In 2018, three IIT Jodhpur graduates—Lal Chand Bisu, Vinod Meena, and Vikas Goyal—launched Kuku FM after realizing the audio content gap for India’s regional language speakers.

Kuku FM aims to build an audio-first storytelling platform for India's underserved regional audiences and Bharat users - from Tier 2+ cities, in a market dominated by English language players and Western style podcasts.

Kuku FM has raised a Series C funding of $25M in September 2023, and boasts of over 3.3 million paid subscribers and over 10 million active listeners on the platform.

Kuku FM solves the problem of finding off-screen, engaging content that is catered to regional audiences. It provides content in the form of audiobooks, podcasts and audio stories across a wide range of categories. It complements short-format entertaining stories with long-form educational and self-help content, making it localized and suited to the taste of Bharat users.

For Listeners:

1. Regional Content: Offers content in multiple regional languages, catering to local preferences.

2. Passive Listening: Enables users to consume content while multitasking, ideal for busy schedules.

3. Engaging Content: Provides a mix of entertainment, education, and storytelling to keep listeners hooked.

4. Accessibility and Affordability: Mobile-first platform with options to unlock episodes with microtransactions, it makes content accessible and affordable.

For Content Creators:

1. Distribution: Provides reach to large audiences with wide range of content preferences.
2. Monetization: Providing a platform for small, independent creators to monetize their work, without the need for expensive equipment or editing expertise required by platforms like YouTube.
3. Feedback Loop: Users can provide ratings and reviews to shows and episodes, providing creators with valuable feedback on their work.

Engaging Features

1. Daily Listening Goals: To keep you on track, Kuku FM sets daily listening goals, encouraging you to stay consistent with your content.

2. Kuku Coins: You can earn Kuku Coins by listening regularly or completing tasks. These coins let you unlock premium episodes and content.

3. Referral Program: Invite your friends to join the app and get Kuku Coins for each successful referral, making it easier to access exclusive content.

4. Listening Streaks: Keep track of how many days in a row you’ve been listening, and earn rewards for staying consistent.

Personalized Experience

1. Custom Playlists: Make your own playlists of your favorite episodes or books

2. Bookmarking: Save interesting for later with the bookmarking feature.

Convenience and Accessibility

​1. Offline Downloads You can download content and listen offline.

2. Playback Control: You can adjust the playback speed to suit your pace.

3. Sleep Timer: Set a timer so your content stops playing after a certain time.

4. Multi-Device Sync: Keep your progress synced across all your devices.

Motivation

1. Achievements: Unlock badges and rewards for hitting milestones, like completing your first audiobook or hitting a listening streak.

2. Leaderboard: See how you stack up against other listeners in terms of engagement, adding a bit of friendly competition.

For Screenshots, refer: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/my-drive?fbclid=IwAR10FS3QAZTGLB1nxJcCiL7LPPYk6ZvrtBzxQrULCi4xjZN8YpjvmoR77jQ

Decoding ICPs further

ICP 1: Sunita, the Homemaker

Sunita is a 37-year-old woman from Agra, Uttar Pradesh. She manages a household of 6 members and 3 school going children. Her typical days are hectic with week days spent in taking care of kids and household chores. In her limited free time, she consumes engaging content from YouTube and OTTs like Hotstar on her mobile and also enjoys shopping online from Meesho or Myntra. She also enjoys soap operas on TV, but her busy schedule does not permit her to have a constant screen time. Her weekends are spent with family and occassional gatherings with other friends who are also primarily homemakers and/or self-employed.

ICP 2: Aditya, the IT Guy

Aditya is a 28-year-old Systems Engineer working at Infosys in Kochi, Kerala, living in a 3 BHK apartment shared with flatmates. He spends about 2 hours everyday on commute to and from office, via bus. Watches OTTs like Hotstar in free time or during commute. Browses through Instagram or Facebook as well. Typical day consists of work, commute and watching OTT. He goes out with his friends during weekends and spends time playing football or meeting family. He aspires to relocate to Bangalore and find a better job. But his busy schedule makes it difficult to find time for upskilling. He is also a Malayalam speaker.

