Digital magazine store Magzter looks at BRICS nations for more readers

Magzter, a digital magazine store that enables readers to access content across tablets and mobile phones, is planning to expand to the BRIC nations, particularly Brazil, Russia and China while shoring up its presence in India.

Expansion would be on the back of the Series B funding of $10 million ( ₹62 crore at current exchange rate) that the New York-headquartered company raised from an unit of Singapore Press Holdings and its existing investor, Kalaari Capital. The funds were raised in December last year.

Magzter had, earlier in March 2012, raised around $3 million from Kalaari Capital as round one funding

According to Vijayakumar Radhakrishnan, President and Co-Founder, Magzter, the idea is to tap Chinese diaspora settled outside the region.

With only a handful of local offerings in China as competition, Magzter hopes to have good traction in China. “Currently, we have some presence in India but not in other BRIC nations. Apart from shoring up our presence here, Brazil, Russia and China will be our focus,” he told Business Line .

New Revenue Model Set up in 2011, Magzter has over 1.7 crore users globally. A major chunk of its revenues come from North America, the UK and Asian nations such as Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. The application is available across iOS – on the iPhone, iPad and iPod, Android-based devices and on the Web. According to Radhakrishnan, the company is also exploring an alternative revenue model that will include having a different set of advertisements for magazines. Magzter would then enter into a revenue-sharing arrangements

The new revenue model will explore print editions (of magazines) having a separate or different set of advertisements from those that are there on the online store.

Under its existing revenue model, Magzter charges subscribers for content. For example, a user has to pay money to access a magazine or book.

Proceeds are shared between Magzter and the publisher. Users can access the same magazine across five devices. Publishers, however, are not charged for uploading their content on to the platform. Also under consideration is the addition of select tools for publishers that would make the content “interactive” and “glamorous”.