Pocket FM doubled its annualized revenue run rate in a year and reached US$ 500 million, while expanding the use of artificial intelligence in its content operation. The technology already plays a role in 99% of new production at the Indian audio-story platform, according to data released by parent company Pocket Entertainment.
AI is also present in 93% of the entire catalog of Pocket FM. Human creators remain responsible for ideas and story development, while the company's own tools are used in stages such as writing, audio production, and text-to-speech conversion.
AI reduces cost and accelerates production
According to co-founder and CEO Rohan Nayak, the use of the technology has made content production about 80 times cheaper. A volume of 100 hours of audio that previously took approximately a year to produce can now be completed in a day.
The revenue growth followed this operational expansion. Pocket FM's annualized run rate stood at about US$ 250 million a year ago and reached US$ 430 million in April before hitting the current US$ 500 million. The metric is calculated by the company based on monthly revenue multiplied by 12.
The platform also recorded an improvement in revenue retention, which went from 44% to 76%. Currently, 96 titles have already surpassed US$ 1 million in revenue each, while 13 have surpassed the US$ 10 million mark.
United States accounts for largest share of revenue
Pocket FM has more than 250 million listeners in more than 20 countries. The United States is its largest market and accounts for about 70% of annualized revenue. Of the current total, approximately US$ 415 million comes from user payments to unlock episodes, and US$ 85 million from advertising.
The parent company has also begun applying the same production model to other formats. Pocket Saga, a microdrama app launched in the United States, uses content produced entirely with AI and reached about US$ 15 million in annualized revenue a few months after its debut.
