India’s Pocket FM doubles annual revenue run rate to $500 million — TechCrunch
Indian audio series platform Pocket FM doubled its annual revenue run rate to $500 million over the past year by more actively using artificial intelligence in content production. As TechCrunch reports, AI is involved in creating 93% of the service’s entire catalog and 99% of new content.
Pocket FM co-founder and CEO Rohan Nayak said the company continues to rely on people to create ideas and plots, while using AI to scale the production of finished audio materials. According to him, the technology has made content production about 80 times cheaper: 100 hours of material that previously took around a year can now be created in a day.
Catalog and revenue growth
More than 550,000 Pocket FM authors produce around 2.5 million hours of AI-assisted content annually. Two years ago, the platform’s entire catalog contained about 100,000 hours of audio materials. The service’s library now includes more than 770,000 audio series.
The company said its 12-month revenue retention metric rose from 44% two years ago to 76%. Nayak linked this, among other things, to an increase in the number of stories for different listener preferences. According to him, 96 works on the platform generated more than $1 million each, while 13 of them exceeded $10 million.
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Pocket FM’s annual revenue run rate rose from about $250 million a year ago to $430 million in April and $500 million now. The company calculates this metric by multiplying monthly revenue by 12. About $85 million comes from advertising revenue, while approximately $415 million comes from user payments to unlock individual episodes.
Expansion into video formats
Pocket FM has more than 250 million listeners in over 20 countries. The United States has become the platform’s largest market, accounting for about 70% of its annual revenue run rate; it grew by roughly 70% over the past year.
Parent company Pocket Entertainment is also developing the microdrama app Pocket Saga, which is currently available only in the United States. Its content is created entirely with AI, including by turning successful Pocket FM audio stories into videos without a traditional filming process. In three months, Pocket Saga’s annual revenue run rate reached about $15 million.
Pocket Entertainment is in talks with investors about new funding, but Nayak said the company has no urgent need to raise capital. According to him, the funds from the new round are planned to be directed toward AI and new entertainment formats. The company also reported profitability and positive adjusted cash flow.
