<ul><li>Estimates suggest that a cricket field requires 15,000-20,000 litres of water every day, which can meet the drinking water needs of around 2,600 people.</li><li>In 2018, the Board of Control of Cricket in India (<keyword id="6354756" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="BCCI" source="Orion">BCCI</keyword>) and the United Nations Environment Programme (<keyword id="6491230" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="unep" source="Orion">UNEP</keyword>) signed an agreement to implement the concept of ‘zero waste’.</li><li><keyword id="6354312" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="IPL" source="Orion">IPL</keyword> franchises are also contributing their bit by raising awareness about climate change and planting trees to offset the carbon footprint.</li></ul>Cricket is not just a sport in India; it’s a passion, an emotion, and often transcends into a religion! But like any other human activity, the larger the scale, the larger its ecological footprint. Estimates suggest that water needed to maintain a cricket pitch – at roughly 20,000 litres per day – can serve the daily drinking water needs of around 2,600 people. So, the board that controls cricket in India and its most-popular league are looking at ways to reverse some environmental impacts associated with the country's most loved sport. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Carbon-neutral IPL match" comment="subhead" text="Carbon-neutral IPL match"><keyword id="446710" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Carbon-neutral" source="Orion">Carbon-neutral</keyword> IPL match</cmsannotation> At least two teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) have taken it upon themselves to raise awareness around climate change and do their bit. On May 9, 2022, Rajasthan Royals joined hands with the energy management and automation firm Schneider Electric to host the first carbon-neutral cricket match against Delhi Capitals on May 11. As per estimates released in the statement, a single IPL match emits approximately 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. To balance this, Schneider will plant around 17,000 trees as a part of their ‘Green Yodha’ campaign. "Our aim through this extraordinary association is to educate our fans around the globe about environmental issues while also encouraging them to be climate-conscious. While this tree plantation drive is just the start, our far-reaching aim is to constantly help support our friends at Schneider by finding ways to create a sustainable future for the society using cricket as the vehicle," Rajasthan Royals chairperson Ranjit Barthakur said in a statement. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Royal Challengers Bangalore players don green jerseys" comment="subhead" text="Royal Challengers Bangalore players don green jerseys">Royal Challengers Bangalore players don green jerseys</cmsannotation> In line with its commitment to educate people about climate change, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) players also wore green jerseys against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Wankhede Stadium on May 8, as part of their ‘<keyword id="6392376" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Go-Green" source="Orion">Go Green</keyword>’ initiative. RCB had first donned this green jersey in the 2011 edition of IPL in the match against Kochi Tuskers Kerala. "Let us all continue to try and play a small part in building towards a great future for environment-friendly measures that can help make this world a much better place to live in for the coming generations,” said RCB all-rounder Glenn Maxwell. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Mumbai Indians players voice their concerns" comment="subhead" text="Mumbai Indians players voice their concerns">Mumbai Indians players voice their concerns</cmsannotation> Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma is known for being vocal about many environmental issues both off and on the field. In a match against RR, he was seen wearing a pair of sporting shoes saying ‘End Plastic Waste’ depicted by a picture of a turtle swimming in the ocean. Last year too, Sharma wore another pair of sporting shoes saying ‘Save the Rhinos’ and ‘Plastic Free Ocean’ in two different matches. Other MI players like Sachin Tendulkar and all-rounder Hardik Pandya have also spoken about protecting the environment through their social media handles. <div type="twitter" handle="sachin_rt" handlename="Sachin Tendulkar" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1410819014255730689/u76ZqFWN_normal.jpg" favoritecount="26231" retweetcount="1944" status="Every drop is important 💧Open the tap as much as required and close it tight and right.#WorldWaterDay https://t.co/rYfvV7N3tU" createdat="1647947263000" id="1506226111100833798"></div> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="BCCI joins hands with UNEP to handle stadium waste" comment="subhead" text="BCCI joins hands with UNEP to handle stadium waste">BCCI joins hands with UNEP to handle stadium waste</cmsannotation> In 2018, the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) also signed an agreement to implement the concept of ‘zero waste’ or ‘green protocol’ to reduce the wastage from cricket stadiums, which end up in landfills. According to media reports, on average, about 3-4.5 tonnes of waste is generated during matches in the form of plastic bottles, disposables, caps, posters, and placards. The agreement focused on making the matches more environmentally friendly with zero wastage post matches. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/uber-to-hire-500-techies-in-india-by-the-end-of-this-year/articleshow/91490629.cms">Uber to hire 500 techies in India by the end of this year</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/indian-government-accuses-ola-uber-and-other-aggregators-of-inflating-cab-prices-for-older-customers/articleshow/91488894.cms">Indian government accuses Ola, Uber and other aggregators of inflating cab prices for older customers</a>

