Pocket FM ventures into online reading, to invest $40 million

Pocket FM has ventured into online reading with the launch of Pocket Novel, pumping in $40 million to bolster its presence in the literary landscape.

The move comes as a bid for the audio OTT platform to diversify into multiple entertainment categories and formats, with an emphasis on creating and developing an Intellectual Property (IP) playbook, PocketFM said in a statement.

The online novel reading platform market in India is yet to be explored at its potential, with the global market projected to exceed $6.5 billion by 2028, PocketFM said.

By unlocking opportunities and connecting writers with millions of readers, PocketNovel said it aims to exceed $100 million in Annualised Revenue Run Rate (ARR) worldwide by 2025. 

Rohan Nayak, Co-founder and CEO of Pocket Novel said in a release, "Leveraging our learnings from our successful audio series trajectory, we remain steadfast in our commitment to cultivating a dynamic entertainment ecosystem. Our IP creation engine is designed to produce and disseminate content across diverse categories and brings disruption in the entertainment landscape.”

Pocket Novel in its beta-phase

The platform has about 1.5 lakh writers on its platform, earning up to $2500 every month. Pocket Novel aims to extend this community to 1 million writers, with its library reaching 2 million novels by 2025.

The platform has also seen high reader engagement on the platform with an average daily reading time crossing 100 minutes. Popular genres on the platform span romance, drama, suspense, fantasy, and sci-fi. 

The company has seen over 2 per cent of its novels garnering more than five lakh reads, while over 5 per cent have exceeded over one lakh reads. The platform's revenue has already grown 500% in 2023.

Readers made over 1 million transactions on the platform in 2023 for purchasing entire novels or certain chapters by writers of the Pocket Novel community.