LONDON & NEW DELHI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Minute Media, the parent company of two of the world's fastest-growing sports and football content sites, 90min and 12up, is bringing its revolutionary contributor-driven sports-media platform to India in a joint venture with one of India's top media houses, HT Media Group.
The new joint venture will launch 90min, Powered by HT, to serve millions of football fans in South Asia, both in English and later in Hindi. Built on 90min's next-generation mobile- and socially driven technology, the site will offer the latest news, commentary, statistics and visuals on global football to an increasingly passionate Indian market across HT Media Group’s properties.
“India is not just home to one of the world’s largest football fan bases, at 170 million and growing, but more than 20 million football fans already are active on social media. That's where our content comes in," said Asaf Peled, Founder and CEO of Minute Media. "We see a tremendous need to provide brands, publishers, and fans with a platform to generate and share football related content across web, mobile and social based channels. Our strategic partnership with HT Media is the perfect gateway to introduce our open technology platform into the Indian market and give a powerful voice to the growing number of football fans across India.”
90min, Powered by HT will feature an array of topics created by the fans using various multimedia formats including video, polls, slideshows and interactive polls. Powered by Hydra, Minute Media’s proprietary content management platform, publishers such as HT Media can feature or embed its rich content across their media properties. Global advertising partners and local brands will also be able to reach consumers through customized content marketing campaigns across 90min India’s platform.
Announcing the joint venture, Rajiv Verma, Group CEO of HT Media, said:
“We are very pleased to partner with 90min.com, the fastest growing soccer site in the world with over 50 million monthly users, and bring to India 90min.in which provides a platform for the massively expanding number of soccer fans in the country to engage with and be a part of the global soccer community and conversation. 90min.in is a contributor-led offering in English, and soon in Hindi, and is available across web, mobile and social platforms. In the coming months, we intend to build scale into this hyper-connected fan platform, covering of course all of the best of global soccer and the biggest Global tournaments, but also the fast emerging Indian soccer leagues, teams and players. The idea is to bring together the proven platform of 90min to engaging football fans and HT Media’s established reach with audiences, brands and customers. ”
"This is a perfect pairing for football fans in India," said Marcus Brauchli, managing partner of North Base Media, a minority investor in both 90min India and Minute Media and a partner of HT Media in the MediaHack accelerator. "A football match lasts 90 minutes. 90min is the place football fans can go online or on mobile in the 166 and a half hours every week when their favorite teams aren't on the pitch."
The 90min partnership with HT Media comes after a year of rapid growth for Minute Media. Its global audience has climbed from 7.5 million unique visitors a month to 55 million global unique visitors in the past 18 months. More than 110 million users engage with 90min through social media monthly and 70 percent of the audience is under the age of 25. Minute Media enables more than 4,000 fan journalists to create a new form of rich, interactive, social content and is currently generating more than 15,000 pieces of curated content per month in 10 languages. Last October, the company closed a $15 million round of funding, bringing its total funding to $45 million, led by leading venture capital firms Battery Ventures, Dawn Capital, Gemini Ventures, North Base Media and ProSieben.
About Minute Media:
Minute Media is a leading sports media and technology company, powered by authentic and socially driven content created by the fans, for the fans. We develop products that enable fans to create, publish, share and distribute sports content around the world. Minute Media’s family of sports destinations includes 90min and 12up. The Company is backed by leading venture capital firms including Battery Ventures, Dawn Capital, Gemini Ventures, North Base Media and ProSiebenSat.1. For more information, please visit www.minutemedia.com.
About HT Media Group:
HT Media Limited is one of India’s foremost media companies, and home to three leading newspapers in the country in the English, Hindi and Business news segments – ‘Hindustan Times’ (English daily), ‘Hindustan’ (Hindi daily, through a subsidiary) and ‘Mint’ (business daily). ‘Hindustan Times’ was started in 1924 and has a more than 90 years of history as one of India’s leading newspapers. The Company also currently runs eight FM radio stations’ under the brand ‘Fever’ & ‘Radio Nasha’ (two in Delhi, two in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai) It is in the process of going live soon with 7 more FM radio Stations covering entire Uttar Predesh. The Company also has a strong play in the Internet space through its subsidiary Firefly e-Ventures Limited and has launched successful portals www.Shine.com, www.HTCampus.com, www.Desimartini.com. These are in addition to the existing news websites livemint.com, livehindustan.com and hindustantimes.com. For more information about HT Media Limited, visit the Company’s website at www.htmedia.in
