RVCJ Media Group: от вирусных мемов в 2010 году до глобального медиахолдинга с аудиторией 91 млн

Remember the early days of Facebook? You would log in to your personal computer or get your hands on your very first smartphone, and within seconds, end up scrolling past a post from RVCJ. Even if their humour wasn’t your exact brand, those viral posts almost certainly cracked a smile. Long before the internet was everywhere, RVCJ was pioneering the meme marketing game, way back in 2010. Fast forward 16 years, the meme universe has exploded, viral trends ignite in seconds, and amid an endless sea of content, RVCJ has outlasted it all, evolving from a solitary viral page into a powerhouse digital media company. In this exclusive conversation with Adgully, Aziz Khan Co-founder & CRO of RVCJ Media Group, shares the page’s growth journey, their five business verticals, future vision, and how they have evolved from a single meme page into a diversified digital media company over the last 16 years. Edited excerpts: RVCJ started as a single meme page. What was the exact moment you realized it was time to build a structured business? When we started RVCJ in 2010, there wasn't a business plan behind it. We were simply creating and sharing memes on Facebook because we enjoyed internet culture and wanted to entertain people. As our audience grew, we realized something much bigger was happening. People weren't just consuming memes they were connecting with them. Memes had become a powerful way of communicating ideas, emotions, and even opinions in a format that people genuinely loved to engage with. Soon, brands started approaching us because they saw how effectively memes could spark conversations. Instead of traditional advertising, they wanted to communicate with audiences in a way that felt organic, relatable, and shareable. At a time when meme marketing wasn't even an established category in India, we were among the pioneers helping brands become part of internet culture rather than interrupt it. Understanding internet moments, creating viral conversations, and using memes as a marketing tool became our core strength. That's when we realized we weren't just running a popular social media page, we were building a new-age communication company. That realization led us to formally register RVCJ as a business and invest in building a strong team, creative capabilities, production, strategy, and technology. Over the years, that single meme page has evolved into a diversified media company offering influencer marketing, branded content, production, original IPs, publishing, and strategic communication solutions. At its core, though, the philosophy hasn't changed. We still believe the best communication is the kind people choose to engage with, share, and remember. You have now expanded into five business verticals. How do they work together to drive RVCJ’s overall revenue? One thing we've always believed is that dependence on a single revenue stream is risky especially in digital media, where platforms, consumer behavior, and business models are constantly evolving. That's why, over the years, we've focused on building an ecosystem rather than just one business. At the heart of this ecosystem is RVCJ Media. Our core media network builds audience and attention through entertainment-led content, brand campaigns, influencer marketing, digital productions, and original IPs. It remains the foundation of our Group. Marketing Mind allows us to engage with the advertising, marketing, and business community through industry insights and thought leadership. With RawBare, we've stepped into the D2C space, giving us first-hand experience of building and scaling a consumer brand, which also helps us better understand our clients' perspective. The Logical Indian enables us to create purpose-driven journalism and meaningful storytelling, helping us connect with audiences beyond entertainment. Through Salt Media Entertainment, we've expanded into premium content production, films, web series, branded entertainment, and original IPs, allowing us to create larger storytelling formats. And with CricTracker, we've strengthened our presence in the sports ecosystem, giving brands access to one of India's most passionate communities and opening up exciting opportunities in sports content and marketing. While each vertical has its own identity, together they create a full-funnel media ecosystem. A brand can come to us for audience and attention through RVCJ Media, industry thought leadership through Marketing Mind, purpose-led storytelling through The Logical Indian, premium entertainment through Salt Media, sports marketing through CricTracker, or even consumer brand collaborations through RawBare all within the RVCJ Group. This integrated approach has not only created multiple revenue streams but has also made our business more resilient. Instead of relying on a single platform or service, we've built an ecosystem that delivers value across different audiences, industries, and content formats. As CRO, how has your pitch to brands evolved from selling simple sponsored posts to co-creating long-term IPs? I think the biggest shift has been moving from selling media to building partnerships. A few years ago, most conversations with brands were around sponsored posts, meme integrations, or campaign reach. Today, brands are looking for something much bigger they want to build long-term equity, not just short-term visibility. That's exactly how our approach has evolved. We don't ask brands, 'How many posts do you need?' We ask, 'What IP can we build together?' At RVCJ, we're increasingly co-creating episodic content whether it's branded entertainment, travel series, podcasts, celebrity conversations, creator-led formats, or original digital shows. These are properties that