Audio series platform Pocket FM is expanding its footprint globally to Europe and Latin America, Rohan Nayak, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Pocket FM told businessline. The audio streaming platform is also running pilots for Spanish content in the US.

“We are growing across all languages even in the US, and we’re also launching some markets in Europe and Latin America. We are getting into UK, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, and others sometime this year,” said Nayak.

Pocket FM’s focus on short-form episodic audio entertainment caters perfectly to busy Indians schedule ideal for commutes, workouts, workhours or even household chores and relaxing hours. Additionally, Pocket FM prioritises regional content for India, ensuring a wider audience can connect with the stories and voices on the platform.

The company’s addition of regional languages seems to be a winning formula which has garnered a loyal user base. This, coupled with their focus on creating high-quality, original content, has propelled its user base.

“Our primary content is in Hindi, and we have added regional languages Tamil, Telugu, Bengali Marathi. We are in an early stages of building these languages and feel there’s a massive headroom. The headroom comes from the fact that we have a small catalogue of content,” he added.

Pocket FM now a catalogue of over 2,00,000 audio series has a community of over 250,000 writers creating content for more than 3,000 series on the platform. Drama is the leading genre, followed by suspense and thriller, romance , and science fiction.

The US market boost

Pocket FM virtually created a new entertainment format by not just reimagining its Indian content for US audiences, but also developing a pool of local writers, creators, and storytellers to generate audio series specifically tailored for Americans.

For Pocket FM’s, the American Midwest, especially 15-25-year-olds, is lapping up its content. States like Texas, California, New York, and Florida are some of Pocket FM’s biggest and most captive markets in US.

“There’s a greater demand for sci-fi and fantasy shows in the US,” mentioned Rohan adding that the platform has seen increased engagement times with its offerings.

The US users spend an average of more than 135 minutes (nearly the size of an average film) on Pocket FM daily, surpassing global engagement levels of 115 minutes. “Our focus is on meeting the preferences of the mainstream American audience,” he said.

Freemium model

Pocket FM’s blockbuster successes such as Insta Millionaire and Ek Ladki Ko Dekha (reimagined as Saving Nora in overseas markets), which span across 1,400-1,800 episodes each, and have grossed $15 million and $18 million in revenues, respectively.

Pocket FM’s annualised revenues have skyrocketed from $2.4 million to $160 million (until December 2023). The US and other international markets (primarily the Middle East and Southeast Asia) account for over 70 per cent of its revenues today. “Our revenue is going up by 30-40 per cent q-o-q, and we are aiming to reach even bigger milestones soon,” he added.

Pocket FM derives close to 90 per cent of its revenues from micro subscriptions transaction and pay-per-episode transactions done by users.

“Microtransaction is still is predominant majority of our revenue. We are a freemium product and have a substantial free user base as well which we also eventually integrate ads with,” he noted.

AI boost

Pocket FM has partnered with US-based AI voice software unicorn ElevenLabs to leverage their capabilities to enable writers convert their narratives into compelling audio series. It has helped scale up its audio library, given writers the power to experiment with their content. The platform has over 5000 AI Audio Series, primarily in English. 

To date, Pocket FM has raised nearly $200 million in venture capital, the latest being a $103 million Series-D round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in March 2024. 

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