World’s richest cricket board and league are trying to be sustainable and carbon-neutral in a cricket-crazy nation! Here’s how they plan to achieve it

In the beginning, sports and technology didn't generally appear like the most natural blending. What did you require in baseball other than a bat and a ball? Or in basketball other than a ball and a hoop? What amount would you be able to truly change? As we've seen over the years, however, there's dependably room for improvement with our most adored interests. Whether it's with the end goal of making something worth being thankful for or altering a broken system by and large, technology has assumed a major role in perfecting the sports that we want to analyze and vacillate over. 
 
The good news is-- managers and fans alike have appear addicted to data. In this way, the chance to collect more will inevitably make sports additionally compelling for fans and attract bigger audiences. The open door for brands, if they can get the fit right, is huge. 
 
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2oVlcRMLdE0" width="560"></iframe>Cricket in itself is a big opportunity for companies crunching numbers. To disrupt this space “CricHQ” came into being. Founded by former New Zealand Cricket team captain <keyword id="62673" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Stephen-Fleming">Stephen Fleming</keyword>, wicket keeper and record breaker <keyword id="55681" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Brendon-McCullum">Brendon Mccullum</keyword> and New Zealand based entrepreneur Simon Baker in 2010 (3 years ago in India), the company aims to eradicate the digital lag in the cricket industry (for both fans and the industry itself). 
 
What is <keyword id="2235301" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="CricHQ">CricHQ</keyword>? 
 “We’re not a traditional media company; we provide digital software solutions to governing bodies from all around the world. This includes statistics, points tables, leaderboards, registrations, live scoring, CRM, communications, niche social networking, high performance reporting and talent identification (scouting). The same services are offered in India as well as internationally,” said <keyword id="522726" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Neil-Martin">Neil Martin</keyword>, COO of CricHQ, in a conversation with Business Insider. 
 So is it like the movie ‘<keyword id="248886" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Moneyball">Moneyball</keyword>’? –“Yeah, somewhat. It’s one of my favourite movies though. We don’t provide ball by ball statistics but we do provide data based on performance. For instance, how does Virat plays against left hand spinners or what players are suited for which match (helps them decide the squad with numbers). 
 
Monetization &amp; Traction 
 
Neil stated that they’re currently working with <keyword id="66464" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hyderabad-Cricket-Association">Hyderabad Cricket Association</keyword>, <keyword id="1624651" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chhattisgarh-Cricket-Association">Chhattisgarh Cricket Association</keyword>, <keyword id="104138" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kerala-Cricket-Association">Kerala Cricket Association</keyword> and then a number of district, academies, tournaments, and clubs in India. He further claimed that they’re adding 30-40 clients every month.&#xa0; 
 
“We now have 4 registered offices in India (New Delhi, Bangalore and two in Kochi) and 75 staff members, which will rise to over 100 this year. 4 State Associations are signed as our customers, and there are more in the pipeline. We have over 400 other clients- including Districts, Academies, Corporate Events and over 1 million active users,” he added. 
 
<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/54544693.cms" />The company works on a scaling model (changes with the size of client). When further asked Neil explained, “There are 2 main revenue streams. Software license fees &amp; advertising/sponsorship. There are many other future revenue streams but they are all offshoots of these core principals.” 
 
Funding 
 
CricHQ last raised $10M from a Singapore based firm Tembusu Partners. Neil further stated that they’re planning to raise another round very soon. They’ve raised a total of ~$21M in five rounds. They acquired TCS27 (cricket software for recording scores for cricket matches) in November last year and Turning Square sports analysis and prediction platform in March 2013. 
 
