DB Corp targets youth with its Android and iPhone apps

The media company, through the apps, is targeting youngsters in the age group of 15-35 years.

In a bid to strengthen its hold among the gadget-savvy youngsters, the Dainik Bhaskar (DB) Group recently launched apps for Android and iPhone users for three of its brands -- Dainik Bhaskar (Hindi daily), Divya Bhaskar (Gujarati daily), and Daily Bhaskar (English news website).

The media house, in a short span of time, has managed around 10,000 subscribers for its Android app which is available in Hindi and Gujarati. While, as per company claims, there are about 4,700 Android subscribers and 5,100 iPhone users for Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar has 5,000 Android subscribers, and 3,800 iPhone users in its kitty.

WAP, which was launched last year, is more popular among readers of the Dainik Bhaskar Group of publications than the rest, and Dainik Bhaskar alone has a subscriber base of 1.5 lakh per month. Divya Bhaskar commands 75,000 users, and Daily Bhaskar gets 2,000 WAP visitors every month.

The core target audience for both apps is youngsters in the age group of 15-35 years. The content mix of the apps includes national and international news, cricket scores, Jeevan Mantra, local city news, events, celebrity pictures, and entertainment, among others.

According to Gyan Gupta, business head, IMCL Digital, the objective is to lure more readers. The group is in the process of introducing the Nokia OVI application.

While these apps are available free of cost for the readers, Dainik Bhaskar is monetising this model through advertisement support as of now. To create awareness about its apps among the readers, the company is banking largely on SMS blast, e-mailers, mobile page on its various websites, and apps on GetJar portal.

The content is available in Hindi, English and Gujarati. The apps have a combination of both static and dynamic content. While services like the cricket scorecard and top news are real time, rest of the content is static to an extent.