Raghav Bahl's The Quint completes one year

The Quint, the digital content platform founded by Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur, celebrated its first anniversary on March 16, 2016. The Quint was first launched on Facebook before it went live as a website. Recently, The Quint also launched Quint Hindi, which caters to its Hindi speaking target group.

Having been the first ones to use publishing concepts like Instant Articles and Twitter, today, The Quint’s Facebook fan following is at 3.7 million.

“In this exciting one year, we have experimented with content, formats, technology and different ways of engaging our readers meaningfully. Throughout this ride, we’ve broken news (and parameters) as well as our own expectations, but most importantly, we’ve broken the perception that only print or television can rule information,” remarked Ritu Kapur, CEO and Co-Founder, The Quint.

The Quint has championed several campaigns in its first year on its platform that have helped it cinch its popularity with Indian content consumers. The ‘Buri ladki’ poster gave it its first taste of going viral while attempting to break gender stereotypes in India. The Bihar elections were covered armed with a selfie stick and a smartphone, a truly unique first for The Quint, making it the first digital platform to do so.

More recently, the Jat reservation riots in Haryana spurred national chess champion Anuradha Beniwal to post a plea on The Quint. The heartfelt video message to stop violence went viral. #Kanhaiya and the JNU sedition row went above and beyond simple news reportage. Direct access to leaders of the movement and the opposition led to ground breaking insights for the platform’s consumers. The Sheena Bora murder case was unearthed and analysed with a different perspective. The Quint’s documentary on the training grounds of fringe Hindu groups in Western Uttar Pradesh also brought to light a major story from the real India.

Besides hard news, The Quint also paved its way into the hearts of its consumers by doing campaigns that are fun, fearless and feisty. One of its earliest campaigns – #MakeOutInIndia – encouraged Indians to talk about sex and break perceptions. This Republic Day, it started the #LetterToIndia campaign, where everyone was invited to throw bouquets and brickbats in their own way. The platform even got onto the #SayYesToWeed bandwagon, because it believes in questioning status quo and busting myths.