Indians binge watch 4 hours of content every day: Amazon India’s Parag Gupta

Aayush: I wanted to start off by asking you about the journey of Fire TV in India. Because you guys have been doing a lot of interesting things when it comes to devices and products. Of course, we've got the entire Echo line-up. We've got all sorts of content coming out from the Amazon Prime ecosystem as well. And now, with what you're doing with Fire TV, it's a place where I've noticed that Amazon seems to be building in a big way? 

Parag: We started our Fire TV journey in 2017 when we launched one product, which was a Fire TV Stick, and, since then, we have come a long way. We have multiple products that range from 2K to 4K to Fire TV Cube, which is our smartest, and fastest Fire TV experience. What we're trying to do across the board with Fire TV is to really transform the way that customers consume entertainment content. We want to make it, and it truly is today for millions of customers in India, an integral part of their entertainment journey.  A lot of it is being helped by the development that's happening on the content side. From popular TV shows, originals to blockbuster movies –there is a variety of content available on streaming platforms.. Customers are looking to have this experience on the biggest screen that they have at home and get as close to a theatre-like experience as they can.  This is what we are catering to with Fire TV. Be it the audio and video streaming technology, connectivity, or processing power, we focus on providing the best.  Users get access to 12,000+ apps including Prime Video, Netflix Zee, Disney + Hotstar, Voot, and more. It’s all available to customers at their fingertips. I think that's where the love and the popularity of Fire TV really come into customers' lives.

Our journey is all about delivering content that customers want to watch - quickly. Now they're spending more time watching and enjoying content versus just searching and trying to figure out where to find it. So,  personalization features like ‘Next up for you’, and universal search are all integrated into the Fire TV experience. Next comes the convenience of voice with Alexa.  All of our Fire TVs include an Alexa Voice remote, so it is as easy as saying, “I want to watch Farzi”, or “I want to watch Friends” versus having to switch through multiple apps trying to find the content and then playing it. It is a delight to see how users enjoy streaming on Fire TV and are making it an integral part of their entertainment journey today.

Aayush: You mentioned a theme which I wanted to build on, which is recommendations. Now if you just look at how the content space is building up: pre-pandemic, there were very different consumption patterns. And now when we see how Google has upped their game, Apple are also upping their game with their TV product and now with Fire TV and what you're building on as well. Is it really the secret sauce to get the right recommendations and get the right algorithms to drive these recommendations? Is that really the USP? 

 

Parag: Yes. I'll talk more about Fire TV.  When we invent on behalf of our customers, we act like consumers. When I spend 20 minutes or five minutes searching for content, it really isn't the best part of my experience. Hence, personalization becomes important to solve for discoverability. By the way, Amazon has personalization across all its services. Be it stores, Alexa or even Fire TV --we excel in it. We think about what the customers are consuming and then think about what the customers might want to watch next.  A lot of that USP comes from the fact that we have built personalization across all our services, including Fire TV.  One of our services that makes it real for the consumer is ‘Next Up for you’.  It allows customers to binge-watch content one after the other, or find content that's similar to their preferences. It's similar to your language because the kind of vectors that you have for a choice of content can vary across language, genre, within genre, subgenres, actors, directors, and things like that. I love watching old Hrishikesh Mukherjee movies, and if you were able to see my Fire TV screen, it'll have a row of Hrishikesh Mukherjee movies. So, when it works on Fire TV, it is a delight. It gets customers to engage more, find and watch more content – thereby, becoming an integral part of every household’s TV experience.

Aayush: How much have content consumption patterns changed for Indian viewers, especially after the pandemic?  

Parag: Just about a month and a half ago, we released Fire TV streaming trends, and it's fascinating. It's amazing for us and quite humbling to get insights into how consumers are using our services and our devices. Firstly, Indian households binge-watch content on Fire TV four hours a day, on average.  While they are searching for the content they want to watch, we found that customers are watching content in 12 plus languages and that includes Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, and more. We have delivered Fire TV to 90% of pin codes in India.  and it is encouraging to see that content is being watched in multiple languages by consumers around the country.