ICP 3: Arun, the Delivery Rider

Arun is a 31-year-old delivery rider for Zomato in Gurugram. He has been in the delivery space for about 5 years, earlier working at eKart. Most of his day is spent on the road fulfilling orders. He rides his bike and uses Google Maps for navigation. In his free time, he browses through Facebook and watches OTT platforms like MX Player or Hotstar. He aspires to pick up new skills and find better opportunities. Being a delivery partner, weekends are peak business hours for him. He hardly finds time for himself through the week.

ICP 4: Ramesh, the Govt Exam Aspirant

Ramesh is a 25-year-old guy from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. He works as an assistant at a local HDFC bank branch. He is preparing for UPSC exams and pursues coaching alongside work. His weekdays are spend are spent at work or coaching, or on commute. He watches some YouTube and plays BGMI with his friends for relaxation. His weekends are also spent in coaching or studying at home. This is his 3rd UPSC attempt and he struggles in general to keep himself motivated.

ICP Prioritzation Table

Now that we know about the users and the product, let's ask the million dollar question (pun intended) -

Here are the 3 factors to answer this question.

This curve represents the retention rate for 1000 acquired users over a period of 1 year. These are based on industry figures as well as assumptions as Kuku FM has better retention than most apps operating in this space. Assuming a stable retention rate of about 30%, we see that the curve stabilises over a longer period, indicating that retained users are sticking with the app and they find value.

Hence Kuku FM is ready for monetization!

Segmenting Casual/Core/Power Users

Metrics tracked for Depth of Engagement

1. Hours of listening time per week.
2. Unique shows/episodes consumed per week.

How do the different users behave?

As per the numbers on the Kuku FM website, there are 1 crore+ listeners and over 41 lakh premium subscribers. It also has a very high conversion rate of converting free-to-paid subscribers. Based on the depth of engagement and the usage numbers, it is safe to say that Kuku FM is beyond ready for monetization!

Core + Power Users > 50% of all users

We have established that users find value in the product and are willing to pay for better features and experiences. Hence Kuku FM is ready for monetization.

Pricing Page

(Understand the existing user discovery flow for pricing and try to understand why things are being done they are currently)

Improvements

• Use Strikethrough technique
• Use middle pricing
• Kuku Coins purchase sizes should be small, in order to promote bulk purchase/conversion to premium

From the litmus test, we saw that Kuku FM is ready to be monetized as it has high retention, users show depth of engagement and are willing to pay for the value it provides.

We further segment the ICPs and looked at their characteristics.

For defining depth of engagement, we looked at - hours of listening time per week and number of unique titles consumed per week.

From the ICP prioritization table, we can prioritize ICP 2 (IT Professional) and ICP 1 (Homemaker), as they seem to be the most valuable users who have a good adoption, high appetite to pay, high TAM and good distribution potential.

To connect them together, we can say that the best users to monetize are the ones who:

• Show commitment to the app and tune-in regularly to consume content.
• Have consumed unique titles in multiple genres showing the breadth of consumption.
• Belong to ICP1 and ICP2 profiles.

RFM Grid

Recency Metric: Time since the user’s last session on Kuku FM.

Frequency Metric: The number of episodes consumed per month.

Monetary Metric: Total revenue generated by the user through subscriptions, purchases of premium content, or in-app transactions like buying Kuku Coins.

Experiment #1: Use Referral Program as a funnel for free-to-paid conversion

Users referring their friends already show high engagement to the app, it can be a good idea to incentivise them into upgrading to premium plans by offering discounts.

Experiment Design:

• Build on top of the current referral program that offers cash rewards and a 50% off on the annual plan to the referred person.
  
  
• Incentivise the referrer as well to upgrade to premium by offering discounts (e.g., 1 month of premium access or 20% off the annual plan for users who refer 3 friends).
  [Note: While the current system of cash rewards is transparent, it is important that the users refer others based on their experience on the app, and not abuse it as a money-making scheme]

Metrics

• Number of referrals per user
• Subscription rate of referrers
• Subscription rate of referred users

Experiment #2: 7 Day Free Trial + Discounts

Offer a 7-day free trial to users to experience the premium features. At the end of 7 days, offer them a discount to upgrade to premium.

Free trial messaging should be transparent, reaffirming the user that they will not be charged automatically and that they can opt out at any time. The user segment that we are targeting have low-trust in monetary transactions and many are also first time internet users.

Experiment Design:

• Current trial offering is similar, with clear messaging about the points mentioned above.
  
