In a candid conversation, Nalin Mehta, Managing Editor of Moneycontrol and author of India’s Techade, delves into the milestones achieved by Moneycontrol, now Asia’s largest news subscription platform. With over 1 million paid subscribers and 100 million monthly visitors, Moneycontrol has set a new benchmark in digital financial journalism. Mehta discusses the strategic decisions and cutting-edge features that have fueled Moneycontrol’s impressive growth, transforming it into a multi-dimensional fintech powerhouse.
With Moneycontrol Pro achieving 1 million paid subscribers, what strategies do you believe were most pivotal to becoming Asia’s largest news subscription platform?
The fact that over 1 million people chose to repose their trust in our content and offerings is a great vote of confidence for Moneycontrol Pro. It is a tremendous achievement in a tough media environment and puts Moneycontrol Pro among the top 15 digital subscription platforms in the world. Our paying subscriber base is now neck and neck with major international outlets such as Financial Times, Barron’s and China’s Caixin.
The first thing this milestone highlights is Moneycontrol Pro’s reputation and track record as a trusted source of market intelligence for investors seeking insights into India’s equity markets. This was possible because we have constantly been expanding various cutting-edge features to help subscribers navigate the complexities of investing in India. Our driving impulse has always been to help investors make informed investment decisions and this core thought animates all our efforts to deliver clear, actionable content tailored for the needs of diverse Indian users across various demographics. It suffuses a multitude of features for our users – such as ‘Expert Edge’ with daily trading calls and weekly investment ideas, ‘Trade Like a Pro’ with technicals, ratings and trends, ‘Spot the Winner’ with over 200 powerful stock scanners, ‘Deep Dive’ with quant-based insights and ‘Track Holdings’ which helps users follow market gurus with big shark portfolios.
All this is powered by an expert team of research analysts who actively cover over 270 major Indian companies across 25 sectors and provide sharp insights for informed decision-making on Indian stocks. Our research team also puts together thematic portfolios for investors which have consistently out-performed benchmark Indian indices. All of this adds up to the trust users have reposed in Moneycontrol as India’s go-to platform on markets, finance and business information.
How has Moneycontrol evolved into a multi-faceted fintech platform?
Moneycontrol has been steadily increasing its footprint in the fintech space with a diverse suite of finance products. Our users can now secure personal loans, start fixed deposits, track their mutual funds and stock portfolio, manage all their bank accounts and check credit scores on the platform. This is in addition to expert analysis and data on equities. The fact that Moneycontrol crossed over 100 million unique visitors in October, along with 1 million paying subscribers, puts us in a class of our own as a financial platform, unmatched by any competitor. The sheer size of Moneycontrol’s audience and subscription volumes means no other platform is even in the same ballpark.
As a platform with 100 million monthly visitors, how does Moneycontrol play a role in shaping market sentiment?
Moneycontrol’s achievement of crossing 100 million unique visitors in October represents a big paradigm shift in user consumption. For context, India has a total of about 175 million demat accounts, which indicates the size of the retail investor segment. Our content is read and consumed by a massive audience ranging from young users investing for the first time to seasoned retail investors looking to grow their money and institutional stakeholders. It is watched very closely by everyone linked to the markets. This is why we rung in the milestone number of 1 million paying subscribers with a symbolic ringing of the bell from the floor of India’s biggest bourse, National Stock Exchange.
A good indication of how closely users follow our offerings is that the time spent on Moneycontrol is over 10 minutes per session on average, compared to about one minute per user on most big general news platforms. This number reflects the quality of our content, and we strive to constantly keep improving so users can make well-informed decisions.
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How does Moneycontrol use data to refine its editorial strategy, drive engagement, and enhance the user experience?
Data is integral to our platform. Our subscription base and user numbers are breaking new records because we have reduced the arbitrage on information for retail users who are looking to invest smartly. The kind of tools that institutional investors pay a lot of money to use, Moneycontrol makes them available to subscribers at a fraction of the cost. Secondly, we constantly track user interactions and feedback to understand what content our users are looking for in real-time and tailor our content accordingly.
Over the past decade, what transformation has financial journalism undergone?
Moneycontrol’s breaching of the 100 million mark for unique monthly users is also a major milestone for the wider business and financial information space. It far surpasses the leadership numbers of the old pink newspapers by several multiples. The fact that we have more than doubled our audience in less than a year, while others have stagnated, reflects how fast the landscape of financial journalism is changing. There is a great hunger in India for actionable information that investors can use, as the equity culture becomes more widespread, and people are looking for credible sources of information they can trust. This is the gap our content and offerings fill with reliable trust-worthy intelligence to inform investment decisions at a speed and scale that is unprecedented.
Reflecting on Moneycontrol’s trajectory, Nalin Mehta emphasizes the importance of constant innovation in the media landscape, especially as digital finance expands. Through personalized insights, accessible tools, and a commitment to accuracy, Moneycontrol remains at the forefront of financial journalism, empowering investors of all levels. As the platform continues to grow, Mehta envisions a future where Moneycontrol not only leads in content but shapes the financial decisions of millions across Asia and beyond.
