SoftBank-backed creator company Jellysmack enters India, plans to sign up 100 creators this year

SoftBank-backed creator company Jellysmack, that works with popular content creators such as PewDiePie and MrBeast, is foraying into India by extending its creator programme to the country, the New York-based firm said on February 17.

Jellysmack plans to sign up about 100 Indian creators in 2022 across segments that "offer high potential for monetisation" such as entertainment and comedy, food, gaming, sports, beauty and science tutorials, it said.

“Jellysmack intends to be the definitive global creator company, and our expansion to global markets including India, is in line with this vision,” said Laurent Hulin, General Manager APAC, Jellysmack.

It has already signed up creators such as Faisal Khan, Kanak’s Kitchen and Triggered Insaan (Nischay Malhan).

“We are in a new creator revolution in India where creators are the new rockstars. There's a massive opportunity for Jellysmack to take Indian creators to a new level,” Hulin said.

The company helps content creators who have gained popularity on a single video platform grow their audience and establish new revenue streams by distributing their content across multiple video platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube.

It uses the company's proprietary artificial intelligence capabilities and first-party data for this purpose.

Once a creator joins a programme, the firm said it uses a suite of tech tools and team of experts to edit, optimise, and distribute videos onto platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube.

It currently counts over 500 creators, including Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie, American YouTuber MrBeast and Israel-born blogger Nas Daily, as partners under its creator programme.

These creators have earned more than $150 million to date, the company said.

Hulin said India is a priority market for the company and they need to have "local roots to understand the cultures" of its potential partner creators to adapt their offerings.

It has roped in former Google executive Vipasha Joshi as the Country Manager for the India market, responsible for building the team and driving the expansion of its creator programme.

The company has a local team of 25, with plans to triple it by the end of this year.

"There is so much untapped potential for creators in India to expand their business. We want to support these creative content innovators, across India and in vernacular languages on how to be successful on more than one social platform" Joshi said.

Launched in 2016, Jellysmack was last valued at over $1 billion following a SoftBank-led financing round in May last year.

It has earmarked $750 million for its global expansion and has ventured into markets such as Brazil, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Mexico since last year.

In January, the company launched a new programme to provide upfront lump-sum payments ranging from $50,000-$50 million to qualifying creators to fund their new business ideas, brand growth and content creation in exchange for licensing old videos from their YouTube library for up to five years.

Creators retain ownership of these videos. Jellysmack said the programme will be available to Indian creators as well.