  
• The only addition to this could be to offer a discount at the end of trial to further incentivise the user to convert.

Metrics:

• Conversion rate to premium from free trial purchases.
• Listening hours during the free trial (Helps us to determine if the user found value or not)

Experiment #3: Use Habit Formation to convert free to paid users

Users who are likely to get into the habit of using the app are more likely to convert to paid subscribers. Incentivise the users who complete daily listening goals, and at the end of a 7-10 day streak, offer them a discount to upgrade.

Experiment Design

• Current design of Listening Goals gives 50 Kuku Coins for completing daily listening goals, which can then be used to unlock episodes.

• This can be enhanced to provide a discount on premium plan at the end of a streak. Streaks are a happy moment and reflect the user's commitment and depth of engagement on the app. Hence they are a good time to convert user to premium plans. (Offer 20% on annual premium plan after completion of 7 day listening goals streak)

Metrics:

• Number of users completing 7 day listening goals.
• Conversion rate to premium from these users.

• For individuals in smaller cities and towns who want access to regional language content for education and entertainment, Kuku FM app is an audio platform that provides engaging and accessible audio content in local languages, giving users an enriching, inclusive experience that’s tailored to their needs.
• For working professionals who need to stay updated with industry trends and career growth tips, Kuku FM app is a knowledge-sharing platform that delivers concise, actionable, and insightful audio content to help users enhance their professional skills during commutes or downtime.
• For creators in the self-help, education, and lifestyle niche who want to connect with a wide audience for personal growth, Kuku FM platform supports creators in growing their brands and generating income by delivering knowledge-based, inspiring content to listeners.

I have mentioned more about the core problems in the Intro section.

To sum up:

Kuku FM solves the problem of finding off-screen, engaging content that is catered to regional audiences. It provides content in the form of audiobooks, podcasts and audio stories across a wide range of categories. It complements short-format entertaining stories with long-form educational and self-help content, making it localized and suited to the taste of Bharat users.

• Access to a wide range of high-quality audio content, including audiobooks, podcasts, self-help guides, stories, and courses.
• Unique regional language content catering to diverse audiences.
• The ability to listen to engaging audio content anytime, anywhere, on-demand.
• Offline listening through downloads for users with limited or inconsistent internet access.
• A sense of belonging through stories and creators that resonate with the audience’s culture, interests, and life experiences.

• While platforms like Audible and Spotify provide a broad spectrum of global content, Kuku FM excels in delivering culturally relevant audio experiences, making it more personal and engaging for regional users.
• Cost-effective subscription plans compared to premium platforms like Audible or paid courses on Skillshare or Coursera.
• Unlike niche platforms focusing on specific types of content, Kuku FM offers a one-stop solution for learning, entertainment, and personal growth.
• Empowers local storytellers and creates a platform that feels more community-driven compared to global competitors.

When to charge?

Aha and Happy Moments

• Users discover relatable, culturally rich content in their regional language.
• Users find a story, audiobook, or course that perfectly aligns with their interests or goals.
• Users complete a full episode of a podcast/audiobook.
• Users consume content across more than one genre.
• Users complete a 3 day listening streak.

What to charge for?

Kuku FM is charging for Access to a catalog of curated content.

Access can be a

• monthly/annual subscription offering unlimited access.
• In-app currency (Kuku Coins) that can unlock specific titles/episodes.

How much to charge?

(Do your own math and build 2-3 different pricing strategies and maximize your revenue)

1. Freemium Model and Tiered Pricing

• Free Tier: Access to limited content (e.g., introductory episodes or a small library of content).
• Premium Tier: Full access to all episodes, exclusive content, ad-free listening, and offline downloads.
• Pro Tier: Additional perks like early access to new episodes, personalized recommendations, and discounts on partnered services (e.g., audiobooks).

2. Pay-As-You-Go Model (Kuku Coins)
   Users earn free coins through daily listening goals, referrals, or engaging with the platform (e.g., sharing content, leaving reviews).
   Coins can be purchased in bundles to unlock premium content (e.g., a single episode or an entire series).
   Limited-time discounts or bonus coins for purchases, incentivizing bulk buys.
3. Bundled Partnerships
   Kuku FM partners with other services/brands to collectively offer services (These could be ed-techs, etc.)
   Pricing per specialized course with other perks, certifications.