“Our user base grew by over 5 times in the last 3 years, and we expect our subscriber base to grow over 2x in 2024 vs. 2023,” said Yannick Colaco, co-founder of FanCode, which received $50 million in funding from Dream Sports in 2021.
In recent times, FanCode has partnered with content aggregators like Prime Video Channels, Airtel XStream, and Watcho to reach new audiences and acquire more paid subscribers.
Launched in April 2019, FanCode’s revenue model is built around subscription revenue. However, it also allows limited targeted advertising, which helps brands connect with premium-paying audiences.
“Our business model is predicated on a strong subscription model that leverages this D2C relationship and is supported with contextual advertising,” Colaco said.
He noted that the free streaming strategy adopted by JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar is good for the sports content ecosystem as it will expand the market. According to Colaco, India has over 600 million sports fans, of whom 136 million are avid fans who consume some sport multiple times a week.FanCode is looking to attract avid sports fans to its platform and offer content that is relevant to them. Apart from cricket and football, the platform also live streams Kabaddi, volleyball, basketball, and boxing.”We want to help the sports ecosystem grow. This is part of the Dream Sports vision and is something we continue to strive for every day at FanCode,” Colaco said while noting that sports fandom in India is still at a nascent stage.
FanCode streamed over 20,000 matches in 17 different sports, higher than the 5,000 matches across nine sports last year.