When it comes to genres, the most popular one remains cartoons for the past three years. Horror is a popular category too, which seems to suggest that it is relevant and transcending through age, and through genres. It's very popular among kids as well. So, it's a mixture of languages and genres, and the amount of time that the consumers are watching. One of the things we have seen is that there has been almost a 40%  to 45% increase in free content watching and services like Mini TV, YouTube, and MX Player, and the rich content that these services are producing is leading to that flywheel. So, those are some of the trends that we have seen over the years. But there isn't a market change between pre-pandemic or pandemic or post-pandemic. Some of these trends are just that people are watching more diverse content in more diverse languages. On Fire TV, the other content that was streamed a lot during the pandemic were applications and games. Fitness content saw an uptick in consumption while people stayed at home. Speaking for myself, I definitely use it because at home -with Fire TV and those applications, you could play along, exercise and things like that. So, even apps and games are picking up on Fire TV.

Aayush: I’d imagine partnerships are imperative nowadays because there's a bunch of manufacturers who are doing really well in the hardware space. The most recent announcement that comes from your stables happens to be a partnership with Xiaomi. How exactly did that come about? And what does it mean for Amazon and Xiaomi? 

 

Parag: Yes, we launched Redmi Smart Fire TV together with Xiaomi. We introduced our first smart TV in India with Onida. And in the past, we have built smart TVs with Croma, Amazon Basics, and Akai. Globally, we have over 160 partners for embedded Smart TV experience.

The journey with Xiaomi was fairly natural. Xiaomi is one of the most loved and respected TVs in India, and from a content watching, content search, and content playback experience, Fire TV is adored by millions of customers. All of our Fire TV products are four stars, which is really a cause of delight for us.  So, I think it was fairly natural that we were working to bring the best in terms of tech, product and design, along with the best in content watching and content playback experience. With Redmi Smart Fire TV customers will be able to enjoy Xiaomi’s cinematic viewing with Fire TV’s seamless streaming experience. Now, customers will be able to enjoy the power of Fire TV including access to entertainment options from 12,000+ streaming apps and live content on their home screens. We are excited to offer customers a content-forward experience and the power of Alexa - all combined into one. We cannot wait for the customers to see this experience and give us feedback.

Aayush:  It's interesting, you mentioned this partnership and how this one is the freshest of the boat. But you also mentioned Amazon Basics TVs and Croma as well. So, how is this partnership unique or any different from the others? 

Parag: So, Aayush, it isn't about being different. First of all, as you said, it's the freshest, so it's exciting! Xiaomi is a very respected and loved brand by consumers. So, getting another choice for our customers to experience Fire TV is very exciting for us. It isn't about comparing. We continue to work with Onida,  Akai, Amazon Basics, and Croma. We will continue to deliver that Fire TV experience on their hardware and to their customers. Their customers have access to all of the features from the Fire TV perspective, and the Alexa voice. The difference is how the hardware partners are able to bring this experience to their customers. So, our job has been to make it simple and fast. Just to give you a quick idea on the launch of Redmi Smart Fire TV from the kick-off to the TV being produced and being made available to the customer, it took us about six months.  So, our job with Fire TV is to make the integration cost-effective, cost-competitive, quick and convenient for our partners. And then, it is up to them to bring the best of the viewing experience and design of their hardware to their customers. That’s what we do. As I said, we continue to support all partners. This is just another one today.

Aayush:  Parag, one last word about the partnership-  is this partnership specific to India? 

Parag: No, we launched Xiaomi TVs in Europe last year. Now we are bringing them to India. So no, it's not India-specific. But we do believe that the power of these two brands in India will create a unique opportunity for the customers and for both businesses.

Aayush: Also, Amazon now has an array of devices available in India. From your experience, which is the hottest selling product in India? 

Parag: The most selling devices are Echo Dot and Fire TV. But they are two very different products catering to very different needs of customers. Obviously, our job is to build the experiences between the two.  The Echo line of products is something that we are really proud of. Once again, our focus is on making sure that our products and experiences delight our customers. We are always innovating and pushing our boundaries to offer the best tech experiences; plus the fact that we are able to bring these experiences to customers at the most affordable price points is true across all our product lines. Overall it is about offering more choices to our customers.

Our Echo product line-up goes all the way to Echo Studio where consumers can enjoy surround sound and a large premium speaker voice. On the other hand, Echo Dot offers an amazing audio experience along with convenience wherein it fits into the decor of the room, giving customers the power of Alexa in a hands-free way. Our Echo Show range includes our most affordable Echo Show 5 all the way to Echo Show 10.

Our focus remains on constantly innovating and offering more choices across value points to all our customers across our product lines, which goes for Echo devices as well. It is also encouraging to see that our customers love and enjoy our products in ways beyond what we have imagined.