This week Triller, the AI-powered open garden technology platform for creators will hold its first Verzuz battle in India. Pitting rising Indian Hip Hop artists Panther and Gravity against each other. Livestreamed across multiple social media platforms, rappers in the Verzuz battle playfully go up against each other playing their hits for a live audience along with fans on their phones. The concept was birthed out of Covid lockdowns by legendary Hip-hop producers Timbaland and Swizz Beatz. The brand was sold to the US-based video platform (and Tiktok competitor) Triller. After finding limited success in the western market, Triller has pivoted to India where it has found growth in the growing Asian market.
“2022 has been a banner year for VERZUZ and expanding the property to India where Triller has seen immense growth is exciting for the company. Making industry inroads to highlight emerging talent and creators is a key pillar for the Triller brand and the VerzuzDesi platform will spotlight India’s rising talent to a global audience,” says Mahi de Silva, CEO of Triller.
The move has been beneficial for Triller, tapping into a potential market that’s estimated to grow by 50 million users a year. Triller has seen some success since its launch in late 2017. Initially, Triller had some of the biggest names in music associated with the brand, but after a few missteps the platform failed to catch fire in the US where Tiktok dominates the short video market. With the exit of Tiktok in India and the acquisition of Verzuz and several other live video-related companies, Triller hopes to gain traction within the Asian market bringing their innovative Ai based technology and original content to the region.
Pairing music culture with sports, fashion, entertainment, and influencers through a 360-degree view of content and technology, Triller uses proprietary AI technology to push and track their content virally to affiliated and non-affiliated sites and networks. This enables them to reach millions of additional users. Besides Verzuz, Triller also owns the combat sports brands Triller Fight Club, Triad Combat, and BKFC; Amplify.ai, a leading customer engagement platform; FITE.tv, a premier global PPV, AVOD, and SVOD streaming service; Thuzio, a leader in B2B premium influencer events and experiences; Fangage, a platform for creators to engage fans and monetize content and Julius, a platform for brands and agencies to harness creators for social engagement and social commerce.
To help facilitate the expansion into India, Triller has partnered with Big Bang Music, a new-age pop culture company, building powerful music stories for artists, platforms, and brands. The label is a joint venture of Sony Music & Collective Artists Network, India’s largest talent management agency. Over the past three years, Big Bang Music has been cracking new codes for artist discovery, pop culture crossovers, and integrating music with Bollywood, gaming, social and more.
The first event in the #VerzuzDesi series is set to launch on 22nd December 2022 in New Delhi, India at 9.30 PM IST/ 4.00 PM GMT/ 11.00 AM EST live on Triller Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube from Social Saket, DLF Avenue. In this first-of-its-kind event for India, up and coming Hip Hop artists Panther and Gravity will have a go at each other battling for a wide audience across India. Both artists have found notoriety through the nationally televised program MTV Hustle 2.0. Having released a vast amount of music both independently and through labels, they should have no problem giving the audience a great show to kick off the first Triller Verzuz battle in India.
