Nielsen eyes services for retail, gaming, creator biz

It may be early days yet, but the global audience measurement and data analytics firm Nielsen is looking to tap the India market beyond the Global Capability Centres (GCCs) that it is setting up to service its international business

It may be early days yet, but the global audience measurement and data analytics firm Nielsen is looking to tap the India market beyond the Global Capability Centres (GCCs) that it is setting up to service its international business. GCCs are offshore units of multinational firms that provide miscellaneous services to the parent company. India has become a preferred location for GCCs owing to its skilled manpower, cost advantage and infrastructure.

Nielsen eyes services for retail, gaming, creator biz

So far, Nielsen operated a back office in India supporting mostly low or non-tech services. Separately, it is still a joint venture partner with Kantar in TAM Media Research which shuttered its TV ratings business in 2016 but continues to offer brand and market insights for TV, radio and print.

However, the company is now redefining its presence in the country. Partha Sengupta, managing director, Nielsen India, said major expansion is on the cards for the company. In the last 18 months, it has hired 3,000 professionals across technical and non-technical domains to support its global operations, taking the India headcount to 4,500, up from 1,500.

Nielsen’s technology centres are coming up in Hyderabad and Gurgaon and it has leased large commercial space in Bangalore and Mumbai with plans to open offices in other states too.

The Global Capability Centres will develop cutting-edge software solutions in audience measurement to enable its customers gain deeper insights into the market. “India stands at the heart of Nielsen’s strategy for shared services owing to its rich talent ecosystem and the abundance of skilled professionals,” Sengupta said. This will enable Nielsen to offer solutions across its products such as Audience Insights—where it captures and analyzes audience behaviour across multiple screens and devices, for TV, digital platforms and audio content. In Advanced Analytics it leverages deep data to find valuable patterns and trends. It also provides entertainment metadata with Gracenote which helps consumers easily find and engage with music, movies, sports, and TV shows that align with their preferences.

Will these services be offered in India? Sengupta is hopeful. “India is a huge market and we would love to do business here just like we do in the States,” he said.

“If you look at streaming or the content creator community, Bollywood or the Indian Premier League, there’s so much that’s really right for us to be involved with. So, we definitely want to get there. Efforts will be on to bring all those solutions for these markets as well,” he said.

Sengupta sees an opportunity as there’s no established player here who does all of this, he said. Secondly, there are sectors like retail and gaming which are big in India. “The large e-commerce marketplaces capture traffic, which is basically measurement. While the large players manage data, many others might not be able to do it. So, our expertise has a big opportunity here,” Sengupta said.

Besides, India’s large youth population presents a significant potential for measurement in the gaming industry which has seen brisk growth on the back of widespread adoption of smartphones, high-speed internet and immersive experiences. “As the gaming landscape evolves, there’s immense opportunity to measure player behaviour, engagement patterns, and content consumption,” said Sengupta.

The media sector, on the other hand, is going through incredible though turbulent times with more mergers and acquisitions expected in India and globally. Nielsen plays an important role in mergers and acquisitions, Sengupta said. “Nielsen’s insights help companies approach M&A opportunities in a scientific manner by analyzing viewership trends across TV, OTT, and digital platforms, understanding subscription patterns, and exploring detailed viewership behaviour. This data-driven approach minimizes risks, aligns strategic objectives, and maximizes value creation for stakeholders,” he said. As the market evolves, Nielsen’s role as an advisor becomes critical in shaping the future of media and entertainment mergers, Sengupta added.

Meanwhile, Nielsen’s back office is building shared services out of India for a wide variety of functions like global procurement, HR, finance and hiring. “But the intent is to create a centre of technology innovation, research and development on transforming existing products and solutions and also building new ones. That is the focus,” Sengupta said.