Amid the Indian government’s decision to ban 59 Chinese apps, the debate and demand for homegrown have increased. People everywhere started to look for possible replacements for some of these popular apps.

A unique, multilingual app designed and made in India has come close to fulfill these needs. Spark.Live, a short video sharing and live video consultation app is a premium platform owned by Home Screen Network.

Since its inception, it has already clocked 1.5 million downloads, 100 thousand daily visitor count, and 70 million monthly video views and still growing.

Spark.Live, perhaps the first-ever vernacular platform in India that provides consultancy in multiple Indian languages. It is a live video consultation and booking platform that offers a range of expert services delivered in top spoken Indian languages such as Hindi, Bangla, Kannada, Tamil, and English.

Soum Paul, founder, and CEO of Home Screen Network said that “‘From India to the World’ is the motto with which we have operated from the very start. Our unified platform enables users from India and around the world to watch, follow, message, video chat, and consult any of the experts in the heartland of India – expert yoga and fitness gurus, dance and music teachers, therapists and counselors, dietitians and Ayurveda doctors and many more.”

The application also adopts the best practices in user data protection and in facilitating a secure payment interface as those Chinese apps are banned because they are prejudicial to the “sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of the state and public order.”

The reach and scope of Spark.Live can be viewed as substantial. Apart from being a worthy replacement for Chinese apps, Spark.Live also provides crucial opportunities to individuals from every nook and corner of the country to earn their livelihood using this platform in their own language.

Mr. Paul added, “We are facilitating income generation for experts from home, who are able to seamlessly run their business even during the time of this crisis.” During this critical period, when India battles the COVID-19 outbreak and a massive loss of jobs, the Prime Minister has embarked on Indians upon a mission to be self-reliant and Spark.Live is turning out to be the ideal platform.

The app provides individuals an opportunity to become not only self-reliant but also to fight back the odds with the help of homegrown tech. It has provided its platforms to many such experts whose commercial activities suffered a major blow during the lockdown period, with many losing their regular clients. The platform provides a seamless expert-client experience without the need for physical proximity.

The services offered by Spark.Live has also benefited users immensely. It is not a fun video viewing platform but actually getting real-time mental and physical health advice, diet and nutrition guidance, attending regular fitness/yoga classes or dance/music lessons, receiving astrology/reiki/meditation guidance from the comfort of one’s home, at affordable prices.

Spark.Live also offers many free informative interviews and Live events and classes with doctors and experts, as well as partnerships with notable organizations such as CRY denoting its commitment to help people.

The team believes that information is power and should not be subjected to gatekeeping, especially based on language. Spark.Live’s driving force is to be the architect of the democratization of online content in India. This can be termed as an app of “Bharat” comprising rich diversity of our languages and cultures, along with providing users a safe, secure platform to engage with a wide range of experts, professionals, and specially curated content.

The post An India multilingual app “Spark” as Chinese apps axed appeared first on Startagist.

Kochi-based Startup Village has been at the forefront of startup revolution in Kerala since it launch in 2012. The government-backed accelerator gave birth to a number of startling ventures, some of whom went on to raise big round of funding, while some got acquired by multi-nationals.

ZPay was one of the startups incubated at the Village. ZPay, founded by a group of students of Kerala University, is a unified system for merchants to accept any form of paperless money. It can accept payements via cards and NFC, empowering merchants to adopt this payment mechanism with minimal overhead and maximum savings than other solutions in the market.

In this video, ZPay co-founder Varghese George shares his experience as an entrepreneur and the kind of support he got from the Village. He also speaks about the dxi ways to success in the video.

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Whether you are an individual interested in funny lip sync Dubmash video app or a busy corporate guy attending a video conference or virtual training session, you can’t do away with video when it comes to communication on the internet. Right from Youtube, Netflix, Periscope, Facebook Live, WhatsApp, Skype to Slideshare the list of video applications is endless.

Internet experts and digital communication specialists are vouching for video as the most effective communication medium. From startups to multi-national companies, a major share of their marketing budget is allotted for creating impressive explainer videos targeting both employees and prospective clients.

On this backdrop, here are the 10 incredible facts about the future of internet video:

1. Three-fourth of the internet traffic will be video-centric
2. Internet users consider Youtube as the second most popular search engine
3. Facebook to have over 8 billion video views per day
4. 80% of internet users recall a video advertisement they saw 30 days ago
5. Including the word ‘video’ in the email subject line boosts the open rate by 19%
6. When it comes to attention span, a higher proportion of viewers stick around to watch a 30-second online video, but they get distracted if the video duration is over 30-second
7. Videos improve Twitter engagement by 28%
8. By 2020, 7 trillion video footages are expected to be uploaded with mobile video increasing 11-fold, amounting to over 75% of the mobile data traffic
9. The surge in smartphone penetration has resulted in the popularity of mobile videos. The mobile videos uploaded on Youtube increase by 100% every year
10. Digital video is the new TV as Youtube alone reaching out to more viewers aged 18-49 years than any of the cable networks in the U.S

Internet videos are not a passing fad. Exciting new video features like live streaming videos, paid online video subscriptions, smartphone-based mobile gaming, virtual reality and augmented reality all put together will take the internet video viewing to the next level in the near future.

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Jibin Jose is a student entrepreneur from Kerala, South India. He founded his first startup – Flip Technologies — while in the final year of his Engineering Degree course at Toc H Institute of Science & Technology in Cochin in Kerala.

Flip is focused on developing connected activity and motion tracking devices for action sports and starting with skateboards. Its product RideBlock is designed for skateboarders to enhance their ability to perform and analyse tricks whether he is an amateur or professional. The device is connected to the truck of the skateboard and tracks the dynamics of the board and the data is send to a smartphone app via Bluetooth LE. The app can determine the trick performed and help the skateboarders to improve their skills and as well as show off their skills and abilities in the social media. 

Jose is talking about his entrepreneurial journey, and how a visit to Silicon Valley changed his life.

The post Jibin Jose’s Journey from a college hostel to the co-founder of a million dollar startup appeared first on Startagist.