India’s first Audio-on demand platform in Hindi, now available on Indus App Bazaar

Aawaz.com, India’s first platform to stream original audio and long-form text content in Hindi, was launched in January 2019 by Agrahyah Technologies. Initially available as an app for Android smartphones and on the web platform, Aawaz.com recently announced its association with Indus OS, a homebred system apps the company, building India’s only content and commerce platform for enriching user experience. This partnership will see the Aawaz.com app being available on Indus App Bazaar. Indus OS is available in English and 23 Indian languages, spoken by over 95% of the Indian population.

Agrahyah Technologies were founded with the vision to make technology useful for all, and we do it by creating content ground up that is culturally and contextually relevant to the market we operate in. While Voice is gaining widespread acceptance, India’s on-demand audio or podcast as an industry is very nascent but promising. As per a recent report by Google, there is an 85% rise in search for Podcast globally and India is among the top five countries using its podcast app since its launch in late 2018, claiming that podcasts have become a hit among millennials audiences, as it resonates with their on-demand and on the go preferences. Audio, whether music or otherwise, has been consumed widely in India over the past 8 decades, but it has never been consumed on such a the personalized manner and at scale.

Aawaz.com is an early mover in India’s fast-growing podcast and on-demand audio category. India currently has over 500 million internet users, a majority of whom enjoy non-English language content on the digital/ OTT platforms. In line with this objective, the recent association with Indus OS will make Aawaz.com accessible to a vast segment of smartphone users who prefer a native Indian language over English, for satisfying smartphone experience. While vernacular is already the next frontier for driving internet adoption in India, trends like cheap data, affordable smart devices, the rise of smart voice assistants and speakers, are all driving a new way in which people are consuming content.

Dedicated to this cause, over the past years, Indus OS has been developing system apps for Indian smartphone users to discover and consume digital content and services in the language of their choice. Indus OS has developed Indus App Bazaar, which is built on a strong personalized recommendation engine, delivering users the option to download apps that would best serve their needs. Indus App Bazaar is providing the users a seamless experience in English and 12 regional languages, including Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telegu, Urdu, Malayalam, and Bengali, among others. With over 400,000 apps, Indus App Bazaar has a user base of 50M across 10+ smartphone brands like Samsung, Micromax, Karbonn, Gionee, etc. As part of the association, Aawaz.com app will be available on Indus App Bazar of all smartphones with Indus OS, making them accessible to an enthusiastic audience.

Speaking about their association with Aawaz.com, Mr. Rakesh Deshmukh, Co-founder and CEO, Indus OS, said, “Our focus at Indus OS is to build system apps to simplify discovery and consumption of digital content and commerce user’s preferred language, thus ensuring a truly inclusive digital growth and an enriched user experience for everyone.  In Agrahyah Technologies, we have found a true partner that shares our vision and by joining hands, we are moving one step further to creating a more connected and real digital world. Aawaz.com is a thoughtfully created app and completely reflects the taste and the content preference of our customers and we excited to bring this new offering to our partner Smartphone brands and end consumers. We look forward to growing together and evolve as leaders, catering to the economic, social, and regional diversity of India.”

With over 150 hours of audio and over 2000 text articles, covering celebrity interviews, chat shows, career and life advice, a daily dose of humour, stand-up comedy, stories and poetry, mythology, prayers and devotional chants etc., Awaaz.com truly offers a versatile mix of content to cater to the tastes of a vast demographic. Further, unlike UGC driven platforms and apps, where there can be questionable material such as adult or polarizing content, Aawaz.com offers a completely living-room friendly content, suitable for all ages, with no profanity, no porn, and no politics. Built on cutting edge technology stack and hosted on Cloud for a faster and seamless streaming experience for the end user, Aawaz.com will also have ML (machine learning) and AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities to recommend and personalize content based on the user’s preferences.

Speaking about the future growth plans and the association with Indus OS, Mr. Sreeraman Thiagarajan, co-founder of Agrahyah Technologies, said, “English dominates 51% content on the web, while Hindi stands at a negligible 0.5%. For a country that has over 500 million Hindi speaking audiences, that’s an abysmally low quantum of content, let alone other 21 official languages of India. Aawaz.com is aimed to cement the gap, with high quality and genuine Hindi audio content that is created, ground up, by professionals. We are delighted to associate with a like-minded partner in Indus OS, who are equally committed to making technology relevant and accessible. Aawaz.com has already received great reviews in the 5 months of its launch and the availability on Indus App Bazaar will further enhance its visibility and acceptance.”  

 Aawaz.com aims to be a GEC of audio entertainment. It packs in multi-genre audio shows and podcasts including, Devotional, Mythology, Comedy, Celebrity Interviews, Entertainment & Lifestyle, Health, Productivity, Daily News and Updates, Stories, Shayaris & Poems, and Documentaries.