National media appreciate the FDI limit for digital news entities
National media entities are satisfied with the decision to incorporate digital media into the FDI policy regime. The Cabinet of the Union decided on Wednesday to limit the FDI limit to "upload / transmit news and current affairs through digital media" to 26%, the same as for print media.
The president of the Indian Newspaper Society, Jayant Mammen Mathew, said: “It is a right decision for the government to limit FDI in digital media to 26%, which is in line with FDI (limit) under pressure. This ensures that Indian news sites have equal conditions with news aggregators and other digital news sites. "
Government officials said there had been a vacuum for decades in FDI policy for the sector, which led to an avalanche of news and other entity content, including news aggregators, without any control. In this context, they said, digital applications that distribute news include aggregators that "originate" or "link" news articles from multiple sources into a single user source. This news content can take the form of text, video, images, etc. and covers the entire spectrum of news and current affairs, including politics, national security, business and economics, and local urban developments.
Sensitive sector
The former secretary of the Department of Industry Promotion and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Ramesh Abhishek said: “The government has provided much needed clarity about FDI in digital media. This has kept pace with BDI in print media. This provision is likely to apply to anyone who distributes news through digital media in any form. The policy must also relate to news aggregates. "
According to official sources, FDI policy in the media is always tightly regulated, given the sensitivity of the sector.
That is why the explosive growth of news aggregators was cause for concern, especially because China has become an aggressive investor in this space with many Chinese or funded entities that create and manage content.
China, on the other hand, strictly restricts social media and social media entities in all aspects, and Facebook and Twitter are blocked by censors in mainland China.
These companies include Dailyhunt, which has 207 million monthly active users in India. The majority of the company (more than 75%) is owned by foreign entities, of which 17% in Byte-Dance, the largest Chinese news company. Indian promoters only have a 20% stake in Dailyhunt.
ByteDance also owns 100% of Helo, the fastest growing local news application in India with 50 million monthly active users. Helo wants to reach the limit of 100 million users by the end of 2019. ByteDance is also the sole owner of TikTok, the fastest growing social network in India.
Therefore, the largest Chinese news company owns or has important interests in the most important news, local language news and social networks in India without any control until the recent FDI regulation.
There are also many other Chinese news aggregators, including UCNews (owned by Alibaba), Opera (whose largest shareholder is Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. Ltd.) and NewsDog (incubated in China and funded by Tencent).
Sources said these aggregators are much larger than traditional news broadcasts and have aggressively invested in marketing and growth due to strong financial support from Chinese investors. Some of these have spent more than Rs 100 million per year on marketing alone.
The president of the Indian Newspaper Society, Jayant Mammen Mathew, said: “It is a right decision for the government to limit FDI in digital media to 26%, which is in line with FDI (limit) under pressure. This ensures that Indian news sites have equal conditions with news aggregators and other digital news sites. "
Government officials said there had been a vacuum for decades in FDI policy for the sector, which led to an avalanche of news and other entity content, including news aggregators, without any control. In this context, they said, digital applications that distribute news include aggregators that "originate" or "link" news articles from multiple sources into a single user source. This news content can take the form of text, video, images, etc. and covers the entire spectrum of news and current affairs, including politics, national security, business and economics, and local urban developments.
Sensitive sector
The former secretary of the Department of Industry Promotion and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Ramesh Abhishek said: “The government has provided much needed clarity about FDI in digital media. This has kept pace with BDI in print media. This provision is likely to apply to anyone who distributes news through digital media in any form. The policy must also relate to news aggregates. "
According to official sources, FDI policy in the media is always tightly regulated, given the sensitivity of the sector.
That is why the explosive growth of news aggregators was cause for concern, especially because China has become an aggressive investor in this space with many Chinese or funded entities that create and manage content.
China, on the other hand, strictly restricts social media and social media entities in all aspects, and Facebook and Twitter are blocked by censors in mainland China.
These companies include Dailyhunt, which has 207 million monthly active users in India. The majority of the company (more than 75%) is owned by foreign entities, of which 17% in Byte-Dance, the largest Chinese news company. Indian promoters only have a 20% stake in Dailyhunt.
ByteDance also owns 100% of Helo, the fastest growing local news application in India with 50 million monthly active users. Helo wants to reach the limit of 100 million users by the end of 2019. ByteDance is also the sole owner of TikTok, the fastest growing social network in India.
Therefore, the largest Chinese news company owns or has important interests in the most important news, local language news and social networks in India without any control until the recent FDI regulation.
There are also many other Chinese news aggregators, including UCNews (owned by Alibaba), Opera (whose largest shareholder is Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. Ltd.) and NewsDog (incubated in China and funded by Tencent).
Sources said these aggregators are much larger than traditional news broadcasts and have aggressively invested in marketing and growth due to strong financial support from Chinese investors. Some of these have spent more than Rs 100 million per year on marketing alone.
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