Google's Sunil Rayan takes over Disney+Hotstar at a critical time

Hotstar which earlier this year was rebranded as Disney+Hotstar is scaling up by adding more content and also by hiring new talent to make the platform more robust.

One major appointment was announced in June this year when ex-Google employee Sunil Rayan took over Disney+Hotstar.

Before Rayan's entry, Hotstar, now Disney+Hotstar was managed by Uday Shankar, Chairman, Disney and Star India and President, Walt Disney Company APAC, since the time former Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan left the company in 2018 to head Facebook’s India operations.

Rayan takes over at a critical time

When Shankar had announced Rayan's appointment as the president and head of Disney+Hotstar, he had said that “Rayan has a stellar track record of scaling and growing complex businesses.”

This is why experts say Rayan’s entry at Disney+Hotstar comes at the right time. Rayan before joining Disney+Hotstar worked in the areas of gaming and mobile focused businesses at Google.

Hotstar before it joined hands with Disney had more focus on sports, a few global shows like Game of Thrones and catch-up TV content.

However, with the addition of Disney content especially in three regional languages including Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, the OTT platform is offering content to a wider audience including kids, family, among others.

For the quarter ended June, Disney-owned video streaming service Disney+Hotstar recorded about 8.63 million subscribers in India which translates into an estimated 625,000 new subscriber additions in the April-June period in the country.

With new subscribers and new content coming in, Rayan will have to closely look at user experience.

Plus, the competition in the video streaming space in India is getting tougher with platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix leaving stone unturned to woo Indian viewers.

While Netflix has been aggressive in terms of adding new content especially web series catering to Indian audience, its subscription plans are considered expensive which starts with a basic plan at Rs 499.

This is the reason why experts say that Netflix has been unable to add more paid subscribers on its platform. Netflix is estimated to have around 40 lakh subscribers currently.

However, Netflix has been testing low-cost subscription plans like the mobile plan which was launched last year in India.

As for Amazon Prime Video, the platform has 44 lakh paid members in India.

Compare this with Disney+Hotstar, the platform has 86.3 lakh paid subscribers.

Rayan's expertise in user experience will be helpful

Rayan who looked at ads business at Google worked with mobile game developers and app startups and helped them acquire users to grow their businesses across Android and iOS platforms. His experience at Google in terms of user acquisition will help Disney+Hotstar in enhancing user experience which in turn will help in acquiring more users.

Karan Taurani, Vice President, Elara Capital, who tracks media and entertainment space, also thinks the same. He said that “Rayan will bring a lot of expertise when it comes to better user experience for Disney+Hotstar as Google, Netflix and Amazon are known globally for their user experience and are ranked above others.”

User experience will matter the most considering Disney+Hotstar is doing a lot when it comes to scaling up content. Along with English film titles, the platform is also offering new and exclusive digital premieres.

Immediately after Rayan's appointment, Disney+Hotstar announced the digital premieres of seven Bollywood ventures including big offerings like Ajay Devgn's Bhuj, Akshay Kumar's Laxmmi Bomb, Alia Bhatt-starrer Sadak 2, Lootcase, Khuda Haafiz, among others. Some of these films have already released and streaming on Disney+Hotstar. And now the next big thing for the platform is the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

In addition, Disney+Hotstar is aiming big when it comes to revenues. The platform is targeting to acquire 25 percent of the total online video revenue pie by 2025. So, the company has some big targets set for Rayan.

Currently, Disney+ Hotstar makes about Rs 53.16 from each subscriber in India every quarter. The platform currently has eight million subscribers. It is expected that average revenue per user (ARPU) will increase in the coming months as prices were hiked when Disney came on board. Disney+Hotstar premium is now available for Rs 1,499 a year, up from Rs 999 for the same plan annually.

​Game gyaan

While movies and shows are the focus area, Disney+Hotstar is putting equal emphasis on sports and games on the platform. The Indian Premier League (IPL) has always been an impact property for the video streaming platform. From IPL auction to finale, the league has given a significant boost to Disney+Hotstar’s subscriber base. In fact, the OTT platform with 300 million subscribers is among the leading video streaming platforms in India.

