Indian media scene heats up with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp buying VCCircle network

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has acquired India’s VCCircle network, which includes the news site Techcircle, VCCircle, VCCEdge, VCCircle Training, and a conference business. “India is an increasingly meaningful part of our portfolio, which is itself increasingly digital and global,” says News Corp CEO Robert Thomson in an announcement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“For the past decade, we have built a franchise with proprietary data, content, and networking capabilities around India’s digital business world. Being a part of News Corp will allow us to accelerate our growth plans.” says PV Sahad, founder and CEO of VCCircle.

The VCCircle acquisition follows two other recent investments by News Corp in India. In December, it acquired BigDecisions, a data analytics firm in the personal finance space. The previous month, it announced buying a 25 percent stake in the parent company of PropTiger, a real estate portal, for US$30 million. The company also has a presence in India through its Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal, and HarperCollins Publishers businesses.

In recent months, quite a few international media biggies set up shop in India. Buzzfeed India launched in August, The HuffPost India in December, and Mashable India in February 2015.

There are over 240 million internet users in India — more than the number in the United States – and smartphone usage is rapidly spreading beyond the metros. Apart from the biggies, new and nimble online media players like ScoopWhoop, The NewsMinute, and News in Shorts sprouted recently. Traditional media players led by The Times of India have been slow to serve the needs of smart, online consumers – so the online media space is ripe for disruption.

See: BuzzFeed reveals its secrets to going viral, and its plans to win India