Unifying multi-brand subscriptions: Hindustan Times Digital streamlines global revenue operations
India
Digital Media & Publishing
Subscribers across 63+ countries
Managing multiple subscription products across platforms would have been extremely complex without the flexibility Zoho Billing provides. It allows us to look at our customers from a single lens.
COO
HT Digital, Mint
Hindustan Times Digital is part of HT Media Group, a media organization with more than a century of history. The company operates leading digital platforms including Hindustan Times, Mint, Hindustan Hindi, and the OTT aggregation platform OTTplay.
As the organization expanded its digital subscription offerings across web and mobile platforms, managing subscriptions across multiple brands, pricing models, and customer identities became increasingly complex. Zoho Billing now supports Hindustan Times Digital in managing its subscription ecosystem, enabling unified customer visibility, real-time subscription activation, and faster execution of subscription campaigns.
The challenge
As Hindustan Times Digital expanded its digital subscription business, managing billing operations across brands introduced several complexities:
Managing multiple subscription brands
With subscription products across Hindustan Times, Mint, and OTTplay, users often subscribed to multiple offerings, making it difficult to manage billing systems and customer identities across platforms.
Understanding subscriber value across bundled offerings
The organization relies heavily on bundled subscription strategies, where customers access multiple digital products. Tracking subscriber lifetime value across brands required a unified customer view.
API-driven mobile ecosystems
With mobile apps powering much of their subscriber experience, the billing system had to integrate seamlessly via APIs and webhooks to ensure real-time synchronization.
Delivering instant access after paywall payments
Readers encountering paywalls expect immediate access after completing payment. Subscription activation therefore had to occur instantly and reliably.
Supporting frequent subscription campaigns
Digital media businesses frequently launch subscription campaigns tied to editorial events or seasonal promotions. These campaigns require the ability to create and update subscription plans quickly.
The solution
Hindustan Times Digital implemented Zoho Billing as the centralized subscription engine across its digital ecosystem:
Unified customer management
Zoho Billing enables the team to manage customers across multiple subscription products while maintaining clarity and consistency, ensuring better oversight of multi-platform users.
API and webhook integrations
Using APIs and webhooks, Zoho Billing integrates directly with their mobile apps and digital platforms, enabling real-time access to paywalled content and a smooth user experience.
Independent product configuration
When launching OTTplay, the team configured the subscription setup internally without requiring support assistance. This demonstrated both the platform’s usability and their confidence in it.
Centralized reporting and financial visibility
Subscription data from multiple payment gateways can be reconciled through Zoho Billing reports, helping finance teams maintain accurate subscription accounting.
Shared operational visibility across teams
Product, business, technology, and finance teams all rely on Zoho Billing for different operational needs, from pricing experiments to financial reporting, creating transparency across the business.
FAVORITE FEATURES
API and webhook capabilities- Unified customer view across products
- Flexible subscription configuration
- Self-service plan setup
Benefits and Return on Investment
By implementing Zoho Billing, Hindustan Times Digital was able to simplify and scale subscription operations across its digital platforms.
- Unified customer visibility across multiple subscription brands.
- Instant subscription activation for paywalled digital content.
- Faster execution of subscription campaigns and pricing experiments.
- Accurate financial reporting across payment gateways.
- Greater transparency across product, business, and finance teams.
- Reliable global subscription operations across 63+ countries.
Looking forward
As Hindustan Times Digital continues expanding its digital footprint globally, its subscription ecosystem will evolve across news, regional content, business journalism, and entertainment aggregation. With Zoho Billing powering its recurring revenue infrastructure, the organization is positioned to scale confidently, launching new products, integrating mobile experiences, and managing multi-brand subscribers through a single, unified billing framework.