Josh kickstarts second edition of its mega

 Josh kickstarts second edition of its mega talent-hunt ‘World Famous’

~Travels to the Jewel of West India—Gujarat to discover next 10,000 stars out of India~

After a super successful first edition in Lucknow earlier this year, Josh – India’s fastest growing and most-engaged short video app kicks off the second edition of its multi-city mega talent hunt, ‘World Famous’ in Gujarat. Unique to its kind, this first original IP is Josh’s quest to tap into the hidden talent pool of the country and discover the next 10,000 stars for the world.

A 20-day exhilarating event spanning three cities of Gujarat, has already landed in Baroda and Surat to hunt for the creative prodigies, before travelling to Ahmedabad and finally wrapping up in a Grand Finale at the Statue of Unity on September 23, 2021. As Josh travels through the streets of Gujarat in search of its next set of stars, the cities teem with the buzz of creation as Josh mentors interact with aspiring creators at lively centres and activations placed through the cities’ hotspots including malls, cafes, colleges and localities

The dynamic campaign is driven digitally on the Josh app, inviting chef, dancers, poets, singers, photographers or artists across the state to post enthralling videos showcasing their creativity on the app using the hashtag #WorldFamousInGujarat. Top creators with unique videos and innovative content will be shortlisted for the semi-finals in Baroda (Sep 11), Surat (Sep 12) and Ahmedabad (Sep 19) where they will be mentored by popular reality TV creator duo Raghu Ram-Rajiv in Baroda, renowned actress Mouni Roy in Surat and rapper Badshah in Ahmedabad who will groom them in their journey to stardom. The winners from the semi-finals will then travel for the Grand Finale at Statue of Unity, where Bollywood celebrity Sonu Sood would announce the final set of winners to be further enrolled into Josh All Stars, India’s first and largest formal creator training academy.

On launching the second edition of World Famous, Seher Bedi, Head of Josh Studios said, “Following our grand success in Lucknow, we are super excited to see what Gujarat has to offer. We are here to discover the real jewels from the ‘Jewel of West India’. If Lucknow has taught us anything, it is to only expect the best. We built Josh with the intention of celebrating creativity and World Famous is just another expression of that intention. Every talent is unique and deserves to be celebrated and Josh is here to find those 10,000 stars for India.”

Josh Studios was unveiled earlier this year to scale the short-video platform’s capabilities to create a cutting-edge content and talent hub. ‘World Famous’ was the Studio’s first signature roll out for Josh that launched in August 2020 as a mahagathbandhan of India’s top creators, biggest music labels and many million UGC creators.  

MX TakaTak introduces the Launchpad Program

 MX TakaTak introduces the Launchpad Program:
An initiative to foster the growing UGC creator community on its platform

This initiative aims at nurturing and furthering the growth of emerging content creators on the platform, who have made a mark for themselves with compelling video creations

Leading short video platform MX TakaTak has emerged as the preferred destination for India’s leading content creators and has seen massive growth in the user generated content category as well. With an aim to nurture and train the creators on the platform who have made a mark with their engaging videos and consistently continue to entertain the platform’s wide and diverse audiences, MX TakaTak has announced the Launchpad Program.

This initiative handpicks UGC creators who are deeply engaged with the platform through regular participation in challenges and other content curation, and aspire to have a digital career. Thus far, 30 unique content creators have been identified and onboarded onto this exciting program. The program aims at building success for these creators that enjoy an organic following on MX TakaTak. Creators like Srinithi, a young girl whose passion is to be an actor, Shivansh Sharma who is an extremely talented singer and Krishna Sood who is a Chhau dancer are thrilled to be part of this program as this offers them the chance to learn the tricks of the trade from the experts at MX TakaTak to gain more followers and access to exciting features and monetisation opportunities. 

Commenting on the Launchpad program,Janhavi Parikh, Business Head - MX TakaTak said, “We’re delighted to see such a phenomenal rise of user generated content on the platform and this initiative is our way of acknowledging the relentless efforts of these aspiring creators who have shown so much potential on the app. With this program, we will be giving UGC creators an all-round learning model aided by expert/ mentor interactions, as well as guidance on creative and  growth strategies. The  prime goal of this program is to enrich the craft of our native content creators by providing a collaborative learning environment and helping drive faster growth in their digital careers to eventually enter into the mainstream creator ecosystem by leveraging our creative, analytics and platform might.”

Ranging from interactions with experts and mentors that will help them with content creation strategies to connecting creators to a partner manager, the program intends to offer these creators increased visibility along with the opportunity to grow on the app faster. This career acceleration will  include monetisation opportunities, a chance to collaborate with other leading creators on the platform, who are some of India’s finest KOLs and it also will equip the participants with insights that will help innovate in their creative journey. Another avenue of support includes providing the best performing creators with equipment that will keep them motivated in their content creation journey. Aided by evaluations at specific intervals to study the progress of its creators, the program shall function as an effective learning model in this otherwise niche and self taught field with multiple opportunities for aspiring influencers.

