HuffPost, Quartz to follow soon.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: Buzzfeed, the popular society and entertainment news website that is one of the most highly visited destinations on the web, has announced that it will be opening its first-ever office in India.
Currently based in New York City, Buzzfeed will open its inaugural sub-continental office in Mumbai later this year, reports The New York Times. The news site will also launch a dedicated Indian edition, which will feature content specifically catered for Indian audiences, although it has not said whether or not the content will be available in any languages other than English.
The Indian Buzzfeed office will be the company’s sixth international expansion endeavor, following in the line of Buzzfeed offices in the UK, Australia, Brazil, France, and Spain. The company, still privately held, was created in 2006, and has been steadily tripling its advertising revenue over the last two years. In 2012, it hired Politico’s Ben Smith to be its Editor-in-Chief.
Buzzfeed has surged in popularity over the last couple of years, mainly with its humorous lists that take an amusing, but insightful, look into several facets of life that mostly afflict younger readers, usually in their 20s-40s.
Lists such as “22 Signs You’ve Found Your Best Friend Forever†and “21 Irrational Fears About Love Bollywood Has Instilled in You†feature animated pictures and videos, and are frequently shared by people on Twitter, Facebook, and other popular forms of social media.
The Buzzfeed office in Mumbai will be led by Rega Jha, who currently writes mostly India-centric stories and articles for the site. The office will only employ about a half-dozen journalists on its staff at the outset, and content will be “a special mix of art, film, fashion, TV, and design,†Jha told the Times.
Buzzfeed is not the only online news source diving into India; popular news portal The Huffington Post will also establish its first India-based office in 2014, and a publication that has already launched it’s Indian vertical is Quartz, a business news publication put out by the Atlantic Media Company. Huffington Post hopes to launch its India publication as soon as this month.
Both news sources will launch their own India-specific versions, just like Buzzfeed, and are hoping to tap into a market that has largely been bereft of dedicated online news content.
“India has always lacked a true blue online news venture,†said Saurav Sen, an online media specialist in India, to The American Bazaar, in an email response. “Online editions of print newspapers can never have the panache of a Huffington Post or a Buzzfeed, largely because they are weighed down by their parent brand, which is smug about its dominance in print and would want to demand the same stature in digital. And that’s where the dissonance and disconnect happens.â€
It makes sense for online news and content companies to want to tap into the Indian market. The country has seen a number of high-profile tech firms begin enlarging their operations with India, largely because of the fact that the country’s growing middle class is becoming increasingly reliant on mobile devices and cutting-edge technology.
Over 130 million Indians are now tapped into the Internet, and the country is expected to soon overtake the US in terms of Facebook users and usage. These are huge figures, and simply can’t be ignored by companies and publications that rely solely on online readership to survive.
What remains to be seen is if Buzzfeed, as well as other incoming publications, will seek out the help of established Indian media companies to assist them in integrating their products for the Indian market. But the fact remains that Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, and Quartz are coming full-speed ahead, and India may become the new online Mecca for companies like these.