship has just concluded with West Indies emerging as Champions in both Men and Women category. The cricket fever gripped the nation as well as other cricket fans as expected. Google search, twitter hastags, Facebook discussions all were dominated by the tournament thanks to its massive following. 

Cricket-related apps have seen over 450% surge during the ongoing T-20 World Cup; the traffic peaked during the second week into the cricket season with India-Pakistan match adding to the frenzy, according to the latest data shared by 9Apps Trends, 9Apps’ app tracking service. 9Apps is part of Alibaba Mobile Business Unit and one of the most popular third-party app stores in India. The report offers a glimpse on how the android app market has reacted to the cricket mania that has gripped the nation.

Graph depicting the app download surge this cricket season

Talking about the app download trends, Ebrahim Popat, Country Manager of 9Apps said: “9Apps is very popular among Indian users due to its local apps and features. We are encouraged by the strong growth in sports-app downloads, and happy to help so many users connect with their favorite sport.”

Maximum Downloads during India vs Pakistan

The following chart demonstrates the download trend of top 5 cricket-related apps. Before the WT20 started, top 5 cricket-related apps were downloaded around 300,000 times per week; the download surged 340% once the World Cup kicked off. The trend coincides with schedule of the Indian cricket team. 

Take Hotstar TV Movies Live Cricket for example - the most trending cricket app. Since its launch on March 8th, the app has quickly made it to the top 20 in Overall Ranking on 9Apps Trends. Its daily downloads peaked and reached over 200,000 downloads on March 19th – the day India beat Pakistan in a league match.

The keyword search “cricket” has also been trending. Before the WT20, 3 cricket-related app ranked among Top Searches and only 1 ranked among New Ranking. The number went up to 7 and 5 during the third week of the cricket season.

Video apps are becoming more and more popular

Increased smartphone penetration and better network infrastructure is allowing millions of users to enjoy a cricket game on the go. Three of the top 5 cricket-related apps - Hotstar, Cricket T20 2016 Live TV and Cricbuzz provide videos and even live streaming of the matches. The content consumed by cricket fans is getting diversified as users’ appetite for video is fast growing.

Everyone wants to have a piece of the pie

Cricket season is too big to ignore. Sports app developers and content providers have either updated their apps to bring world-cup-theme features, or providing new content to attract users. For instance, UC Browser, the No.1 mobile browser in India with over 59% market share, has revamped its in-app widget UC Cricket to provide a variety of cricket content. It even provides web-based cricket-themed games for users to share the joy of cricket. 9Apps, the No.1 third-party app market of India, has also geared up with push notification features to remind users of the upcoming matches.

The cricket season offers a unique opportunity for app developers and content providers to test their ability in catering to seasonal demands.

Read More

Vivo to replace Pepsi as title sponsor for BCCI's IPL for next two years

Indian Premier League gets its new title sponsor in Vivo Mobiles. Vivo will be title sponsor for next two years for IPL tournament which runs on news channels more for the controversies surrounded around it than the game itself. The decision was taken in Working Committee meeting of BCCI held in its headquarters, Mumbai on 18th October, 2015. 

Vivo - title sponsor for IPL for next two years

In numerous decisions taken in the meeting were extension of contract with Nike for team's apparel and assignment of IPL title sponsorship rights to M/S Vivo mobiles for which Vivo is supposed to provide with Bank guarantee in next 10 days. Vivo got this opportunity as current title sponsor Pepsico has backed off from sponsorship in middle of the contract period citing concerns over ethical issues and controversies surrounding the tournament over spot-fixing.

Vivo mobiles, entered Indian market last December and has managed to get hold of 2 percent of market share. Sensing the craze of nation towards cricket the move can provide the much needed push for Vivo. In past Micromax has done this for a couple of ODI series and the current logo of Micromax was also launched during after match presentation summary, well that worked for them quite well but same cannot be said for followers like Karbonn and Lava. Vivo is very aggressive about Indian smartphone market and wants to make it their second largest market after home country China.

Vivo is one of the leading brands back home in China and gives tough competition to likes of Apple and Samsung there. However, unlike other brands like Xiaomi and Motorola its strategy for market penetration is different while these brands were launched (revived for Motorola) online only in India, Vivo is spending much of its energy and resources in creating offline networks which still counts for 80% share of smartphone handsets sale. On other hand Vivo is planning an assembling plant in India to help make better localized products for Indian market and get the tax advantage so that it can sell devices for competitive prizes.

Vivo has impressed us in the past with likes of Vivo X5Max measuring just 4.75 mm making it world's slimmest phone for a while. We look upon Vivo to come up with more innovative and competitive handsets in future.

Read More

Must have apps on your smart phone to catch IPL fever live

Cricket world cup has just ended and Indians had to ultimately #giveitback to the mighty Aussies, but Indians have another 'Mauka' to cheer for their favorite team in festive season of Cricket i.e. IPL T20 Championship. While its fun to cheer for your favorite team (even multiple teams in same day), its hard to catch up the live fever for many fans as many of the scheduled matches are on weekdays. We have come up with a list of apps that will keep the spark alive in you by providing live feed.

UC Cricket

Fresh user interface along with most comprehensive cricket content. You can catch live scores, previews, commentaries, interviews, stats, photos, videos and more. The real-time notification feature that runs in background to keep you updated with the latest score and results so that you will never miss any critical moment. Fans from around the world can interact with each other via its Comment Section with a wide range of cricket-themed emoticons. Through its exclusive “Cricket Guessing Game”, users can pick the winner of each match and collect points to get a chance to win exciting prizes.

UC Cricket

StarSports

This comes from one of the largest broadcaster in India.You can get scores, player statistics, in-game analytics & a video scorecard along with an interaction video timeline.  You can also join in conversations with friends and sports fans.

ESPN CricInfo

One of the oldest websites dedicated to cricket coverage. Likewise, its mobile app is perhaps one of the best one for keeping track of all the updates, be it scores, raw statistics or team news. The app is also home to a host of content authored by some of the most well-known cricket writers from around the world.

CricBuzz

Like ESPN, it also is home to a lot of exclusive commentary from cricket pundits around the world. It is also one of the few apps available for Windows Phone users, in addition to iOS and Android.

CriBol

The app gives you ball by ball info on the IPL matches with a wide array of details. There is a voice feature that will let you hear the updates instead of reading through it.

Read More