I believe we cannot call it an ouright scam . There's a reason the principle 'caveat emptor', meaning buyer beware exists, where the resposibility lies solely on the individual willing to pay for such services. The moment you pay Rs 1, you recieve an SMS that a mandate has been set up with Seekho which will draw Rs 149/month from your account. Any challenges against auto-mandates won't hold up in court.
At this point, you also have to understand the audience using this app. Most of the times, they are not aware that their money is being deducted. And when they find out, more often than not, it’s because they went to the bank, got their passbook printed and then asked the bank staff how to stop the autopay.
I have talked with users who have used Seekho in the past, very few say they get any value out of it, while I agree they have a very good positioning and marketing, i feel the product wouldn’t have much retention, and most of their product revolves around optimising for trial setup. Also, i have heard that after banks started sending alerts 24hrs before autopay deduction, their CAC shot up. Overall very good marketing but not so good product.
Thanks a lot, Dharmesh, for putting this together. It’s a really insightful article.
I personally feel these apps should be banned. There are already so many discussions and concerns around the impact of short-form content on our cognitive behaviour. People are increasingly finding it difficult to read an entire article, focus on a long-form podcast or engage with content that requires sustained attention.
I truly believe we need to take meaningful action now, especially when we think about the future of India. What worries me the most is the younger generation growing up in an environment where constant, bite-sized stimulation is becoming the norm. We need to do better for them before this becomes even harder to reverse.
Thanks for the tear down, Dharmesh. Definitely an unconventional approach to monetizing Bharat. Not freemium. No ads. I’d never have guessed that the audience would pay for curation. And it’s not particularly cheap (say ₹. 10-20 a month) for the audience.
The other comments are illuminating too - smooth onboarding followed by auto pay traps and dark patterns to make unsubscribing difficult. These are sadly not surprising, though.
The content themes I see here have one thing in common - fear (of not having money, losing out on fame, upsetting your astros etc.). You can drive engagement if you play on fear to get people hooked. I am still trying to think how I feel about playing on people's fears.
Would be interesting to see long term retention for such a platform. If they're playing on trust, these numbers should tell that story.
This is not to discount the other work done around their model or the app.
While the common theme of fear is visible on the surface, they aren't really selling fear. They are selling hope.
The hope of earning money with little investment, the hope of getting views / likes from the content they make, the hope of making big in life through astro recommendation.
Selling hope is probably the best ROI sales a brand a can do in India.
And this is visible on content that sells as well. If you look at the best performing content on audio platforms or micro dramas, it is always those 'rags to riches' stories which sell hope that something similar might come true in the listeners life as well.
People bet on RMG (not banned) with the same hope. They do F&O (without even understanding how they work) because of the same hope. A
ll of these businesses fall under the 'Hopeium' category which works really well in India.
Seekho is a scam.
Revenue via fleecing gullible Bharat people via UPI auto-pay.
Then pumping that revenue into perf mktng machine.
PS: Disabled autopay for a resort staff recently. Seekho, Moj and KukuFM. Same playbook. Abusing UPI auto mandates.
I believe we cannot call it an ouright scam . There's a reason the principle 'caveat emptor', meaning buyer beware exists, where the resposibility lies solely on the individual willing to pay for such services. The moment you pay Rs 1, you recieve an SMS that a mandate has been set up with Seekho which will draw Rs 149/month from your account. Any challenges against auto-mandates won't hold up in court.
At this point, you also have to understand the audience using this app. Most of the times, they are not aware that their money is being deducted. And when they find out, more often than not, it’s because they went to the bank, got their passbook printed and then asked the bank staff how to stop the autopay.
only the low value content works. Astro, update card etc.
How can you mention these auto-pay pattern as ‘Smart design’? These are dark patterns.
In many auto-pay first companies, user trust is broken massively which is impacting their CAC as they scale.
Interesting piece, found the bit on positioning to be very thought-provoking. Great article!
I have talked with users who have used Seekho in the past, very few say they get any value out of it, while I agree they have a very good positioning and marketing, i feel the product wouldn’t have much retention, and most of their product revolves around optimising for trial setup. Also, i have heard that after banks started sending alerts 24hrs before autopay deduction, their CAC shot up. Overall very good marketing but not so good product.
Thanks a lot, Dharmesh, for putting this together. It’s a really insightful article.
I personally feel these apps should be banned. There are already so many discussions and concerns around the impact of short-form content on our cognitive behaviour. People are increasingly finding it difficult to read an entire article, focus on a long-form podcast or engage with content that requires sustained attention.
I truly believe we need to take meaningful action now, especially when we think about the future of India. What worries me the most is the younger generation growing up in an environment where constant, bite-sized stimulation is becoming the norm. We need to do better for them before this becomes even harder to reverse.
great insights
Extensive and very thorough article Dharmesh. Ever possible angle is covered. Thanks for putting this together
Thanks for the tear down, Dharmesh. Definitely an unconventional approach to monetizing Bharat. Not freemium. No ads. I’d never have guessed that the audience would pay for curation. And it’s not particularly cheap (say ₹. 10-20 a month) for the audience.
The other comments are illuminating too - smooth onboarding followed by auto pay traps and dark patterns to make unsubscribing difficult. These are sadly not surprising, though.
Very nicely written content Dharmesh Ba. Good Analysis
Well written article, so thorough.
brilliant edition as always, Dharmesh
TIN is my fav newsletter from India
The content themes I see here have one thing in common - fear (of not having money, losing out on fame, upsetting your astros etc.). You can drive engagement if you play on fear to get people hooked. I am still trying to think how I feel about playing on people's fears.
Would be interesting to see long term retention for such a platform. If they're playing on trust, these numbers should tell that story.
This is not to discount the other work done around their model or the app.
While the common theme of fear is visible on the surface, they aren't really selling fear. They are selling hope.
The hope of earning money with little investment, the hope of getting views / likes from the content they make, the hope of making big in life through astro recommendation.
Selling hope is probably the best ROI sales a brand a can do in India.
And this is visible on content that sells as well. If you look at the best performing content on audio platforms or micro dramas, it is always those 'rags to riches' stories which sell hope that something similar might come true in the listeners life as well.
People bet on RMG (not banned) with the same hope. They do F&O (without even understanding how they work) because of the same hope. A
ll of these businesses fall under the 'Hopeium' category which works really well in India.
They have terrible retention.