Moneycontrol Pro: A Milestone Achievement in Financial Journalism

In October 2024, Moneycontrol Pro, the premium subscription service from Network18’s Moneycontrol, achieved a major milestone by surpassing 1 million paying subscribers. This achievement places Moneycontrol Pro in the elite company of global giants like the Financial Times, Barron’s, and Ciaxin. Additionally, the platform crossed 10 crore unique visitors in the same month, solidifying its leadership in India’s financial journalism space.

According to Javed Sayed, Chief Content and Strategy Officer at Moneycontrol, the platform’s success can be attributed to its two-pronged strategy: catering to its paying subscribers with exclusive, premium content while expanding its free traffic base. “We focus on adding value for our paying subscribers, while simultaneously driving traffic to serve a large, diverse audience,” says Sayed. This strategy has proven effective, as it has boosted both paid subscriptions and ad revenue, helping to fortify the platform’s revenue streams.

Empowering Investors with Premium Content
Moneycontrol Pro has established itself as India’s largest news subscription platform and is now among the top 15 digital subscription platforms globally. The service’s value proposition lies in offering equity investors actionable insights, market intelligence, and advanced tools to enhance their trading decisions.

The platform offers several key features designed to deliver immense value to its subscribers. These include:

Expert Edge: Daily trading calls and weekly investment ideas.
Trade Like a Pro: Technical analysis, ratings, and trends.
Spot the Winner: Over 200 powerful stock scanners.
Deep Dive: Quant-based insights for in-depth analysis.
Track Holdings: Ability to follow top Indian investors with major portfolios.
Furthermore, Moneycontrol Pro’s expert research team covers 270 major Indian companies across 25 sectors, ensuring that subscribers receive up-to-date and relevant insights.

Sayed highlights that Moneycontrol Pro is unique in the market, offering a “News Plus Plus” package. While competitors primarily focus on news, Moneycontrol Pro goes beyond by providing in-depth analysis, tools, and resources that serve investors. This approach has been pivotal in growing the platform’s subscriber base at an exceptional rate over the years.

Delivering Consistent Value and Engagement
In the competitive world of subscriptions, success depends on keeping promises to subscribers and delivering consistently valuable content. Sayed notes, “In the subscription space, content is king. Achieving one million paying subscribers in India, especially with its complex media landscape, is a remarkable feat for Moneycontrol.”

What sets Moneycontrol Pro apart is its holistic approach, combining news, insights, and tools to offer subscribers everything they need in one place. This approach has proven successful, as the platform continues to receive a strong response from its audience.

While catering to its premium subscribers, Moneycontrol has also broadened its focus to attract a larger, non-paying user base. In the past year, the platform strengthened its core content in markets, personal finance, startups, and corporate business, while expanding its coverage into politics, sports, and current affairs. This expansion has transformed Moneycontrol into a more comprehensive business and news platform, appealing to a wider audience.

Navigating the Competitive Landscape
Despite facing intense competition from finfluencers and digital distractions, Moneycontrol Pro continues to stand out. The platform has an impressive average session time of 10 minutes per user, which is significantly higher than the typical 1-minute engagement seen on most other news platforms. Moneycontrol Pro’s engagement rate is believed to be even higher, a testament to the value it delivers.

Sayed acknowledges that the primary challenge today is the competition for readers’ attention. With an abundance of digital content and distractions, such as mobile games, readers have more options than ever before. For financial journalism, keeping readers engaged is particularly challenging, but Moneycontrol has managed to overcome this by delivering actionable, relevant content that aids readers in making informed decisions.

A significant challenge also comes from the rise of mobile-first consumption. Moneycontrol Pro has adapted by focusing on creating content that resonates with today’s digital-first audience, ensuring that users have an optimal experience on mobile devices.

Avoiding Finfluencers, Focusing on Expertise
Unlike other platforms that rely on finfluencers (financial influencers) to create content, Moneycontrol Pro focuses on its core strength: delivering comprehensive insights. The platform continues to expand its content offerings with new formats such as videos and podcasts, aimed at further enhancing the user experience.

“We are constantly exploring new ways to evolve and strengthen our offerings. While we focus on enhancing formats like video and podcasts, our core mission and expertise remain unchanged,” Sayed adds.

The Road Ahead for Moneycontrol Pro
With its impressive growth in subscribers and audience engagement, Moneycontrol Pro is carving a niche for itself as a leader in the financial journalism space. The platform’s ability to adapt, innovate, and deliver consistent value positions it as a serious competitor to global financial journalism powerhouses.

As Moneycontrol Pro continues to evolve, it is likely to maintain its upward trajectory by refining its strategies, embracing new formats, and focusing on delivering unparalleled value to both its paying and non-paying audiences. With its unparalleled blend of analysis, insights, and market intelligence, Moneycontrol Pro is set to redefine the subscription model for financial journalism in India.

Author: Sonali Kamble