NewsHunt, probably one of the most popular mobile-based local language news app across the globe, has acquired BuyT, a Delhi based eCommerce recommendation platform for an undisclosed amount, to step into India’s surging e-commerce segment.
It seems that BuyT will be a crucial part in building the next generation platform for NewsHunt in which it will be integrating shopping & commerce options for local language users on the NewsHunt Platform. This, apart from diversification, could also be one of the biggest potential sources of revenue for the largely content-driven app.
Established in 2009, Newshunt is a home grown news app which publishes content in around 12 languages and covers 100+ regional publications. It already has over 20 million monthly active users and gets atleast 2.5 billion page views per month, making it one of the largest such apps globally.
Last year, NewsHunt had also launched an ebook store for publishers, which has already seen over 10 million local language eBooks being downloaded by more than 2 million users, out of which 40 percent are paid users.
The company raised about $40 million in Series C round of funding from Falcon Edge Capital, Matrix Partners India, Omidyar Network and Sequoia Capital in February 2015.
In March 2015, it had acquired mobile analytics platform company Vauntz for an undisclosed amount. The company is still looking to partner, invest or acquire other companies developing local-language applications, to further diversify its offerings.
BuyT was founded in 2012 by Yogesh Tomar and Biswanath Patel. It searches all major e-commerce websites for product updates and analyzes context and user behavior on webpages. It has previously raised an undisclosed amount of funding.
ContentLink is BuyT’s proprietary product which has been rolled out with marquee Indian publishers and media houses. The company claims that it serves over 3 million recommendations per day to 30 million uniques, with Rs. 300+ crore annualized GMV being driven to leading eCommerce merchants.
In a statement, the company said,
The BuyT team is expected to play a crucial role in building the next-generation platform for NewsHunt by integrating shopping and commerce options for local-language users on the NewsHunt platform, to add to BuyT’s huge network of content publishers.
Virendra Gupta, founder and CEO of NewsHunt, said,
We intend leveraging BuyT platform to enable commerce on NewsHunt. BuyT will run as a stand-alone unit continuing its existing line of business and enabling commerce for NewsHunt users.
