There is no debating the fact that India is one of the most diverse nations, in terms of demography and the resultant number of spoken languages. There’s a massive demand for regional language content across different states of the country. But, Indian Express Group, a major digital news players, is of the opinion that Malayalam dominates all.
Thus, it has today announced the launch of its first regional new portal ‘ieMalayalam.com,’ which will operate out of Kerala. This marks the digital media giant’s entry into the regional content space, which is mostly dominated by local players. It has been launched with the aim of offering an uncluttered design coupled with the power to deliver global quality news content for local audiences.
Indian Express Digital CEO Sandeep Amar believes that ieMalayalam will redefine how regional-language content is delivered to the country people. Speaking on the launch, he says,
We believe in delivering nothing but the best to our readers across the country. Malayalam is one of the most mature news markets in the country and we are all geared up to deliver the best for the Malayalam users by curating the best voices from across the state and abroad. We have made sure that it is the best product in the market, and user experience is better than any other digital player in Malayalam.
With this release, Indian Express isn’t just focused on providing regional news content to a collection of individuals. But instead, it adopts a cohort of trendy and popular formats — video blogs and pictorial stories — to deliver content. ieMalayalam is also treading down the roads followed by ScoopWhoop and BuzzFeed to amass views. But it plans to wait out for revenues to start pouring in by providing access to an ad-free platform to Malayalam readers — a strategy the group has been appointing with its other more recent digital ventures like Techook.
Further, Amar continues to add,
We are also utilizing innovative storytelling formats, including a unique visual play, to enhance readability and drive engagement. With our all-around focus on a best-in-class user experience and high-quality journalism, we are confident of soon establishing ourselves as the leading Malayalam platform in the region.
The said regional platform has already been launched in BETA and it definitely stands out for being uncluttered and clean. The content has been presented in a neat format to provide a smooth user experience. This development comes on the heels of the recent launch of its tech-focused news portal ‘Techook.com,’ which also presented a modest platform but failed to impress us as much as we’d hoped.
