Here is my take on the problem statements which were of particular interest to me. For ease of scanning, these have been structured as follows:
Metrics
Approach
Recommendations
Artefacts
Improving customer awareness and acquisition for MPL’s early stage social live streaming product
Metrics
Increase the number of users who are aware of live streaming product and have either created a stream or watched a stream in past 1 month
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Approach
Given that the creators and the consumers of live streams have different behavior, motivation and preferences for using the product, I decided to approach both segments differently.
For creators, I tried to identify the motivation and barriers for creating live streams and curated the recommendations that would either reduce the barriers for trying out the product or aid and motivate the users for creating more.
For consumers, I decided to target the existing consumer base of MPL and increase the discoverability of live streams for them while they are using other MPL products.
Recommendations
Improving awareness among content consumers
Replace tokens with 30 second previews of live streams for free games on platform
Improve discoverability of streams by curating engaging moments on the streams and publishing them within the app and other social media platforms (curation can be manual or ML based)
Stream previews on homepage which gets maximum traffic in the MPL app
Stream previews on matchmaking screen where users have to inherently wait
Get exclusive rights to eSports championships which users are already aware of
Recommendations
Improving awareness among content creators
Gamification of content creation e.g. a talent show where people live stream their talent and move up the leaderboard based on engagement
Incentivise the creators to create first content to remove initial barrier e.g. Mega Bonus on creating the first live stream
Potential Earnings Calculator for new creators
Providing easy-to-use content creation tools and guidances e.g. SOPs, tutorials, best practises, stickers, filters, SFX, etc.
Integration of Memojis for creators who don’t want to show their faces in live streams
Improve retention metrics for MX Player, an Indian video streaming and video-on-demand platform
Metrics
Increase repeat users on the platform
Increase the watch time per visit
Increase user engagement with the content
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Approach
Given that the creators and the consumers of live streams have different behavior, motivation and preferences for using the product, I decided to approach both segments differently.
In case of MX player, the onboarding experience and homepage can get overwhelming for the users, especially first time users, who may feel decision fatigue by looking at the plethora of options on the first page.
App can improve its entire user journey ranging from onboarding to viewing experience to engagement in terms of helping the users overcome that decision fatigue. App can also personalise the experience of users and recommend content to them based on their interests and preferences. In this regard, app can take cues from its rival Netflix that has globally appreciated recommendation engine and great presentation of content using shelves such as "Shows you like".
Recommendations
Improving the Viewing Experience of the Users
Having vertical format of videos and previews for ease of content consumption on mobile (majority of the target audience of MX Player consumes content on mobile)
"Watch with Friends" option to allow users across the world to watch content together (apart from retention, can also act as a new organic acquisition channel with users referring their friends to watch content together)
Family-Friendly mode with an option to turn off the non-friendly content on platform
Stream previews on matchmaking screen where users have to inherently wait
Providing subtitles on the videos to cater to users with different native languages
Recommendations
Generating interest of users in the existing content library
AHA moment previews of content using AI that picks the most clickable and shareable scenes from a movie / TV series
Providing Filter options to filter content based on genre, year of release, actors, directors, etc. so that users can easily access the content of their interest
Personalising the homepage and provide personalised content recommendations to users
Recommendations
Expanding into more categories for high engagement users
Launching a Kids section (YouTube kids section has the highest time spent on app per session)
Focusing on Niche categories such as Anime to target the loyal fans of these categories
Gamifying the watching experience
Coins for completing missions, which could, for example, include goals such as watching xx hours of videos on the platform
Coins can then be used to watch more premium content on the platform
Increase the revenue of Playshify by 2x in FY 2020-21 (Playshifu builds AR-based STEM educational toys for kids)
Metrics
Increase the number of users who are aware of live streaming product and have either created a stream or watched a stream in past 1 month
Read More
Approach
Understanding the Business
The Global toys market is pegged to be at $140 billion by 2025. The science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) toys market size will grow by over USD 914.37 million during 2019-2023 with 5% CAGR. Playshifu is among the forerunners for gaining a large share of this market with its innovative lineup of phygital and AR focused toys.
Understanding the Opportunities
I look at the five major opportunities that can help Shifu grow in near future, and do a cost-benefit analysis for each of these to recommend one strategy that has the potential to increase the revenue of Playshifu by 2x. These 5 opportunities are:
DLCs (downloadable content) and Add Ons
Subscriptions (vertical)
New use-cases (new games or new markets)
Digital AR only product
Building a democratized platform
Recommendations
DLCs and Add-ons
Allows new types of gameplays over the existing ones
Increases LTV/ customer and higher margins for digital products
Subscriptions (Vertical)
Pitching Plugo's music toy as a subscription based music learning product (online music learning market is pegged to be at $143 Mn by 2025, India is projected to grow with higest CAGR)
Subscriptions will lead to higher loyalty of users and higher LTV per user in this market
Can later be extended to other product lines such as Maths Games
Parents' response to a gaming subscription product needs to be tested
Recommendations
New use-cases (new games or new markets)
Targeting a use case (fitness, art) vs game mechanic (slingshot, driving)
Unlocks completely new markets while building on the brand name
High investment with long development and testing cycles
Digital AR only product
Idea to have STEM learning app built completely around AR
Possible to receive a lot of organic push from Apple & Google, can be rewarding once adoption picks up
Can't double the revenue within a year, early reception of other similar products is lukewarm
Recommendations
Building a democratized platform
Opening up the platform for other developers to build games around its hardware
Builds defensibility, new experiences can be delivered at scale, increases the perceived value of company
Ambitious, needs time for SDK development and getting developers onboard
DigitFinal Recommendation: Subscriptions
Why?
Builds on an existing product. Less time to build new content. The vertical, if done well, can be larger than collective sales of other products (Largest impact with less effort. Better for customers, incremental value over time)
Key Stats Supporting this argument
$143.3 mil market by 2025, India expected to grow with highest CAGR Largest piano learning apps make $1-4 million every month in app store subscriptions alone. Ex - Simplypiano, Piano by Smule, Flowkey (Source - Sensortower)
