Note: Keeping a pitch in Hindi, since we are targeting the Bharat users and vernacular audiences.

Pitch #1: Audience

Kya aap apne bus rides, long walks, chai breaks, ya free time ko zyada productive aur entertaining banana chahte hain?

Kuku FM hai aapka apna audio partner, jahan milega 1.5 lakh+ ghante ka content 10+ bhashaon mein! Chahe aap apni skills improve karna chahte ho, naye ideas seekhna chahte ho, ya bas ek zabardast kahani sunni ho—Kuku FM ke paas sab kuch hai! 1 crore se zyada log already apne din ke chhote palon ko valuable aur enjoyable bana rahe hain.

Aur sabse khaas baat? Kuku FM aapki language mein, aapke budget mein, aur aapke har moment ke liye perfect content deta hai.

Toh, der kis baat ki? Kuku FM download karein aur apne har pal ko exciting banayein!

English Translation

Want to make your bus rides, long walks, chai breaks, or free time more productive and fun?

Kuku FM is your ultimate audio companion, offering 1.5 lakh+ hours of content in 10+ Indian languages! Whether you want to improve your skills, learn something new, or simply enjoy a gripping story, Kuku FM has it all! Over 1 crore people are already making their everyday moments more valuable and exciting.

The best part? Kuku FM brings you content in your language, at your budget, and perfectly suited for every moment of your day.

So, why wait? Download Kuku FM today and make every moment exciting!

Pitch #2: Targeting Content Creators

Aapke paas hai ek zabardast idea, ek unique voice, aur ek passion jo sabko inspire kar sakta hai. Toh kyun na apni awaaz ko 1 crore se zyada sunne walon tak pahuchayein?

Kuku FM aapko milta hai ek platform jahan aap apne content ko 10+ bhashaon mein share kar sakte ho, aur apni audience tak directly pahuch sakte ho. Chahe aapko motivational stories sunani ho, apne ideas baantne ho, ya logon ko entertain karna ho—Kuku FM hai aapke liye!

Aur sabse acchi baat? Aapko apne content ke liye direct monetization milta hai, jisse aap apne hard work ka reward paa sakte hain. Toh agar aap apne content ko zyada logon tak pahuchana chahte hain, Kuku FM par apna channel shuru karein aur apne passion ko ek nayi pehchaan dijiye!

English Translation

You’ve got a brilliant idea, a unique voice, and a passion that can inspire people. So, why not take your voice to over 1 crore listeners?

Kuku FM offers you a platform where you can share your content in 10+ Indian languages, reaching a massive audience directly. Whether you’re sharing motivational stories, spreading your ideas, or just entertaining people—Kuku FM is here for you!

And the best part? You get direct monetization for your content, so you can earn from the hard work you put in. If you’re looking to grow your audience and reach more people, start your channel on Kuku FM and give your passion a whole new identity!

Breakdown

Here is what the data suggests:

• Fundraising: Raised a $25M Series C in Sept 2023, which indicates confidence among investors in Kuku FM's growth prospects. [Source: Crunchbase]
• User Base: Kuku FM boasts over 10 million users and over 3.3 million paid subscribers, which indicates a growing usage in the market.
• Wide Range of Content Offerings: Kuku FM offers a large variety of content in many different genres, powered by over 50000 creators, suggesting a large content base and creation strategy.

Based on these factors, Kuku FM seems to have found PMF and is ready for scaling and acquiring users.

​

ICP 1: Sunita, the Homemaker

Sunita is a 37-year-old woman from Agra, Uttar Pradesh. She manages a household of 6 members and 3 school going children. Her typical days are hectic with week days spent in taking care of kids and household chores. In her limited free time, she consumes engaging content from YouTube and OTTs like Hotstar on her mobile and also enjoys shopping online from Meesho or Myntra. She also enjoys soap operas on TV, but her busy schedule does not permit her to have a constant screen time. Her weekends are spent with family and occassional gatherings with other friends who are also primarily homemakers and/or self-employed.

ICP 2: Aditya, the IT Guy

Aditya is a 28-year-old Systems Engineer working at Infosys in Kochi, Kerala, living in a 3 BHK apartment shared with flatmates. He spends about 2 hours everyday on commute to and from office, via bus. Watches OTTs like Hotstar in free time or during commute. Browses through Instagram or Facebook as well. Typical day consists of work, commute and watching OTT. He goes out with his friends during weekends and spends time playing football or meeting family. He aspires to relocate to Bangalore and find a better job. But his busy schedule makes it difficult to find time for upskilling. He is also a Malayalam speaker.

