Magzter wants to be the YouTube of magazines
Apple’s Newsstand is a great vehicle for tablet-based magazines, but it ignores foreign titles and is of no use the growing base of Android-based tablets, reports Mashable.
That’s the thinking behind Magzter, a two-year-old company that has amassed seven million readers across the globe. The company, which aims to be the “YouTube of magazines,” recently snagged Maxim in the US and plans to start offering Fast Company and Inc next month. Eventually, Magzter hopes to offer e-books as well and compete head-on with Amazon.
At the moment, Magzter, which was created by CEO Girish Ramdas and president Vijayakumar Radhakrishnan — has found a niche in offering foreign titles for expats in the U.S. and readers in other countries who want access to US titles. Such distribution is a blind spot for Apple’s Newsstand. Though Apple-based devices account for 90 per cent of Magzter’s business right now, Ramdas contends that Google’s US-only Newsstand offers an inferior customer experience compared to Magzter. With Android on the rise across the globe, he sees an opportunity.
