Podcasting lifted a creative lid for content creators like the pundits whose enduring friends and family were earlier their only audience. A podcast is an audio recording of virtually anything – an opinion, news or someone singing in the shower – posted on the Internet. For podcasters – which is a form of participatory media like blogging – the appeal is the low entry barrier: all one needs is a computer, microphone and an internet connection.
Podcasting has been around for over a decade, but gatekeepers like Apple, which makes mobile phones and software for these, control to whom it allows a channel on its popular podcasting application. Because the most important podcasting platforms are selective, those who don’t make the cut have fewer avenues.
Katha, a podcasting app available for free download on Android and iOS, allows any content producer to host a channel for podcasts. Its founders expect this, and focus on Sri Lankan content to generate traction for its disarmingly simple-to-use app. Katha’s open attitude to content also makes it possible for it to be used as a recorded voice messaging app to send audio messages to channel subscribers. Founders Mudith Uswatta and Mahen Ratnayake represent a typical tech partnership dichotomy. Mudith is the slick talker, manages marketing and often steers the conversation. Mahen is the geek responsible for software development and operations. Their meeting at a hackathon in 2012 resulted in the idea for Katha. The idea secured seed funding from investors of the Lanka Angel Network (LAN) when it was presented at Venture Engine 2014, where they were finalists.
[pullquote]Katha, available for free download on Android and iOS, allows any content producer a channel for podcasts. This and its focus on Sri Lankan content, its founders expect, will generate traction for the app[/pullquote]
Anyone can podcast on Katha because each user is set up on a ‘channel’. The in-app recorder, however, caps recordings at five minutes. Longer audio has to be recorded separately and uploaded though Katha’s web interface.
Uswatta is keen that Katha not be pigeonholed as a podcast or a messaging app only. “It’s an all-in-one audio communication service,” he emphasizes. He highlights the app’s ability to host ‘Ask and Answer’ sessions, somewhat like Reddit’s AMAs. Yamu, a Sri Lankan restaurant and travel review site, offers answers to questions posed to them on their Katha channel.
As recorded voice is language agnostic, it overcomes texting’s main challenge of users having to type the phonetics of Sinhala or Tamil when they are using English characters for the message. A text cannot compete with the intimacy of sound either, but that won’t mean it will automatically lead to ready adoption. WhatsApp and other messaging services already offer ‘push-to-talk’, a way of sending recorded messages, but the feature is rarely used by subscribers. The few exceptions of push-to-talk success include China, where WeChat is popular because typing Mandarin is painful, and Argentina, even though typing in Spanish is not.
For listeners, the appeal of podcasts is threefold. First and crucially, it’s a tool for time-shifting – a listener does not have to tune into a broadcast, but can consume the content when it’s convenient. Second, unlike radio, podcasts are free of irritating advertising peppering the content. Third, it’s possible for a listener to become their own programmer, picking the content they want depending on mood or need.
Katha – which has a clean app interface and clear, simple instructions – already has podcast channels from content specialists like Decibel.lk, Frontier Research and Groundviews. The only “guidelines” for content creators are: no abuse, no hate speech and no copyright infringement. As channels proliferate, it will rely on users to flag offending content.
The creators are partnering media companies to – in a symbiotic relationship – tap their existing users. They are prepared to help with training on the app and the finer points of audio recording. “We would prefer if they undertake the entire process of content creation on their own,” they say, adding that they are planning on offering a number of channels of their own, including “Ali G-type funny, candid interviews in Sri Lanka”.
The founding duo thinks Katha can work for politicians and religious sermons too. “People already record bana sermons on CDs to listen to when they wish – something this app can do,” Uswatta points out.
Content creators are free to charge subscriber fees to their channels – 30% of this goes to the app store, and of the remaining 70%, the content creator takes 90% and Katha pockets 10% (essentially 7% of the total price charged). Content creators are also free to air advertisements, sponsor messages and do product placements from which Katha does not benefit.
There is also Katha for Work – the second path of monetization – offering enterprise communications as a service (CaaS). It is a secure internal communications service for corporates, priced per user per month.
Its founders emphasize, a person’s speaking voice brings a level of authenticity that Twitter and Facebook cannot compete with. There is also potential for musicians, both established and struggling, to engage with fans and take their sound to new audiences.
A Kumar Sangakkara podcast – who has 577,000 Twitter followers and over four million Facebook fans – would be their dream channel to have because Katha could then attract some of them to use the app. Its founders have no illusions about the challenges of attracting tens of thousands of users and taking Katha global. Without enough content, the app won’t be able to scale fast enough, and without scale, it’s challenging to succeed in a crowded marketplace. They are now preparing to attend the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February and kick off a second round of funding mid-2016.