How ScoopWhoop became one of India’s most viral publishers

The BuzzFeed-like site has built two popular channels on YouTube, one of which serves as a counterbalance to partisan TV news.

Scan the homepage for ScoopWhoop, and it doesn’t take long to notice its similarities to BuzzFeed. Most of the articles have a pop-culture bent and are formatted as listicles. Here’s a sampling of headlines:

1. 12 Pop-Culture Inspired Costumes From 2021 You Need To Try This Halloween

2. 10 Times Gunther Was The Funniest Character On FRIENDS Without Saying A Word, We'll Miss You Legend

3. How Many Of These Top-Rated Amazon Prime Video Originals Have You Watched?

The site isn’t an exact clone of BuzzFeed, however. There are two key differences: just about every writer for ScoopWhoop hails from India, and the vast majority of its content focuses on Indian-related topics. Here are a few more headlines:

1. Can You Tell Which Of These 16 Words We Use Every Day Are Urdu Or Hindi?

2. Little Boy Salutes A Soldier At Bengaluru Airport, Heartwarming Video Goes Viral

3. Who Is Sharvari Wagh? Here’s Everything To Know About The ‘Bunty Aur Babli 2’ Actor

Founded in 2013 by several colleagues at a marketing agency, ScoopWhoop has not only become one of India’s most viral publishers, but its YouTube videos also serve as a vital counterbalance to the highly partisan shouting matches that dominate the country’s TV news. Over the past eight years, it’s raised millions of dollars of investment, amassed an audience of 100 million users, and built a robust brand advertising business. Earlier this month, it was acquired by Good Glamm Group, which sells direct-to-consumer beauty products.

How did ScoopWhoop evolve from a simple BuzzFeed clone to one of India’s biggest digital publishers? Back in April, I interviewed two of its top executives about the site’s origin stories, its expansion into video, and its monetization strategies.

Let’s jump into my findings...

Founding a company in incognito mode

ScoopWhoop was born out of a night of drinking in a New Delhi apartment. Several marketing professionals, most of whom worked at an agency called Dentsu Webchutney, were discussing the prevalence of “listicle” websites and wondered how difficult it would be to create a viral listicle of their own. The conversation led to the launch of a simple Wordpress site and a few listicle articles the group brainstormed together.