Hungama To Take MyPlay & Bollywood Hungama Apps Off Beta; Plans New Apps

After mobile apps for playing music and catching up on news from Bollywood, Mumbai-based Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt Ltd is now readying a stream of apps on health, dance, cooking and yoga as well as gaming. Apps for its news site Bollywood Hungama and music player MyPlay, which were launched in Beta last year, will also be commercially launched soon.

Hungama is an aggregator, publisher and distributor of entertainment content and games online and on mobiles. It has exclusive rights to 0.5 million music and video titles which it distributes as value added services through operators.

The Mobile Indian quotes the company's head of app business Noaman Kazi as saying, "We have a huge database of Indian entertainment content and we will use that to bring apps which add value to consumers' life. Most of our apps will be ad supported and free for consumers, while some part will be subscription based."

MyPlay

Hungama first released MyPlay apps for smartphones in September 2010 and recently updated the version for iOS devices, which it has priced at $1.99 (Rs 88.24). The updated MyPlay app sports a new user experience, features such as "view your playlist" while playing a song, notes on downloading ringtones, e-mail integration, improved scrolling etc. Whil the primary focus of MyPlay is to play the latest chartbusters, it also connects to M.Hungama.com where users can browse and purchase ringtones, mobile wallpapers, music tracks and videos.

BollywoodHungama

Hungama operates BollywoodHungama.com, an online property with news on the Indian film industry. The app will use content from the site, offering news, movie reviews and updates on celebrities and events. It also has music and video sections.

Off late, Hungama has been revving up its digital properties through partnerships, first with Opera Software ASA, the company behind mobile browsers Opera Mobile and Opera Mini, for a speed dial to Hungama's WAP site; and then with record label Universal Music Group India for its music talent site ArtistAloud.com. It also recently relaunched GamingHungama.com as TheGameBox.com, a website for casual gamers.