Unicorn Glance taps growing appetite for live content

Lock screen content platform Glance is placing a big bet on live content, with the launch of its latest offering ‘Live’, a streaming service for real-time, interactive content on the lock screen of Android smartphones.

With stiff competition in ‘live’ from social media giants such as Instagram and YouTube, homegrown platform Glance—a subsidiary of InMobi, a mobile advertising-technology company—is aiming to create a live eco-system that can enable hundreds of content creators, gaming companies, developers, entertainers, publishers, and media companies to go live to millions of users across the country, directly on the lock screen of smartphones. Currently, Glance has over 150 million active users.

Post the Covid-19 pandemic, digital content consumption has been on a sharp rise, with people preferring to spend more time indoors, and with work from home becoming a norm. At the same time, the craving for digital experiences that closely replicate the offline world has grown, especially among GenZ, creating an increased appetite for live content.

“What we are doing is essentially creating what we call the ‘live internet’; an ecosystem for all things live, on the lock screens of hundreds of millions of smartphones,” says Piyush Shah, President and chief operating officer, Glance.

The company is working with multiple partners to bring its users real-time content spanning sports, news, gaming, astrology, and shopping. It has tied up with celebrities such as Rajkumar Rao, Ali Fazal, Vir Das for live streams. It has also directly partnered with players of the Chennai Super Kings, like Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo, Robin Uthappa, and several media houses, for Live content. Currently, it runs 20-25 live streams daily.

“What we are doing is building a platform that allows developers, creators, content publishers, anyone with great content, to be able to utilise our technology, to not just go live on traditional television channels, but to hundreds of millions of people on the lock screen as well, in an engaging, interactive manner,” Shah adds.

In a short span, the company has managed to ramp up its user base backed by strategic partnerships with various smartphone manufacturers, which enables them to be present on the lock screens of Android phones such as Samsung, Vivo, Xiaomi and Oppo.

Besides professional content, Glance says that a key differentiator for its ‘Live’ product will be discovery on the lock screen, and interactivity. “A big challenge with a live stream on most apps is when the live stream is happening on the app, you don’t know, when you’re on the app, the live stream is over. The lock screen is with the user most of the day, and it is far easier for him to discover a live stream on this surface,” says Rohan Choudhary, vice president and general manager, Glance Feed, a business unit of the company.