In digital era, everyone who holds a mobile is competition for media: K Shanmugasundaram

“We connect with people, we create a platform and we celebrate the success of our milestones,” said K Shanmugasundaram, Editor, ABP Nadu at the opening of his speech at e4m Pride of India Summit, Chennai.

In 2012, when ABP Nadu launched, the channel connected with not only Tamil people in Tamil Nadu but the whole Tamil diaspora all over the world, he said.

“By connecting with Tamil People we got an address, after which we created a platform which is credible, trusty and worthy also. Tamils liked that, and in return, they gave us big numbers in a short time to shine in a very tough market,” Shanmugasundaram added.

ABP Nadu recently completed 1000 successful days in the market, with not only news but users also coming to us for any help needed, according to the Editor. “This is why we have become a one-stop digital destination in the Tamil universe”.

These days, numbers are very important in the media business and ABP Nadu’s numbers are growing significantly every month. As of now, ABP Nadu’s YouTube reaches at least 35 million viewers. On Facebook, that number touches 40 million users. On the website, the platform touches about seven million users and in 1000 days they have reached 330 million page views.

Further in the session, the Editor shared a challenge the industry is facing. “In this digital era, competition is not only from big players of the market but everyone who holds a mobile in their hand is a journalist. Till the time we file a story, these people put out the news on their social media. This is also why, these days, many big media houses break the story of popular personalities.”

Shanmugasundaram believes their unique, authentic content, compelling news, powerful way of storytelling and incomparable hyper-local news coverage is what keeps them ahead. “When we entered the market, our determination was to create an informed and open society which we are doing with perfection”.

“We are successful in addressing the information needs of the people of Tamil Nadu which enabled us to create a bigger stride in regional news,” he added.

Today, Shanmugasundaram observed, Tamils are in 85 countries around the world and they are reaching all of them. ABP Nadu has a significant presence in the USA, Gulf countries and South-East countries like Singapore, Malaysia. Most of their regular subscribers are from France and Germany too. 

He concluded, “We are the social soldiers of the Tamil Universe for the people and social ambassadors for the advertising world.”