Already underway, the pilot program has given worthy contributors of the MX user community a once in a lifetime opportunity to follow their creative passions. Click on this link if you wish to apply to this exciting program as well -  https://takataklaunchpad.onelink.me/ZHHU/da1efebd

Download the MX TakaTak app here: https://bit.ly/MXTakaTakApp

 

Badshah arrives on Josh, headlines CreatorThon in

 Badshah arrives on Josh, headlines CreatorThon in Maldives

~joins the Josh family exclusively till the end of the year~

~sets the bar for the 24-day, 3-city content marathon with a first-of-its-kind creator workshop~

 

Josh, India’s fastest growing and most-engaged short video app, has taken the creator world by storm with ‘CreatorThon’ – a content creation marathon designed exclusively for the family of Josh creators. After a successful first leg in Pondicherry, CreatorThon has travelled overseas to the island nation of Maldives, where an exclusive set of 10 Josh creators was paid a surprise visit by the king of desi-pop, Badshah. For Josh users, this is only the start of this content gala with Badshah who will also be exclusively associated with Josh till the end of the year.

 

In Maldives, Badshah was seen mentoring this select group of creators from across India in a first-of-its-kind workshop, who also got the chance of a lifetime to jam with him on a private yacht and groove to his hits. The highlight of the day was an early preview to Badshah’s upcoming single ‘Pani Pani’ which releases at the end of the month. The three-day event in Maldives packed with outdoor activities and professional shoots will manifest as exciting, short-video content on the Josh app. 

 

Concluding an action-packed day with these creators on the beautiful beaches of Maldives,Badshah said, “Kehte hain, log josh mein hosh kho bethte hai. But here, at this CreatorThon on Josh, we’re all in, we’re all charged, and I’ve had the best time reliving my work and my music through the lens of a short-video platform. Inspiration comes to creators in different forms, and the challenge and stimulation that accompanies this form of entertainment is infectious. Short-video is all the rage today, and I’m so excited to watch this new generation of creators make use of these perfectly-created opportunities to redefine where, when and how India consumes content.”

 

Welcoming Badshah to the family and sharing her excitement all the way from Maldives, Seher Bedi, Head of Josh Studios said, “CreatorThon is truly creator haven and just the start of a long, committed journey in discovering our stars of tomorrow. Badshah’s arrival today and his continued association with the platform is a huge boost for Josh in our attempt to break down the barriers between superstars and emerging creators and give the latter the platform they so very well deserve.”

 

Josh is a made-in-India, short-video app launched in September 2020 by VerSe Innovation. It represents a confluence of India’s top 200+ best creators, the 10 biggest music labels, 15+ million UGC creators, best in class content creation tools, the hottest entertainment formats, and formidable user demographics. Josh has been consistently rated as the leading Indian short-video app in India on the Play store with 100 million downloads. Currently, Josh is the fastest growing and most engaged short-video app in India with over 88 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users), 42 million DAUs (Daily Active Users) and 1.75+ billion video plays per day.

VerSe Innovation Raises $100M+ from

 VerSe Innovation Raises $100M+ from AlphaWave, Google and Microsoft For Josh, India’s leading short video platform

Becomes India’s First Tech Unicorn For Local Languages

VerSe Innovation today announced it has completed a $100 million+ round of funding from global marquee investors AlphaWave (a unit of Falcon Edge Capital), Google and Microsoft. Existing investors Sofina Group and Lupa Systems also participated in this round. Other existing blue-chip investors of VerSe Innovation include the likes of Matrix Partners India, Sequoia Capital India, Falcon Edge Capital, Goldman Sachs etc. With this new infusion of capital, the company is now valued at over $1 billion, making its debut as the first unicorn in tech for local languages.

The new funding comes at a time when VerSe Innovation is expanding its family of apps focused on Bharat, through its leading short video platform – Josh. Josh is made-in-Bharat-for-Bharat-by-Bharat-in 12-Bhartiya-languages-hosted-in-Bharat short video platform. Josh is the manifestation of VerSe Innovation’s commitment to Bharat across three big vectors. First, VerSe plans to play a leading role in the Digital Bharat and Atmanirbhar Bharat initiatives. Second, VerSe plans to empower the large and indigenous ecosystem of hundreds of millions of users and talented creators in every nook and corner of our country. Third, VerSe aims to underline and promote the rich heritage and culture of India, aggregating such content and delivering it to the masses.

VerSe plans to deploy its new capital steadily in the continued scaling up of Josh, the augmentation of local language content offerings, the development of content creator ecosystem, innovation in AI and ML and the growth of its truly made-in-Bharat-for-Bharat short-video platform.

Josh represents a confluence of India’s top 200+ best creators, the 10 biggest music labels, 15+ million UGC creators, best in class content creation tools, the hottest entertainment formats, and formidable user demographics. Josh has been consistently rated as the #1 Indian short-video app in India on the Play store. Currently, Josh is the fastest growing and most engaged short-video app in India with over 77 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users), 36 million DAUs (Daily Active Users) and 1.5+ billion video plays per day.

VerSe Innovation’s proprietary technology platform also powers various technology solutions including 300 million + users on Dailyhunt to consume content in their local language. Dailyhunt is India’s #1 vernacular content platform offering content artifacts every day in 14 languages. Content on Dailyhunt is sourced from a licensed creator ecosystem of over 100,000 content partners and individual content creators. This solid business foundation and capital infusion now sets the Company on a path of rapid growth, as it explores other international geographies to extend its broad based tech platforms in serving similar unmet content needs of local language audiences globally.