Times Internet 2019 Report: Highlights

Times Internet ended FY19 with Rs 1359 crore in revenue, 40% growth over FY18. We glean the highlights from Satyan Gajwani's presentation.

A couple of days back The Times Group's digital arm, Times Internet (TIL) released a presentation describing its current position in the market. Titled 'Times Internet Today', the presentation is attributed to Satyan Gajwani, vice-chairman, Times Internet. While most non-listed, private media entities in India refuse to share their numbers, the presentation from TIL stands as an exception. (Click here to read the full report)

The company revealed that it ended FY19 (April 1, 2018 - March 31, 2019) with a staggering $196 million (Rs 1359 crore) in revenue which, according to the presentation, is a 40 per cent growth compared to FY18. The presentation provides no breakup to understand the source of the revenue or a clue regarding the losses (if any). However, it does provide a snapshot to understand the scale at which Times Internet operates.

Satyan Gajwani

"We've changed a lot too. Five years ago, we were primarily a digital news publisher led by iconic brands like The Times of India. Today, Times Internet is a wide digital consumer platform serving over 110 million users daily and 450 million users monthly, across a spectrum of consumer needs," states Gajwani.

As per the report, Times Internet's digital news publications collectively reach 265 million consumers which, according to them, is more than any other news organisation in India. "The Times of India continues to lead the English News genre with over 200 million monthly users, growing 44 per cent this year," states the report. SimilarWeb, a website that provides web analytics, ranks TOI as the number four news and media website in India that fetched 97.99 million visits. Yahoo.com tops the SimilarWeb chart with 136.70 million visits in March.

Gajwani's note claims that the non-English portfolio of properties grew over 108 per cent. It now has 122 million monthly users across NewsPoint, Navbharat Times, Maharashtra Times, Vijay Karnataka, and five more regional language destinations in the year making it the largest language news portfolio in the country, according to Gajwani.

"Our in-house incubated music platform Gaana has gone from strength to strength. Last year, Gaana raised $115 million in a round of investments led by Tencent. Despite constant new competition in the Indian music streaming market, Gaana continues to grow, building amazing product features like integrated lyrics, Gaana Videos and an ever-growing content library. Just last month, the platform crossed 100 million monthly users," highlights Gajwani.

The note also mentions that Times Internet employs 5,400 people, with an average age of 31. Gajwani adds, "Since 2012, we've continuously evolved. We first focused on making great products with world-class technology (Gautam Sinha's rise from CTO to CEO is reflective of that priority). As our products have matured, we've refocused on revenue growth."

He sums up TIL's overall performance by stating it secured a 36x growth in DAU (Daily Active Users), 8x growth in MAU (Monthly Active Users) and 67x growth in time spent on the platform.