Sport has adapted technology quickly over the last ten years, collecting data to enhance athletic performance. Now professional clubs have understood that this data is valuable in different courses as well, to make the match-day encounter all the more energizing and to reach those at home. This is the present revolution in sport. 
 
I don't think individuals are asking themselves enough, how you utilize this impressive tech innovation to help the trainer, the athlete, the video guy, the analytics guy, the coach between games, the coach amid the game. If those individuals simply stroll through each of those, that’s how you wind up with answers that really make a difference in sports.

CricHQ: A Sports-Tech Startup by Stephen Fleming, Brendon Mccullum and Simon Baker

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/25681630.cms" /> Bidding goodbye to the willows will be an emotional moment for the master blaster, considered the greatest batsman of his generation and compared with the one and only cricketing legend, <keyword id="73093" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Don-Bradman">Don Bradman</keyword>. Curtains will fall on his 24-year-long international career when <keyword id="118008" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sachin-Ramesh-Tendulkar">Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar</keyword> plays his 200th and final Test match against the West Indies from Thursday (November 14). We are happy that his milestone match will be played on the ‘home’ turf – at the <keyword id="3033" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Wankhede-Stadium">Wankhede Stadium</keyword> in Mumbai. After all, no Indian wants to miss the chance of seeing the cricket maestro in action – for one last time. 
 Of late, Sachin has drawn flak for hanging around too long in spite of his falling form. His ODI retirement came after a dismal performance in the 2012 series against England. And lack of form has once again driven him to quit <keyword id="9400" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="test-Cricket">Test cricket</keyword> – after his 200th game. 
 
Are the critics wrong in accusing him as ‘selfish’ and ‘money-minded’ for delaying the inevitable? We don’t want to get into a long and painful debate, but here’s a quick look at Sachin’s earnings, coveted possessions and the usual controversies that follow Big Money. Cheers to cricket and the wealth it earns!

God Of Good Life: How Sachin Is Minting His Millions
And Spending Them

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48790191.cms" /> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=sachin+tendulkar">Indian star cricketer Sachin Tendulkar</a> is planning to own a luxury villa in <keyword id="28504" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kerala">Kerala</keyword>. 
 If reports are to be believed, Sachin has already shortlisted a waterfront villa which is being developed on the bank of a picturesque backwater area in <keyword id="30469" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kochi">Kochi</keyword>. 
 
An official at the private developer Prime Meridian informed the media that Tendulkar has already shortlisted a villa in Panangad. “He will be visiting the place to see the 'Blue Waters Villa' on Saturday," the official added. 
 The official, however, didn’t make any confirmation on if the villa has already been booked by the <keyword id="6364961" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rajya-Sabha-MP">Rajya Sabha MP</keyword>. 
 
Facilitated with two swimming pools – one on the rooftop of the apartment and another one, an infinity pool in the waterfront of the project – the villa is equipped with a powerful security system. 
 
Apart from a high-resolution CCTV camera inside the premises, the property is outfitted with video phones, 24 hour manned security and intercom facility to communicate with each villa. 
 Tendulkar will arrive here on Friday night to attend the final day of three-day summit being organised by <keyword id="1534752" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="International-Advertising-Association">International Advertising Association</keyword> (India chapter) as part of its silver jubilee celebrations. 
 