audiences come back to, giving brands a more authentic and sustained presence instead of a one-time campaign. Because of our 91M+ community and deep understanding of internet culture, we know how to integrate brands into stories that people genuinely enjoy rather than interrupt. That's where the real value lies. As CRO, my role today is less about selling inventory and more about creating long-term business value for brands. We want every partnership to feel like a collaboration where the brand, the audience, and RVCJ all grow together. That's the future of branded content, and that's where RVCJ is heading. Bringing The Logical Indian under the RVCJ fold was a massive industry move. How do you balance light-hearted, viral comedy with serious, social-impact journalism under the same parent umbrella? At first glance, they appear to be completely different brands. But fundamentally, both are built around communities. RVCJ connects people through entertainment. The Logical Indian connects people through awareness and meaningful conversations. Different emotional outcomes but the same philosophy: create content people genuinely care about. We have intentionally maintained independent editorial identities. The audience should never feel that entertainment is influencing journalism or vice versa. Our role as a parent organization is to provide technology, business infrastructure, production capabilities, partnerships, and scale not to dilute editorial credibility. In today's media landscape, trust is the most valuable currency. Protecting that trust is far more important than forcing synergies that don't naturally exist. Very few digital publishers survive 16 years of shifting algorithm from Facebook's organic decline to the rise of YouTube Shorts and Reels. What has been your playbook for remaining platform-resilient? We've never built RVCJ around algorithms. We've built it around audience behaviour. Platforms change every few years. Audience emotions don't. People will always seek entertainment, relatability, information, and community. Whenever platforms evolved from Facebook to Instagram, from memes to videos, from YouTube to Shorts we adapted the format without changing our understanding of what people wanted. The second principle is diversification. We don't depend on one platform, one content format, one client category, or one revenue stream. Today, we're present across multiple social platforms, production, influencer marketing, branded IPs, publishing, regional content, and strategic partnerships. Diversification isn't just a growth strategy. It's a survival strategy. And perhaps the biggest lesson is staying curious. The day you believe you've already figured out the internet is the day you start becoming irrelevant. Evolving from a meme pioneer to a diversified digital conglomerate is Phase 1. What does Phase 2 of RVCJ's expansion roadmap look like over the next five to ten years? I believe Phase 1 was about building RVCJ into a household digital brand. We pioneered meme marketing in India, built one of the country's largest social media communities, and evolved from being a single content page into a diversified media company with capabilities across branded content, influencer marketing, production, original IPs, and creator partnerships. Phase 2 is about taking the RVCJ ecosystem to the next level. Our vision over the next five to ten years is to make RVCJ synonymous with digital entertainment and storytelling. We want to create multiple flagship IPs across genres whether it's branded entertainment, podcasts, celebrity conversations, sports, travel, business, comedy. We strongly believe episodic content is the future because it builds habit, loyalty, and communities. That's where we're investing heavily. At RVCJ, we're moving beyond campaign-based thinking to building content franchises that audiences actively wait for and brands want to be associated with for years. Instead of creating one viral moment, we want to create properties that become part of popular culture. We're equally focused on strengthening the creator ecosystem. RVCJ has always been a platform that understands internet culture, and we want to become the preferred partner for creators helping them scale through meaningful collaborations, original productions, and long-term opportunities. We're also incredibly proud that RVCJ Media is ranked No. 5 on Comscore India's Weekly Social Scorecard, standing alongside some of the biggest media brands in the country. That recognition validates the consistency of our content and the strength of our community. But for us, it's not just about reaching the top it's about staying there. Our goal is to consistently remain among India's most loved and most influential digital media brands. Another important part of our roadmap is expanding the RVCJ brand beyond India. Indian content is being consumed across the world like never before, and we believe RVCJ has the creativity, storytelling capability, and community-first approach to build globally relevant formats. We want our IPs, creators, and content to resonate with audiences not just in India, but across international markets. At the heart of everything, our biggest asset will always be our community. Today, we're proud to have a 91M+ strong community, and every new initiative we build starts with one question: Will our audience genuinely love this? If the answer is yes, everything else follows. Five or ten years from now, I don't just want people to think of RVCJ as a meme company or even a media company. I want them to think of RVCJ as one of India's most loved digital-first entertainment brands, one that creates iconic IPs, shapes internet culture, empowers creators, delivers meaningful value to brands, and proudly represents Indian storytelling on the global stage.