Hubhopper: Connecting Publishers with Users Through 60-word Content

Taking a drink from the fire hydrant

Earlier, it was considered a blessing to be able to obtain information on a click of the button; today, with the deluge of news reports, blogs and articles from myriad sources on the internet, users can’t help but feel a bit dazed as they wade through various webpages, going through a roller-coaster ride in terms of experience.

On the other hand, a large community of content writers is bereft of the opportunity to find the right audience owing to their inability to optimize technology.

In the process, users keep receiving hordes of random content from a select few tech-driven single-source content platforms.

Gautam Raj Anand, Founder & CEO of Hubhopper, identified this drift between the content publishers and users and set out to effectively bridge this gap.

“Users waste hours online, wading through different platforms with varied user experiences to consume content. The Hubhopper app saves users time, effort and space on their devices by bringing together all the content they love from their favourite publishers under one unified experience. It’s the daily dose of your interests.

It’s short, simple and social, and the more you use it, the more it understands what you’re looking for while saving you space on your devices,” says Gautam, an Economics Honours graduate with experience in working with Barclays Bank PLC as a Senior Analyst.

So, instead of wandering the internet in search of content that interests them, users can just log in to Hubhopper and browse the categories/publishers of their liking, and get their daily fill of news, knowledge or entertainment in easily digestible snippet formats.

But this is not all. The unique factor that distinguishes Hubhopper from any other news or content aggregator is in how it opens its technology to any publisher who wishes to leverage of its state of the art design, user experience, features and robust backend.

Publishers create targeted native audiences on Hubhopper through their channels of brief content (about 60 words long), giving the user an opportunity to grasp all the vital information at a glance. If they want to read more, they can always go back to the publisher’s site and read the detailed write-up.

How is Hubhopper easing the itch for publishers as well as the users?

Hubhopper has crafted a perfect platform where content creators and users both stand to win.

For users, Hubhopper is the first organisation and standardisation of online publishers that judges them solely on their ability to create content and is agnostic to their technological ability and type.

Films have IMDB and Rotten tomatoes ratings, Restaurants have Zomato and Yelp ratings, even Taxis have Uber ratings. With the coming of Hubhopper, online content will finally have a user defined quality barometer to be judged by.

“Beside the core offering of a dedicated platform for their interest doses, users enjoy several immersive features on Hubhopper too. Something our team is constantly working on pushing the boundaries of and optimising,” adds Gautam.

For publishers, Hubhopper acts as an end-to-end SAAS platform solving all their problems.

Presenting a unique opportunity to create content, disseminate, reach out to a wider audience and cultivate a robust base of followers within the Hubhopper application.

Hubhopper also gives publishers a robust backend with tiered pricing analytics, attribution, segmentation, team management, competitor analysis and everything else they need to understand their users and succeed.

Uday Raj Anand, CSO, Hubhopper explains, “Hubhopper is the Play store for content creators. It is an end-to-end (creation, expression, dissemination and holistic data delivery) platform that allows content creators to build a target audience without having to pay for building a UI /UX-rich delivery platform.” He further adds, “Publishers can create content in any language on the Hubhopper platform.” Uday has earned double Masters from Oxford University and has worked with consulting major, Bain & Co., as a Senior Analyst.

In the world where content optimization is reserved for players with deep pockets or technological expertise, Hubhopper is putting the trust back in the phrase, ‘Content is King’. At Hubhopper, even an independent content writer producing excellent work can win a large following.

Recognition, awards and love

Since its launch, Hubhopper has always been in the news. Most recently, the platform made headlines for becoming the top app on the Google Play Store in the country; it was also at the top of the Apple App Store in the last week of July 2017 – becoming one of the few apps in India to top both the app stores in the same month.

In July 2017, Hubhopper got acceptance to the prestigious Apple Accelerator Program and was also nominated for Creative & Tech Startup of the Year.

In April 2017, Hubhopper was ranked 2nd best startup in India under the compilation, ‘HOTTEST 100 Startups in India’ by TiE & Exhibit Magazine. In the same month, Hubhopper was recognized as the ‘Problem Solver of the year 2017’ by Techy.

The startup has featured in several reputed publications such as YourStory, NDTV Gadget Guru, Top 50 Apps, Inc42, Entrepreneur Magazine among others.

On the product front, Hubhopper has achieved MAU of over 300,000, increasing by 35% month-on-month. Popular among users, the platform is geared up to cross a million-page views by the next month, trends nationally on Twitter and has many favourable reviews with a user rating of 4.8 on Google Play Store.

The road ahead

Hubhopper has secured three rounds of Angel investment funding amounting to INR 20 million and is driving strategic partnerships with biggies such as Amazon, Apple, Gionee, Vodafone and others.

With a board of star advisors such as Raman Roy (Father of the Indian BPO), Sanjeev Bhikchandani (Founder – Naukri.com, 99acres.com) and Deep Kalra (Founder – Makemytrip.com), Hubhopper is set to chart new heights in the content aggregation and delivery field. The promising startup is focusing on enhancing the number of channels as well as users on its platform and is continually working towards making the delivery platform more intuitive and feature-rich to give the best experience to publishers as well as the users.