Image: indiatimes

Tendulkar to buy a luxury waterfront villa in Kochi

<ul><li>Indian <keyword id="1526308" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="actress-kajal-aggarwal">actress Kajal Aggarwal</keyword> has picked up a 15% stake in the recently launched startup <keyword id="10247574" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Okie-Gaming">Okie Gaming</keyword>. </li><li>While this may be the first investment for the actress in a startup, she believes there will be more.</li><li>The Okie Gaming platform is also launching a ‘Desi Sports League,’ which will launch one game according to each Indian state’s traditions. </li></ul>Indian actress <keyword id="38180" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kajal-Aggarwal">Kajal Aggarwal</keyword> has picked up a 15% stake in the recently launched startup Okie Gaming. The gaming platform is a subsidiary of Okie Ventures, which has its range of LED televisions. Aggarwal has also been the brand ambassador for Okie Ventures. “While I was associated with Okie Ventures, I felt their gaming platform had a very immersive experience. I’m very happy about the fact that the games are going to be centered around mythology, folklore and Indian culture. This gives a very different and unique experience to the users,” Aggarwal told Business Insider in an interview. The actress shared that with this strategic investment, she will be helping the startup in its promotions, marketing and PR and attract new users to the platform. “I’m also very happy to give my inputs on different sorts of games. I also want to bring in more women into the gaming industry – as users, developers as well as protagonists of the game,” she said. While this may be the first investment for the actress in a startup, she believes there will be more. “With Okie Gaming, I’m very confident about the team and the platform. It’s definitely the first of many investments,” she said. Okie Gaming – betting on regional games The Okie Gaming platform which was launched recently, already has real-money games like Smart Housie, Fantasy Cricket, Smart Number Quiz, Ludo, Cricket, Smart Words, among others. The platform is also launching a ‘Desi Sports League,’ with plans to launch games showcasing each Indian state’s traditions. This will begin with the launch of Dahi Handi from Maharashtra and Vallam Kali (Boat Racing, Kerala) which will be launched by December. “We started developing a regular real money gaming platform from February 2020. When we were thinking what next, we thought why go behind the typical games as there is no experience to it. We thought of giving a new experience to the user. When one of my colleagues suggested why not make a boat race game, and that’s how Desi Sports League was born,” Jitin Masand, CEO, OKIE Ventures told Business Insider. Masand is also building on the Atmanirbhar initiative of the Indian government by encouraging ‘very Indian’ games. “We’ll have 12 games by next year,” said Masand, who took a conscious decision to stay away from real money gaming where there is a confusion between the game of skill and game of chance. “We want to promote Indian culture and aesthetics in gaming and take it to the world,” said Masand, who has himself invested ₹4 crore into developing the platform. Masand also said that they are focussing on India’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets where they are not targeting payments online but are instead going for the old school method of recharging from the nearest kirana or mobile recharge shop. The minimum amount to play a game is ₹10. “We are going with the offline distribution of e-recharge. Users can recharge their Okie Gaming wallet from the shop and we have already onboard 10,000 retailers across West Bengal and Tamil Nadu,” said Masand. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/google-will-be-probed-by-indias-competition-commission-for-allegedly-abusing-dominance-to-push-gpay/articleshow/79141895.cms">Google will be probed by India’s Competition Commission for allegedly ‘abusing dominance’ to push its payments app</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/facebook-backed-meesho-is-the-latest-to-roll-out-an-esop-buyback-plan-worth-5-million/articleshow/79143384.cms">Facebook-backed Meesho is the latest to roll out an ESOP buyback plan worth $5 million</a>

INTERVIEW: Kajal Aggarwal turns investor with a bet on Okie Gaming that features regional games like 'Dahi Handi' and 'Vallam Kali'

<keyword id="6354884" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Delhi-Daredevils">Delhi Daredevils</keyword> rode on an all-round effort to thrash <keyword id="3315697" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rising-Pune-Supergiant">Rising Pune Supergiant</keyword> by 97 runs in an <keyword id="6354831" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-Premier-League">Indian Premier League</keyword> (IPL) 2017 match at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadiumon Tuesday. 
 While Kerala youngster <keyword id="956633" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sanju-Samson">Sanju Samson</keyword>'s maiden T20 hundred set things on fire in the first innings as Delhi posted a mammoth 204/5, captain <keyword id="12644" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zaheer-Khan">Zaheer Khan</keyword> led from the front with three wickets to bundle the hosts out for a paltry 108 in 16.1 overs. 
 
Here are the the top 5 plays of the match

IPL 2017, DD vs RPS: Top 5 plays from Delhi vs Pune

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48263179.cms" /> Former Indian captain <keyword id="6359039" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sourav-Ganguly">Sourav Ganguly</keyword> told reporters that players of the two banned IPL teams of <keyword id="13802" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rajasthan-Royals">Rajasthan Royals</keyword> and <keyword id="13886" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Chennai-Super-Kings">Chennai Super Kings</keyword> shouldn’t be chastised for the faults of their respective owners. 
 
