13 highlights
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According to Nielsen BookScan, the most reliable quantitative dataset for the publishing industry, Warikoo’s book has sold 61,096 copies till 12 February, earning Rs 2.04 crore. Let that sink in. These are outstanding numbers for any author in India, more so for a debutant. Especially when you consider that any book that sells beyond 3,000-5,000 copies in India is called a bestseller.
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In comparison, Chetan Bhagat, the bestselling Indian author, sold 82,030 copies of 400 Days—his latest book published by Westland on 8 October 2021—till 12 February, earning Rs 1.47 crore. His previous book—One Arranged Murder, released on 28 September 2020—sold 217,564 copies, earning Rs 3.37 crore till 12 February.
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The pieces of advice, a former executive from the publishing industry told me, “are shitty”, but the book is selling like hot cakes. That’s because Warikoo has, over the last couple of years, emerged as the surrogate parent to the misguided, misinformed, clearly let-down youth of India. And that has taken him places.
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Warikoo was at the right place at the right time and tapped into a massive undercurrent in society; a society that’s fractured and doesn’t have enough room to accommodate the aspirations of its youth.
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Unlike the self-proclaimed gurus who hide their greed, bigotry and alleged criminal past under a cloak of religion and spirituality, assume they know everything and talk down to people as their saviours, Warikoo talks to his audience. He tells them what they want to hear and it works.
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The self-help category is extremely popular in India, as are books that are vaguely spiritual or meant to deliver parables and principles. (Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist is one of the top sellers year after year.) Publishers, though, might not have expected similar scale from an Indian YouTube personality.
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And like in the case of Bhagat, Warikoo’s success will also lay the path for many copycats who will taste varying degrees of success before the idea becomes stale.
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The startup claims to patch students—between grades 8 and 12 as well as those preparing for tests such as ACT, JEE, NEET and SAT—through to live tutors within 60 seconds, any time of the day, on all days of the year. So far, so good?
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But can it lead to a business model? When we did this story, the consensus was no. It hasn’t changed since. And there are good reasons for that. The customer acquisition costs are high in any one-to-one live learning model and scaling is tricky.
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India has a huge untapped market for doubt-solving companies like Filo, but the purchasing power or intent of the market is still unproven.
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The report said YouTube’s economic impact in 2020 was Rs 6,800 crore, or around $900 million. This number includes revenue earned by Indian content creators and music channels, the amount they spend on equipment, staff and video production, and also the consumer spending of all content creators and anyone involved in the supply chain.
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Essentially, the firm has applied methods of estimating gross domestic product to YouTube in India. This isn’t entirely silly, but like with any such exercise, the figure arrived at is rather generous; YouTube could have added even more to its estimated “economic impact”, but it could also have arrived at a more reasonable number.
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This “NFT ATM” doles out QR codes stuffed into tiny boxes which are worth anywhere between $5.99 to $420.69. Once scanned, it reveals an art piece that can be viewed on a phone, laptop or tablet. The difference between buying NFTs online versus Neon’s outlet is the fact that you can use your own currency or fiat to buy these pieces, making it easier to own an NFT without having any crypto.