ixigo forays into original content with ‘Zindagi Express'

Announcing its foray into the original premium content space, leading travel marketplace ixigo has released an original web series - ‘Zindagi Express’ on its all-new ‘Entertainment & News Section’. Starting June 4, the web series is streaming live on the ixigo trains app.

With a claimed 130 million plus user base, ixigo trains aims to be the one-stop travel booking, information and entertainment app for Indian travellers.

The 8 episode original series, ‘Zindagi Express’ is based on a progressive nuclear family and centres on the conflicts they face while planning a family vacation. Packed with relatable moments, the heartwarming series showcases the daily struggles, triumphs and heartfelt moments of ‘The Desai’ family and how they overcome challenges by leaning on each other, in short 4 min webisodes.

Apart from original content, the new entertainment section on ixigo platform will also stream trending content across a wide range of categories including music, movies, politics, sports, business and astrology for travellers on-the-go. ixigo’s entertainment section will focus on vernacular content to reach out to the next billion users in small towns and cities. The travel platform will offer video content in seven Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Telugu and Kannada. It will also extend it to Punjabi, Urdu, Nepali and Assamese content within a few weeks.

Speaking on the growing medium of digital consumption, Rajnish Kumar, Co-founder and CTO, ixigo, said, “We will provide immersive, seamless and a high-quality viewing experience which appeals to both urban and rural audiences and can be consumed on-the-go. This is the first step in the launch of our entertainment and news section, whose objective is to entertain and engage travellers on their trips with curated and personalized content. With this, ixigo has become the first player in the travel space to offer a holistic mobile travel and entertainment experience in a single app.”

Speaking on the travel platform’s foray into content, Aloke Bajpai, Co-founder and CEO, ixigo, said, “Entertainment and Travel have a natural fit. Travelers on a train have many hours to kill, and at ixigo we are not only curating and aggregating the best content, but also creating original content that they will consume and share. This aligns to our vision of helping the next billion users coming online to plan their travel and keep them engaged before, during and after their trip.  Through our original web series, we will offer entertaining and informative content to travellers at their convenience and through strategic partnerships with OTT platforms and original content players, we will offer the widest choice and depth of content to ixigoers.”

The ixigo trains app’s foray into entertainment on the go includes news, radio, video, music and games being offered for free inside the app. ixigo helps over 20 million train travellers every month across 200+ Indian towns with train related information facilities such as live running status, PNR prediction and coach position locator, and train ticket booking and PNR status check. The app also allows train travelers to book flights, buses and budget hotels.