A member of the BCCI’s four-member working group that’ll study the Justice R.M. Lodha committee’s order, Sourav maintained, “I don’t want to jump the gun, there’s a Board to take care of that. The role of the working group is to find out a way to get the next IPL going. But innocent players shouldn’t suffer. It’s common sense, really. You cannot punish X for Y’s faults. How and where they play, how they are distributed among teams is for the Board to decide.” 
 The special BCCI group will give its recommendations within six weeks. It’ll also chart a roadmap for IPL 9, which needs a minimum of eight teams. When asked if IPL’s tainted pacer <keyword id="6529653" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sreesanth">Sreesanth</keyword> could be allowed to play again Ganguly said, “Well, he has been cleared by a Delhi court, but the BCCI has said that its decision, based on disciplinary action, will remain unaltered. Since the BCCI gives all the players an opportunity to come back and play, I think there should be a meeting between Sreesanth and the BCCI." 
 
"As far as Sreesanth's comeback is concerned, I believe that the Kerala Cricket Association has supported him and has requested the BCCI to help him. That's the way it should be”, he said. 
 
Sourav also gave rise to conjectures of a possible comeback of players convicted in the match-fixing scandal, "I think it will take a few months' time since there is a scope of going to a higher court. I don't know what Delhi police is going to do. But I feel if the BCCI, maybe in a few months' time, is convinced that everything is clear and fine, they will let the players play. We have to wait for some more time." 
 
Dada also confirmed that the BCCI has extended the Conflict of Interest clause to more than just the owners, “Everyone associated with Indian cricket would be under it. That includes the administration and the players.” 
 
When asked if India-Pakistan matches should continue after the heinous attack on Gurdaspur, Sourav thought otherwise, "An India-Pakistan series is always entertaining and a high profile one, but we cannot ignore the sufferings of the people of Gurdaspur. I think the Board was correct in saying that the terror attacks and threats would have to completely go before bilateral cricket ties can be resumed." 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes

