Lock-screen platform Glance to expand to US, aims to be on one billion mobile devices

Glance has set its sights on international expansion. The lock-screen platform, which recently raised $200 million from Jio Platforms and has 200 million active users across India and Indonesia, will add a new global market to its portfolio this year—the US.

Glance allows users to access content on their devices even if the screen has not been unlocked.

Launched in 2019, Glance, which currently is present on 400 million phones, aims to take this number to 1 billion in the next few years, said Rohan Choudhary, vice-president and general manager, Glance Feed, a business unit of the company.

“The big focus is beyond India. Launching in international markets won’t be difficult because we are part of the ROM (ROM or read only memory is a type of permanent data storage in a mobile phone). So it is not like setting up shop and then looking at a user acquisition cycle. Hence, launching in (international) countries is not so difficult,” Choudhary told Moneycontrol.

A unit of advertising firm InMobi, Glance acquired short video platform Roposo in 2019 and reselling app Shop101 in June last year, and has entered into a business partnership arrangement with Reliance Retail Ventures providing for Glance’s lock-screen platform to be integrated into the JioPhone Next smartphones.

Offering lock-screen content, Glance noted that it has seen a 60 percent increase in content consumption in tier II and III cities and 40 percent uptick in metros between December 2020 and 2021. During the same period, the platform saw 13 percent growth in daily active users and 75 percent growth in daily user engagement.

Going live

The company, which has forayed into the live content space, is now focusing on different segments including live commerce and digital commerce.

“Over the next few years the commerce pie will surpass advertising on live internet because that is more organic,” said Choudhary.

The live feature which made its debut on Glance lock screens in the second quarter of 2021 saw its number of live shows increasing from 20 in August last year to 39 by December. Engagement for live content increased 29 percent and there was a 17 percent growth in time spent per live show between August and December last year.

Monetising live content

Choudhary noted that there are three ways to monetise live content. “One is branded content, then there is live commerce where celebrities and influencers sell products. The third is digital commerce, which is replicating the offline world where users get exclusive fan access to a celebrity like sending a gift, getting a selfie with the star, etc.”

While Glance has not started monetising content in the digital commerce segment yet, Choudhary shared an example of how revenue can be earned from this model. “A law student based out of Pune who is a game streamer and sees 400,000 to 500,000 users tune into her show also gets requests from Glance users to play along with her. There are 40-50 such openings.

This is one type of interaction we will start monetising,” he explained.
According to the platform, live gaming is a new experience on Glance and is driving the maximum engagement with users.

Brand interest

While the commerce pie is yet to grow, things are different on the advertising side.

“Brand promotions have gone up and one of the biggest ones have been launch propositions. It has become a major medium for us. Brands have started using Glance to launch music and movies in the last few months. Like Netflix, before the launch of a web series the actors would go live. We see music launches by Sony Music,” said Choudhary.

The platform aims to see more brand and influencer association for its upcoming Glance Live Fest (GLF) which is scheduled from June 3 to 5. “We have close to 500 influencers and many of them will be part of GLF. Also, we think a new set of influencers will come out of the live content creation called ‘livepreneurs’.”

He further said, “Creating content on live (internet) is not the same as short video as that can be rehearsed but in live you need to hold the audience. So, we are giving training (for this). Currently, it is radio jockeys and anchors who are doing very well,” he added.

Glance aims to see 70 million users join the fest which will have celebrities like Rajkummar Rao, Karan Johar and Kareena Kapoor Khan creating live content, taking up challenges given to them by users and also interacting with consumers live.

Disclaimer: MoneyControl is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.