Alibaba's UCWeb launches We-Media Reward Plan 2.0

New Delhi [India], Mar. 8 (ANI): User-generated content platform UCWeb Inc. has with the launch of We-Media Reward Plan 2.0 invested Rs. 50 million towards driving user-generated content in India. The investment falls under Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group's targeted investment of USD 7.2 billion in content over the next three years. The internet major is investing Rs. two billion for driving content distribution in India over the next two years. UCWeb's content distribution platform UC News, launched in June 2016, has registered a new milestone by becoming one of the fastest growing apps in the country with Monthly Active Users (MAUs) of over 80 million in India as of February 2017. UCWeb is also upgrading its content and services portfolio by adding more short video-related content. Short Videos are fast becoming the most popular form of content consumed in China today and UCWeb sees huge potential for this concept here in India as well. Addressing the media here today, He Xiaopeng, Co-Founder UCWeb and President, Alibaba Mobile Business Group, revealed that user-generated content creation has reached an important position in the market. "With the availability of Artificial Intelligence (AI), technical costs of content creation have reduced. The Indian market has at least 400,000 self-publishers in India already with a huge scope to grow the market, especially in the niche categories. UC Browser was launched with an aim to solve browsing-related problems while UC News and We-Media program aim to meet the increasing demand of varied content by users and build a well-established ecosystem," he said. UC News aims to provide upgraded content and services to its users and, going forward, will make significant investment in this category. According to the company's latest content consumption trends report, video content has risen 30 percent in the last quarter alone. The company is in the process of setting up a separate team to handle the short videos section and is scouting for relevant partners to support this for UC News India. Speaking on future expansion plans, Kenny Ye, GM-Overseas Business, Alibaba Mobile Business Group, said that the company has launched a new scheme called 'Super 1000', where in 1000 content creators, including bloggers across India and Indonesia, will be selected. Depending on the quality of content, the selected persons will be paid a minimum of Rs. 50,000 monthly to start with. "India is a market that is undergoing rapid expansion. With the launch of Super 1000, we are looking at engaging with writers in India and Indonesia who will be writing for different branches of UC News. The articles must be free from plagiarism and will be assessed for quality. This will help us drive traffic on the web and ensure that content is monetized," he told ANI. UC News is a big-data powered content distributor, serving as a one-stop source of trending and curated news content covering all popular categories that Indian users can consume on the go, with featured channels including news, cricket, technology, entertainment, movies, lifestyle, health and others. UCWeb's strength in technology is helping UC News process millions of data request and content of massive origins everyday with the help of its three big data clusters set-up in India. The cluster combines over 5,000 machines handling millions of data-request with a response time of less than 10 milliseconds for each, thereby boosting the content generation and distribution on UC News to meet the demands of 80 Million MAUs. Late last year, Alibaba Holdings announced its new digital media arm, Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment, in a major reorganization of the company's entertainment assets. The transformation marked a total consolidation of Alibaba's media businesses, including video website YoukuTudou, UCWeb and Alibaba Pictures Group as well as the company's sports, games, literature, music and the digital entertainment division. (ANI)