Sourav
Ganguly says IPL players not to suffer for owner’s faults

<ul><li>Since the beginning, BYJU’S secret has been to focus on engagement and effectiveness. It has made learning fun for students by adding videos, interactive media, and gamification on its platform.</li><li>It all started when Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, identified a gap between how the concepts are learned and how it should be learned by students in India. </li><li>BYJU’S plan now is to ‘expand to international markets, achieve scale and build a global brand while simultaneously working on creating learning programs in regional languages to provide access to quality content and teachers to the students even in the remotest parts of the country.’ </li><li>Mrinal Mohit, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Sales and Marketing, BYJU’S shares his vision for making the platform an industry leader, content marketing mantra, and revenue goals for the year. </li></ul>For a relatively non-existent segment that started shaping up a decade ago, BYJU’S has come a long way in a short span of time. India has around 3500 edtech startups and BJYU’S has an edge for it is the fourth-highest valued company -- placed at $5.7 billion. BYJU’S added 40 million registered users onto its platform and 2.8 million paid subscribers this year; nearly doubling from 1.26 million in June 2018. It also became profitable in 2018 – cut down its losses by over 76% to ₹8.8 crore from ₹37.1 crore. It is now eyeing to be a ₹3000 crore brand by end of the fiscal year. It is all set to become the leader of edtech industry. The company plans to do so by adding more regional languages, spreading awareness around its platform with omni-channel approach, and deeper penetration across India. Mrinal Mohit, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Sales and Marketing, BYJU’S – The Learning App shares the secret of achieving fame so soon, advantages of tying up with cricket tournaments, developing a brand from scratch on the back of strong marketing tools, leveraging the strength of population by going deeper in markets, revenue goals, and much more. Excerpts: How has the year been so far for BYJU’S? Earlier in the year you announced that you had become profitable, a first in the consumer internet start-up space. What helped you achieve this, which is no mean feat? At BYJU’S, we understood the challenges the ecosystem faces and one of the key challenges we could address immediately and effectively is the method with which students consume knowledge and information. We began the journey with conviction and understood the potential to bring in transformational change with respect to the format for interaction and learning. The core challenges traditional education formats face are (a) good teachers are hard to find at scale (b) ability for personalization is limited (c) format of learning (rote memorization vs. wanting to learn). Our approach from a content creation perspective has always been to focus on engagement and effectiveness i.e., if it will be useful to students and it will be used by students. We approach subjects by first identifying concepts and curriculum that need to be covered and then identifying the best mode to teach these concepts be it through video, gamification or interactive media. With over 40m downloads, 2.8m paid users, and average engagement time ~ 71 minutes, our approach, both in terms of engagement and effectiveness, has been received positively by students, parents and education providers which is helping propel our growth. We have been fortunate to reach scale relatively quickly due to our student and learning-focused approach and are increasing year-on-year which is helping us achieve progressively higher earnings, enabling us to invest more organically in improving engagement and effectiveness in the product. There is no real playbook for success here and our approach has been based on first principles, especially since this was a relatively non-existent segment a couple of years ago. Everything we learnt was first hand – from business model tinkering, expansion, to raising funds. BYJU’S has been aggressively marketing itself in the recent past, be it the advertising during this year’s world cup or replacing Oppo to find a place on the jerseys of Indian players. As a learning company, we have always recognised the critical role that sports play in a child's development. They teach you unmatched life-skills and crucial lessons like teamwork and collaboration. Cricket is the heartbeat of India and as a platform, gives us unmatched reach to even the deepest parts of the country. Our focus is to go deeper into India and make better learning experiences accessible to students who need it the most. We are thrilled about being the jersey sponsors of the Indian Cricket Team. Just as cricket inspires a billion budding dreams across India, we too as a learning company hope to inspire the love of learning in every child's heart. What kind of investments are you keeping aside for marketing this year? Your FY18 advertising spends was up 77% at Rs 188.5 crore. What kind of money did you spend in the current financial year? What was the percentage increase? During our campaigns around cricket matches, we have noticed a big spike in the number of downloads we see. In fact, our last set of advertisements with Shah Rukh Khan received the highest recall among celebrity endorsements during the 2019 ICC World Cup Cricket, according to a survey by the Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB). Our daily organic downloads are close to 50,000-60,000 and the marketing expenditure has gone up over the year, on the back of an increase in revenue. However, the cost of customer acquisition has dropped to 25%. For digital, we use a combination of channels including display, banner besides advertising on YouTube. Additionally, we also use TV, print and outdoor. What role has advertising played in cementing a place in the hearts and minds of Indian consumers? Our advertisements celebrate the power of visual learning and is aimed at helping our end users understand how it could be beneficial for them. TV has helped us reach out to our primary and secondary customers - i.e.; children and their parents, across geographies. Advertising on TV has primarily helped us with customer acquisition, i.e. increased downloads, while we have specifically used print medium to explain the how and the why of the app to our target audience. From the very beginning, we were able to measure the ROI from our ad campaigns, through downloads, subscriptions, etc. Our campaigns were based solely on where the product stood at a certain time and if it made sense for us to scale up or reach out to a wider audience then. We are very paranoid about the performance of an ad; if we see it performing well, we are ready to invest. There is a direct link in how downloads spike with ad campaign releases. With regards to mediums, we have seen that TV when used simultaneously with social media amplifies our ROI. Hence, we also share timely and relevant communication across our social media handles to reach out to a large set of audience and create awareness about our brand offerings. Considering you had taken on Shah Rukh Khan as an ambassador pretty early on in your journey. You also roped in actor Mahesh Babu to target Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. How