ICP 3: Arun, the Delivery Rider

Arun is a 31-year-old delivery rider for Zomato in Gurugram. He has been in the delivery space for about 5 years, earlier working at eKart. Most of his day is spent on the road fulfilling orders. He rides his bike and uses Google Maps for navigation. In his free time, he browses through Facebook and watches OTT platforms like MX Player or Hotstar. He aspires to pick up new skills and find better opportunities. Being a delivery partner, weekends are peak business hours for him. He hardly finds time for himself through the week.

ICP 4: Ramesh, the Govt Exam Aspirant

Ramesh is a 25-year-old guy from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. He works as an assistant at a local HDFC bank branch. He is preparing for UPSC exams and pursues coaching alongside work. His weekdays are spend are spent at work or coaching, or on commute. He watches some YouTube and plays BGMI with his friends for relaxation. His weekends are also spent in coaching or studying at home. This is his 3rd UPSC attempt and he struggles in general to keep himself motivated.

ICP Prioritization Framework

Conclusion

Given the criteria, ICP 2 and ICP 1 seem to be the most valuable users who have a good adoption, high appetite to pay, high TAM and good distribution potential. They can be considered the target audience for Kuku FM. However, the needs of all the ICPs mentioned continue to be key.

Insights from Testimonials:

Important features highlighted were:

1. Ease of Use: Interface is user-friendly and intuitive.

2. Content Variety: Offers a diverse range of content across genres.

3. Language Focus: Emphasis on Indian languages is a key attraction.

4. Audio Quality: The quality of voice used in audios is highlighted as enjoyable.

Insights about User Preferences

1. Content Preferences:

• Short stories in various genres were preferred.
• Mythology stories like Ramayan and Mahabharata are also popular.
• Preference towards genres like romance and drama for engaging storylines.
• Business-related content (Shubha Shrivastava).

2. Listening Habits:

• Users listen during free time, such as afternoons.(Jyoti).
• Daily usage for about an hour is common.

3. Platform Adoption:

• Some users discovered Kuku FM during the pandemic lockdown, indicating its role as a companion app.
• It serves as a replacement for other platforms like YouTube for specific genres.

​

In 2018, three IIT Jodhpur graduates—Lal Chand Bisu, Vinod Meena, and Vikas Goyal—launched Kuku FM after realizing the audio content gap for India’s regional language speakers.

Kuku FM aims to build an audio-first storytelling platform for India's underserved regional audiences and Bharat users - from Tier 2+ cities, in a market dominated by English language players and Western style podcasts.

Kuku FM has raised a Series C funding of $25M in September 2023, and boasts of over 3.3 million paid subscribers and over 10 million active listeners on the platform.

Kuku FM solves the problem of finding off-screen, engaging content that is catered to regional audiences. It provides content in the form of audiobooks, podcasts and audio stories across a wide range of categories. It complements short-format entertaining stories with long-form educational and self-help content, making it localized and suited to the taste of Bharat users.

For Listeners:

1. Regional Content: Offers content in multiple regional languages, catering to local preferences.

2. Passive Listening: Enables users to consume content while multitasking, ideal for busy schedules.

3. Engaging Content: Provides a mix of entertainment, education, and storytelling to keep listeners hooked.

4. Accessibility: Mobile first and accessible.

For Content Creators:

• Distribution: Provides reach to large audiences with wide range of content preferences.
• Monetization: Providing a platform for small, independent creators to monetize their work, without the need for expensive equipment or editing expertise required by platforms like YouTube.
• Feedback Loop: Users can provide ratings and reviews to shows and episodes, providing creators with valuable feedback on their work.

Engaging Features

1. Daily Listening Goals: To keep you on track, Kuku FM sets daily listening goals, encouraging you to stay consistent with your content.

2. Kuku Coins: You can earn Kuku Coins by listening regularly or completing tasks. These coins let you unlock premium episodes and content.

3. Referral Program: Invite your friends to join the app and get Kuku Coins for each successful referral, making it easier to access exclusive content.

4. Listening Streaks: Keep track of how many days in a row you’ve been listening, and earn rewards for staying consistent.

Personalized Experience

1. Custom Playlists: Make your own playlists of your favorite episodes or books

2. Bookmarking: Save interesting for later with the bookmarking feature.

Convenience and Accessibility

​1. Offline Downloads You can download content and listen offline.