Along with the league’s telecast, the OTT has also hosted games like WatchN’play, a service which allowed users to guess the result of the next ball while watching the match. The game was launched as the makers of the platform realized that IPL fans while watching the game like to participate in the sport by tapping into their knowledge of cricket.

More insights from Rayan in the gaming space could help Disney+Hotstar engage more viewers on the platform. And it wouldn’t be a tall ask as Rayan has a strong background when it comes to games.

After all, Rayan at Google was the Managing Director of Google Cloud for Games.​

During Rayan's stint at Google, the number of triple-A titles running on Google Cloud Platform increased from one in 2018 to six in 2019.

AAA or Triple-A video games are big games that usually involve huge teams working for months to years to make a finished product, employed by a major studio. Some examples include God of War, Far Cry 5, Monster Hunter: World, among others.

Rayan in one of his blogs had pointed out that Google Cloud is powering many of the world’s top games on mobile, console and PC, and that the platform is supporting developers in delivering better player experiences.

"Our infrastructure has 18 regions and a presence in over 200 countries and territories, connected by our private fiber optic network, to ensure that game servers and players are as close to each other as possible," he had said.

He also gave example of Multiplay, a game events company which uses Google Compute Engine to host game servers for Respawn Entertainment’s (video game development studio) global free-to-play battle royale smash hit, Apex Legends, which had amassed 50 million players in one month since its debut in February 2019.

In addition, one of the leading international video game developers King which has in its portfolio games like Candy Crush Saga had joined hands with Google Cloud in 2018 to move its core data infrastructure and AI/ML platform to Google Cloud.

A stronger gaming culture on Disney+Hotstar will benefit the platform in the long run considering the rapid growth of online gaming in India especially on mobile phones as Indians prefer playing games on mobile phones more.

According to Statista, there were 201 million mobile gamers in India in 2016 which went up to 269 in 2018 and it is estimated that the number will further go up to 326 million this year.

Rayan knows more than just gaming

What more can come handy is Rayan’s experience in handling mobile app promotion business as he headed Google’s Mobile App advertisements business till July 2018.

During his stint at Google as MD, mobile app ads business, Rayan worked with game developers and other app startups to help them grow with Google products on app promotion.

At Google, Rayan saw the partnership of the tech giant with Activision Blizzard, a video game company which has developed games like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Pitfall, among others.

Activision Blizzard in a statement in January this year had said that the partnership will let the company switch over to Google Cloud which has highly reliable global footprint, advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities and commitment to open source, creating a platform for building future gaming innovations.

“Rayan can help Disney+Hotstar get access to multiple set of new advertisers on the digital space as Google, Facebook command almost 70 percent of the India digital ad spend pie,” added Taurani.

Organizational skills

At the time of Rayan’s appointment, Uday Shankar has also pointed out that “Sunil is a truly global executive, bringing experiences from across the world, having scaled businesses in the US, setting up large teams in South East Asia, and working with super app players in Latin America."

At Google as MD, mobile app ads business, Rayan had not only worked towards revenue growth but had also scaled the team from single digits to 10x in headcount.

In the current company, the expectations are similar-- to build a stronger team.  Disney+Hotstar has 750 employees currently and has job openings for roles including engagement manager, content operations, among others.

At the time of Rayan's appointment Shankar had said that "it is Rayan’s global accomplishments and his experience of product engineering and commercial expertise which makes him an apt choice for leading the Disney+Hotstar team and also in achieving their mission to create the country's largest and most advanced platform for curated content." ​

Challenges for Rayan

While the video streaming space in India is flourishing, competition is heating up with new players entering the market.

Plus, the major challenge in the country is paying for online content which is slowly seeing a change yet, only 10 percent of the OTT users pay for content.

With Disney+Hotstar increasing prices, one major challenge for Rayan will be to retain existing paid users and adding more paying members. However, it may not be a tall ask considering IPL will be behind paywall.