Mediaboss Marketing

Sahil Bhagat, founder and CEO, Vebbler

Re-launches mobile- and camera-first mobile app

Kolkata, March 29:

As times change, so do business models; more so in the tech world.

When Sahil Bhagat founded home-grown social network Vebbler in 2013, the idea was to have a personal forum allowing people to interact with each other through groups, while maintaining privacy.

But Bhagat, also Vebblers CEO, realised social-network users were more inclined to photo-sharing than just on interactions, with photos clicked using mobilephones dominating the segment.

The desi social network was re-launched in the later half of 2016 with focus on mobile and camera first and photo-sharing.

Social networking relies more on sharing images now-a-days. And people end up creating multiple groups on chat forums to get those select pictures. Vebbler makes it easier by creating Clubs where users of a group can send photos. These photos can then be uploaded across multiple social networking sites, he told BusinessLine.

This apart, the mobile app has a host of photo filters and other effects that can be used to enhance the images, and various visual reactions responding to photos using selfies, emojis, captions and quirky GIFs.

Vebbler currently has 5,00,000 users across 118 countries. The top countries include India, the US, Iran and Argentina.

Bhagat knows he is targeting a young audience preferably between ages 18 and 24 who want results fast, and are willing to experiment with the new. Accordingly, the Bengaluru-headquartered company is working on new features to ensure customer retention.

It is also in talks with social-media influencers for promoted profiles.

Various programmes are also being carried out across campuses (mostly educational institutions) to popularise the platform.

In the initial days, customer acquisition and retention is important. Once we have done that, scaling up will be looked into.

Monetisation of the platform and integrating m-commerce are not under Bhagats immediate goals. Maybe around 2018-19, we could look at monetisation options or open up the platform for advertisements. As of now, we are working towards content.

Interestingly, Vebbler is still not into the funding game.

Initially, it was a boot-strapped company. Later it secured very early funding to the tune of $500,000 from a host of investors in India and abroad.

As of now, there are no immediate fund-raising plans, Bhagat adds.

(This article was published on March 29, 2017)

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Desi social network Vebbler focusses on photo-sharing in its second avatar - Hindu Business Line