Navidul Huq
Co-Founder, BongoBD

We belong to the internet savvy generation where more and more contents are moving online which has led to the rise of Netflix, Youtube and other online services as people are consuming more contents  online in the western world. When the co-founders of BongoBD, Navidul Huq and Ahad Mohammad Bhai looked into Bangladeshi media and entertainment industry in 2013, they found that no-one was working on creating a digital media platform where Bangladeshis can enjoy video contents online. So their initial idea was very simple that they wanted to take all the Bangladeshi movies, serials or any kind of shows and put it on a website and charge a subscription fee to the Bangladeshis living in Europe and America. They knew that the Bangladeshis living in middle-east will not be willing to pay a subscription fee for their service as in 2013 as they were not used to watching contents online like those of the Bangladeshis living in Europe and America who were already exposed to watching contents online. This is how the idea of Bongo came into being in 2013 through the objective of bringing good quality Bangladeshi movies and shows under one platform and charging people for the service.

Bongo’s initial business model was to charge Bangladeshi people living abroad a subscription fee but today they have a very different business model constituting five or six different business models that they are managing successfully and which are considered to be more prominent than their initial business model. Apart from the subscription service they have a business model where they are monetizing contents on Youtube, they have a business model where they are making contents for both online and offline, they also have a business model where they are supplying technical solution and contents to various mobile telecom operators and lastly they have another business model where they still have their own portal BongBd.com. Hence these are the four distinct business model that they are currently running. According to Mr. Navidul Huq, no startups stick to their original business model because as they move forward with their business they go through a discovery process where they find scopes for changing the business model or creating a completely new business model. As for BongoBD, they too have successfully explored different scopes for expanding their business model.

Bongo have managed to bring a good amount of quality contents and they have also managed to build the largest library of Bangladeshi contents in the world. As a result they have been able to build a brand and a reputation which is why anyone in the content industry are well aware of Bongo and would often come to them with their contents for their guidance to help them bring their contents to the digital ecosystem. Navidul Huq believes 

that there are a mixture of few elements that have helped them to survive in this industry. The mixture of timing because they were the first mover in the industry, the mixture of luck and most importantly the mixture of hard work and good reputation which have contributed to their success. Bongo has 15000 hours of contents available in their platform and the reason for why they measure the number of contents by hours because different contents have different size and this 15000 hours of contents gives the idea that Bongo is providing thousands of contents. Their differentiation is that, unlike other similar service providers they are exclusively working with the Bangladeshi contents only.

Bongo initially did not have any app. In 2014 they have first launched a website which did not work well for the business but soon they figured that building a website and trying to sell subscription through it is going to be a difficult task and they might not be able to survive in the business. Hence they took the initiative to launch their first version of the app in 2016.

They are mainly targeting the mass general people and the youth and hence their target age group is between 15-35 years old. Therefore they are targeting more of a younger population both male and female but the mass general people and not any specialized group or higher income group of people. The aim is to be in the bracket of the mass by providing an affordable service where everyone can enjoy the good quality entertainment as there is a lack of good quality entertainment in Bangladesh.

Some of the contents provided by Bongo are available by subscription while some are available by app support as a lot of people will not be able to afford subscription so they don’t want to keep those people away from the contents that they are offering. Hence apart from earning money through subscription they also have the app supported model and that is how they intend to grab the market by focusing on bringing great contents to their consumers.

Bongo is always at the edge of technology, they use the latest app technologies that are there, they follow all the best practices, they have their own internal software development R&D team and it is a team comprised of some of the best software developers in Bangladesh, they also have expert foreigners in their team to work together with the Bangladeshi engineers that they have. They are constantly trying to improve their service by focusing on better looking field of the app with faster response.

Team Bongo believes that if you have a good product and a good service then people will be willing to pay for it and Netflix is the ultimate example of it because even in the world of free YouTube and others Netflix is the premium service that people are paying to watch and recently a lot of competition has come in this field as many similar platforms have been launched making it a highly competitive industry. But if you can bring a good content and a good service at good price people will eventually accept the product and this is how Bongo intends to make a profitable venture by bringing good contents at an affordable price with a good service.

Bongo currently has reached close to a 100million subscribers across all their platforms. Majority of their subscribers are on YouTube network. Bongo is the largest YouTube management company in Bangladesh and they also have a good amount of subscribers in the other platforms that they have.

The biggest challenge that bongo face is the international competition. If Netflix, YouTube and others are operating in Bangladesh they are not adhering to local laws, they are not paying local taxes, they are not playing in same level as the local companies and they are much bigger companies with a huge amount of money so if they are to play with them in Bangladesh they need the help and support of the government. They expect the government to make it harder for the international companies to come and do business in Bangladesh and the government and the local regulations should be on the local company’s favor. Therefore they expect a level playing field and if only they get some advantages from the government they too can become international players. Bongo’s strategies to fight the international players are to be efficient, to be nimble and to have the good content to show the users that they are Bangladeshi company for the Bangladeshis. Hence they intend to work in the niche market where they would connect to the root that some other service won’t be offering to the Bangladeshis.

Their future plan is to focus on their own portal BongoBd.com and take it to worldwide and make it the number one destination for premium Bangladeshi content and they also want to develop themselves into a platform where they bring together content creators with the viewers. Moreover, bongo itself creates contents but at the same time they welcome other content creators to put their contents on their website. Bongo is lucky to host a lot of young talents in Bangladesh in their YouTube network. Many of the upcoming talents are connected with them like Salmon the brownfish, Choto Azad and many other young talents are already working with them and Bongo is playing an important role in taking these talented people to the next level.