In Mumbai on Tuesday, LeEco has launched its premium video service for India, Supertainment, in a major company event. Said as “LeEco Membership”, it is said to bring experience, service and content in a single package. The supertainment service is all about providing entertainment streaming and on-demand services such as music, sitcoms, movies and sports. In a talk with the media, the Indian segment COO, Atul Jain has also revealed that the company might plan to launch the very successful free hardware day in China, in India also.
As name says, the free hardware day is the day when the customers can get smarpthones, TVs, and other LeEco hardware for free, just by making payment for content subscriptions. Speaking about the free hardware day, the company founder Jia Yueting, said, “On April 14, we held the first free hardware day in China, when we had sales for our smartphones, TVs on our website. We believe that the world is heading for an ecosystem era, where hardware will be irrelevant and rather users will be more interested in the content, value they can get from a device. Sales of content exceeded two billion RMB [roughly Rs. 20 billion].
When we make hardware free and stand by users, we put ourselves against competition and have shaken the basis of how the industry has functioned.” Answering the media, about, if the free hardware day would be possible to introduce in India, his reply should leave the consumers optimistic about the company’s operations in India, he said, “It’s technically possible. If you look at our membership, the Le Eco membership is Rs. 4,900. As I keep on adding memberships, maybe if you buy two or three year memberships, I could make further and further discounts on the device. Today we announced a Rs. 4,000 discount [on buying the Le 1s (Eco) and a LeEco Membership] and I could give more. It’s stackable.” Jain opines with his answers that the reluctance of the Indian customers might be present in going for content subscription while receiving free hardware, but what he stresses on is that, it is the questions of what we are providing for the users when they want it.
With all these going on, we wondered in asking him what he would say for, how the company would plan to break even. What he said is really optimistic, and sounds to provide good prospects to the Indian market in the future. He said, “That’s where the ecosystem comes in place. Each part of the ecosystem supports each other. It’s a very, very long term [plan for India]. The volume of devices will lead us to more and more users coming and using our platform.” What this means is that the company plans to depend on its other units where there is a good and sound profitability running, while the company is going for free hardware.
While the aspects like customer orientation towards the content subscription and internet connectivity not having a major occupancy in the Indian market when compared to China, are the factors to be thought about before the company make a major move in this proposition.
