Vi inks strategic partnership with Firework to offer vertical video stories to its users

With the vision to offer exceptional customer experience, India’s leading telecom operator Vi has inked a strategic partnership with Firework, the world’s largest story publishing platform based in Silicon Valley.

This is the first time any Indian telecom operator has taken the lead to introduce the Stories format to its users. Globally, almost every platform is adopting the Stories format to enable higher engagement for its audiences. The partnership allows Vi to leverage Firework's massive content repository from global content studios and also get access to unique occupational generated content (OGC) creators who are expert storytellers across a wide genre of subjects.

Avneesh Khosla, Chief Marketing Officer, Vi said, “We provide an array of content from multiple OTT players varying across genres like Live TV, Movies and Web Series in multiple languages on Vi Movies and TV app. Vi is excited to be the 1st Telco to partner with Firework for powering the most trending short videos, specially curated for Vi customers. The format is designed to entertain you in “30 seconds” across various categories and interests. Mobiles have become the preferred screens for entertainment and the average time spent on watching short videos is significantly higher than long-form content, demonstrating that the engagement levels provided by short videos remain unparalleled. Through our partnership with Firework, Vi subscribers will get a wide choice of trending stories across genre and languages.”

Speaking about the partnership, Anand Vidyanand, President, Mobile at Firework said, “Firework, one of the first short video platforms to launch globally on Telco OTT, is excited to be partnering with a thought-leader like Vi to enhance their customer experience through continued innovation. Vi’s users can now enjoy their favorite content without the need of downloading another app. Vertical short-form video is the most effective form of mobile story-telling today and with this partnership, Firework is further strengthening its reach across Telecom operators, device manufacturers, and app developers. Firework is fully committed to Vi’s vision in bringing the best occupationally generated short-video content to its customers across nearly 40 delightful categories, including multiple Indic languages.”

While the collaboration enhances Vi’s customer experience and Firework’s reach significantly, it also addresses the need of the creator community with exceptional discoverability in a cluttered content space, pivotal on Firework’s large story ecosystem globally that include top tier traditional publishers, OEMs, network operators, and blogs.