2. Playback Control: You can adjust the playback speed to suit your pace.

3. Sleep Timer: Set a timer so your content stops playing after a certain time.

4. Multi-Device Sync: Keep your progress synced across all your devices.

Motivation

1. Achievements: Unlock badges and rewards for hitting milestones, like completing your first audiobook or hitting a listening streak.

2. Leaderboard: See how you stack up against other listeners in terms of engagement, adding a bit of friendly competition.

Refer to https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/my-drive?fbclid=IwAR10FS3QAZTGLB1nxJcCiL7LPPYk6ZvrtBzxQrULCi4xjZN8YpjvmoR77jQ

for screenshots.

Core Value Proposition

• For individuals in smaller cities and towns who want access to regional language content for education and entertainment, Kuku FM app is an audio platform that provides engaging and accessible audio content in local languages, giving users an enriching, inclusive experience that’s tailored to their needs.
• For working professionals who need to stay updated with industry trends and career growth tips, Kuku FM app is a knowledge-sharing platform that delivers concise, actionable, and insightful audio content to help users enhance their professional skills during commutes or downtime.
• For creators in the self-help, education, and lifestyle niche who want to connect with a wide audience for personal growth, Kuku FM platform supports creators in growing their brands and generating income by delivering knowledge-based, inspiring content to listeners.

The Market

Kuku FM positions itself is an audio-first platform, providing entertainment and educational content for off-screen consumption.

We can categorize competitors based on type of consumption (on-screen vs off-screen) as well as the target audience [Localized (Regional tastes, Tier 2+ audience) vs Westernized (Urban metros, primarily English/Hindi)].

Direct competitors in the off-screen segment would be Pocket FM, Pratilipi FM and adjacent off-screen players like Spotify, YT Music and Audible.

Competition Analysis

Assuming Kuku FM to be it's current state, where it primarily remains an entertainment focused audio OTT platform.

Total Addressable Market

To find the upper limit of the addressable market for India, we need to find a subset of internet users in India who are likely to use audio OTT platforms.

Number of Internet Users in India (as of Sept 2024)[Source] : 90 crore

Assuming 60% of these users consume audio content: 0.6 * 90 = 54 crore

Assuming a blended ARPU of $4/year, we get 540* 4 = $2.16 billion

TAM = $2.16 billion

a blended ARPU of $4/year is reasonable for 2024, accounting for:

• Increasing subscription adoption.

• Continued reliance on ads for non-subscribers.

Serviceable Addressable Market

One of Kuku FM's core value props is to target audiences with regional tastes and content for Bharat users.

Number of Regional Language Internet users in India [Source] = 50 crore

Assuming 60% adoption for audio content: 50 * 0.6 = 30 crore

Due to pricing strategies for regional and Tier 2+ markets, assuming blended ARPU to be even lower, around $2.5/year

we get 30* 2.5 = $750 million

SAM = $750 million

Serviceable Obtainable Market

Kuku FM is the second biggest player in this space after Pocket FM, we can assume that it can capture at least 15% of the serviceable market.

SOM = 750 * 0.15 = $112.5 million = Rs 950 crores

• Obtained PMF
• 1 crore users
• 33 lakh Premium subcribers
• Available in 10+ languages
• 11% conversion rate
• 70% of its users coming from Tier 2 cities and beyond
• 10+ languages
• Strong WOM and good reviews
• Rs 104 Cr - FY 24 revenue

We can conclude from this that Kuku FM is past PMF and is in an early scaling stage.

Designing Acquisition Channel

Kuku FM's goal is to scale to it's users and do so in the most efficient way possible, keeping costs low. It should focus it's discovery on the web, as well as on habit formation of it's users, in order to have a good conversion rate to paid subscribers. One more thing to keep in mind is that we are building for a very price-sensitive market, so it is important to build trust with our users.

Given the above criteria, Organic, Paid Ads and Referral prove to be the best fit.

Organic Channel

Google Search Trends

related to kukufm

Top States searching for kukufm

Compared to Competitors

YouTube Search Trends

Top queries related to kukufm

Top States Searching for kukufm

Quora Search Analysis

Topics like “best Hindi podcast platforms,” “how to find regional podcasts,” and “is Kuku FM better than other podcast apps” are frequently discussed. Many users ask for recommendations about audio apps that specialize in regional content, reflecting Kuku FM’s positioning.

SEO

• Focusing on long-tail keywords like "self-help podcasts in Bengali", "best Hindi audiobooks", "regional language podcast" can help.
• Writing more blog posts around the most popular categories (self-help and educational)
• Local SEO -> Optimize keywords for local regions (Premchand ki kahaniyan)
• Voice search related queries can be optimized "play motivational speech in Hindi"
• Build Alexa/Google Nest skills to integrate with smart home devices.