did this help in winning your consumer’s trust? It was great to have Mahesh Babu and Mohanlal associate with us and spread the message that conceptual and life-long learning is far superior to learning by rote. We believe that every region, especially in South India, is really unique and it is crucial that we customize our message to truly gain mindshare here. Both the ad campaigns highlighted evolving learning habits of students and celebrated the long-term benefits of conceptual understanding. Our TVCs were specially targeted at the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and Kerala respectively to connect with parents and help them understand real, tangible benefits of technology powered learning. The core objective of our TVCs was to address the apprehension among parents and show them the real advantage of learning through a product like the BYJU’S Learning App. Mahesh Babu and Mohanlal’s immense popularity and credibility amongst parents and children in the respective regions made them a perfect fit for our brand. What kind of uptake has BYJU’S been seeing among parents and children? Can you share some user figures with us, and where do you aim to take this number to, in the next few years? Today we have over 40 million registered users and 2.8 million paid subscribers; nearly doubling from 1.26 million in June 2018. The average number of minutes a student spends on the app has increased from 64 minutes to 71 minutes everyday from across 1700+ towns/cities. More than 60% of our students are from outside the top 10 cities. But there is still a long way to go before we call this a learning revolution. India today has the largest K-12 education system in the world, with around 300 million school going population. Going forward, there will be a strong focus to further accelerate our reach and create awareness about digital learning in deeper parts of India. This is one segment where the real fun is not in creating a billion dollar company, but in creating a billion thinkers and learners. When you launched the platform, what was your vision? How has that vision evolved over the years? What BYJU’S stands for now for you and what is the BYJU’S of the future? The main idea behind starting BYJU’S was to make learning accessible, effective, engaging and personalized for everyone. We noticed that there was a huge gap in the way students learn and how concepts should be learnt. In a traditional, face to face learning set up, access to high-quality education and personalization of learning has always been an issue. In our system, children are still getting trained to solve questions and not ask questions. Learning happens because of fear of exams, and not for the love for learning. Students memorize and forget after exams. The need of the hour is for a product that brings the childlike curiosity back in students and makes them look forward to learning something new everyday. When we launched, learning was not actively taking place through digital media, even though children were browsing on the internet and watching videos online. This medium was not viewed as a reliable learning source. We have managed to change that and have created and established the ‘app learning’ segment. Our vision is to now be viewed as not just a ‘digital learning’ medium but the leaders of the ‘learning at home’ segment. By 2020, we would like to transform into a learning at home platform. Everything a student needs to learn at home, BYJU’s will be able to provide that. You are looking at expanding to international waters now. Can you throw some light on your strategy to navigate these markets? When can we expect you to launch and are there markets other than the US and the UK that you are considering currently? We are in the process of building a product for international markets. Our recent acquisition of Osmo, the US-based award-winning playful learning system, is also aimed at bolstering our international plans to innovate, explore and set new benchmarks for tech-enabled personalized learning solutions. Currently, there are no products like the BYJU’S learning app which can reach out to such a large number of students and create great engagement at the same time. We strongly believe that such a product can come out of India. The market opportunity is huge and we believe our product can create the kind of engagement one has never seen before What kind of growth have you been witnessing? What kind of growth do you hope to achieve this year and what are the factors that will help you achieve it? In terms of revenue, the company has been growing at 100% year-on-year for the last 3 years and have tripled our revenue to INR 1430 crore in FY 18-19 and also turned profitable on a full year basis. We are estimating a revenue of over INR 3000 crore this year. Today we have over 40 million registered users and 2.8 million paid subscribers. Our numbers and growth over the past few years speak for themselves. Where will the next phase of growth for BYJU’S come from? While our focus is to expand to international markets to help achieve scale and build a global brand, we are also working on creating learning programs in regional languages to provide access to quality content and teachers to the students even in the remotest parts of the country. We have also launched language switch option in Hindi, that will not only help in on boarding the platform but also help gain a better foothold in English. Going forward, there will be a strong focus to further accelerate our reach and create awareness in deeper parts of India. We are also working on creating learning programs in other regional languages. The availability of BYJU’S learning programs in multiple vernacular languages will make quality learning accessible for children in every nook and corner of the country and fulfill their aspirations of building better lives. Tell us a bit about your partnership with Disney and what more can we expect out to this partnership? Can we expect some more similar partnerships with other global players too? The Disney.BYJU’S Early Learn app is specially crafted for young children aged between 6 to 8 years old (classes 1- 3) in India. This app offers personalized learning programs while entertaining them with Disney’s timeless stories and characters from Disney Princess, Frozen, Cars, Toy Story franchises and more. BYJU’S pedagogy and content expertise are enhanced by the compelling storytelling of Disney in this app and provides a strong head start to the way young children learn their first concepts in India. The Disney. BYJU’S Early Learn App offers a first-of-its-kind integration of offline to online learning experience through BYJU’S acquired Osmo platform. Where do you want to see Byju’s three to five years from now? Our vision is to be one of the largest education brands in the world. While starting a mission company is easy, sustaining a mission-led organization is challenging. The market needs standardized education and new methodologies/formats to be introduced so as to engage students. To move from the traditional classroom system where teaching is one-way traffic to the one where teachers are facilitators of learning and also, mentors for discussions in classrooms is essential. At BYJU’S, we have made small strides in this direction and with increased traction we believe this is possible in the near future.

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