App Store Optimization

Use keywords like “audiobooks,” “Hindi podcasts,” and “self-help apps” in the app title, description, and tags. Currently, there are no tags or descriptions pointing to the core value prop of regional offerings.

(Understand what is already being done, what is working out well and what needs to be stopped)

Step 1 → Define the CAC: LTV ratio. If your product has a healthy CAC:LTV ratio, proceed with paid ads.

Step 2 → Choose an ICP

Step 3 → Select advertising channels

Step 4 → Write a Marketing Pitch

Step 5 → Customize your message for different customer segments to ensure relevance

Step 6 → Design at least two ad creatives (e.g., images, sketches, videos, text ads) that reflect your marketing pitch.

CAC for Kuku FM = Rs 300

Considering 10% churn, and a ARPU of Rs. 600

LTV = 600-60 = 540

CAC : LTV = 300:540 = 5/9 approximating to 1:2

ICP: ICP 4 (Govt Exam Aspirant)

Advertising Channels

• LinkedIn (Target career-oriented groups)
• YouTube Ads: Short-form videos about successful government job candidates using Kuku FM for exam preparation podcasts.
• Search Ads: Target search keywords like “best app for government job preparation,” “study podcasts,” “Govt exam audio tips,” (Google and YT search)
• Influencer Partnerships: Collaborating with career coaches and influencers in the government exam preparation space.

Marketing Pitch

Suno experts se tips, success stories, aur motivational content. Kuku FM ke saath apni study routine ko aur zyada productive banao aur agle government job ke liye prepare ho jao!

“Aaj hi download karein aur apni preparation ko smart banayein!”

Translated:

“Listen to tips from experts, success stories, and motivational content. Make your study routine even more productive with Kuku FM and get prepared for your next government job!

Download today and make your preparation smarter!”

Ad Creative 1: Video Ad (Story-based)

Scene 1: A student from a Tier 2 city is in their small room, surrounded by books, looking stressed and overwhelmed by the upcoming government exam.

Scene 2: The student opens the Kuku FM app on their phone and clicks on a podcast titled “UPSC Success Story” or “SSC Exam Tips.”

Scene 3: The student starts listening to the podcast and begins organizing their study plan, using the advice and tips from the podcast. The video shows snippets of expert advice on effective study strategies.

Scene 4: Fast forward to a confident and focused student. The stress is gone, and their study routine is now structured and planned, thanks to the help of Kuku FM.

Tagline: “Kuku FM download karein aur apni taiyari ko next level pe le jaayein!”

Ad Creative 2: Image Ad (Motivational Quote + Visual)

A student is sitting on a rooftop, wearing headphones, listening to a podcast on Kuku FM. On their phone screen, the podcast is titled “How to Crack SSC Exam.”

Text Overlay:

“Mehnat karo aur Kuku FM ke saath apni taiyari ko best banao.”

“Download karo abhi aur apni exam preparation ko boost do!”

• Kuku FM users are active on social media like Facebook and Instagram.
• Google Search Ads too can yield good results, as a lot of queries have been observed for searching for regional or motivational podcasts.
• Considering the cost and scalability across the paid channels, FB Ads and Google search ads can be major distribution channels for acquisition.
• Demography Target will be 25-45 from Tier 2+ cities.
• Reach people who are already engaging with audiobook-related ads or content. Example could be target users who follow audiobook-related pages, influencers, or brands.
• Since most Kuku FM users are likely to be mobile-first, optimize ads for mobile interfaces and promote features that enhance the mobile experience.
• Target users who prefer content in their native language (e.g., Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, etc.)

(For B2B companies, if referral does not make sense you'll take a crack at a partner program for your product)

​

Step 1 → Flesh out the referral/partner program
Step 2 → Draw raw frames on a piece of paper to get the gist.​

(Don't spend a lot of time on design. This is for you to communicate how the referral hook will look)​

​Kuku FM Partner/Referral Program

Kuku FM already has a partner program that allows users to refer others and get cash rewards, which can be redeemed.

Screenshots of the Partner Program Page

1. Landing Page
   
   
2. Referral Dashboard
   
   

3. Payout Option
   
   
4. Process
   
   
5. Promotions showing earnings from referral
   
   

Why Will Someone Refer Kuku FM?

• Content Enjoyment
• Community
• Personal Benefit (You get Kuku Coins when someone signs up)