Swasthya Plus: Local Language Health Video Media Network

Making engaging & informative health videos, in every language, featuring trusted health experts addressing health concerns, available for free across the web - to improve health literacy globally.

Globally, a lack of trusted health information across most languages has created ‘information deserts’ on the web, disproportionately affecting communities in the global south.

Compounding the problem of reduced access, is a rising ‘ocean of misinformation’ around health which is pushing communities towards behaviours potentially harmful to their health.

These challenges are acutely observed for languages spoken in the developing world – where availability of trusted content, and the use of AI for fighting misinformation are both limited.

Our primary intervention are carefully designed explainer videos on health, that:

Feature expert messengers you trust: doctors & health experts are invited after vetting for experience, expertise, and a passion for our mission.

Are in an accessible format you love: videos are easier to understand, and more immersive than other formats. watching a video of a trusted messenger, mimics a deeply engaging personal interaction.

Are in a language you understand: videos are in languages communities primarily speak in – making the complex world of health familiar & inviting.

Are on a platform you already use: content is forward-deployed on popular platforms – introducing health content as a part of the daily information diet, and reducing friction for users in accessing health information.

Available for free, everywhere videos are supported by advertising and/ or other ways don’t charge communities.

Swasthya Plus Network currently serves communities in 14 languages, and has served over 150 million people in the last three years, a testament to how scaling a simple solution is effective at meeting this basic need for health information.

Swasthya Plus Network primarily serves non-English language speaking internet users across the world who find it difficult to get information about their health concerns and learn more about being healthy - because language acts as a major barrier.

The existence of most health information by authorities in text formats in English gatekeeps the knowledge from a large part of the world that consumes content in their own languages and in formats like video that are more easy to consume and are more accessible.

As a solo Founder of the startup, Sidharth Rath's life living in the small state of Odisha, India, historically known for low development - has nudged him to build projects that serve the underserved.

Odia, a language spoken by over 45 million people of Odisha, still has content gaps in various areas and is not supported by many well known commerce and entertainment applications. It's a language that is traditionally ignored by national and global internet companies in a multi-language context like India.

Sidharth's background in Public Policy informs his awareness and passion around social impact, public health, and helps create linkages with governments and global organisations such as UNICEF and Johns Hopkins University. Sidharth's expertise in digital strategy and marketing, and content operations helps be the backbone for Swasthya Plus' complex multi-lingual video operations.

Swasthya Plus Network's team is majorly women, speaks 15+ languages, hails from all across India, and tries to provide a diverse perspective on the issues we work on.

We have closely worked with global universities funded by grants to study how people respond to health communication, and develop innovative ways to talk to people. Our work has been showcased at the highest levels at the Global Social & Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit, highlighting our data-driven as well as community centric approach to identifying communication problems and innovate on solutions.

We are working with tribal communities in Odisha for supporting young girls learn more about menstruation - collaborating with experts on the field such as from UNICEF, India.

We're one of the only organisations operating in this space, and we thrive in such a complex environment with low market opportunity because of our incredibly low cost structure and an innovative organisational process.

Our systems and processes enable a central team of about 10 production personnel in Odisha processes videos in any language - supported by remote language experts across the world. This system which replaces the need for individual teams for each language at one place to create and process content. 

Our high volume, good quality, high accuracy operational mode has helped us scale, with using technologies like virtual meetings to help interview over a thousand doctors across the world at a fraction of the cost as physical outreach.

We are reinventing the global media model which is an operational model than can be used to solve other information gaps across languages such as personal finance or other areas, and scaled rapidly across the world.

We want to launch our operations to serve Sri Lanka in Sinhalese language, and Nepal in Nepali language, and serve over 100 million people in the 12 months of 2023.

Swasthya Plus Network uses the best-in-class cloud collaboration tools to work with a primarily remote team, uses AI in video editing processes, and uses the full capability of digital distribution through social media platforms to reach the last mile.

We also use tools such as A/B testing to figure out best approaches to communicate, and are developing AI powered chatbots that can take our work further.

Current served so far: Over 150 million over 3 years

Goal for 2023: 100 million in the year

The difficulty and complexity of launching in global markets beyond our proximate markets in India has been a challenge to navigate, especially potential legal/ regulatory scenario around health information on the internet.

Swasthya Plus Network works closely with UNICEF, India and the Odisha MHH Alliance on supporting menstrual health education.

Swasthya Plus Network has worked closely with Johns Hopkins University to study vaccine hesitancy and ways to overcome hesitancy with communication approaches.

Swasthya Plus Network serves our communities for free, providing access to the content at no cost across platforms. Swasthya Plus generates reliable, recurring monthly revenue from digital advertising served on our content on YouTube and Facebook, and other platforms. This serves as the foundation of our revenue.

Swasthya Plus also collaborates on long-term projects with government agencies, international organisations like UNICEF, Johns Hopkins University, Indian public health organisations such as PHFI, and various health brands on projects that help commuities live healthy and happy. Our partners listed above, and others, fund us to enable these projects and use the media platform of Swasthya Plus.

Swasthya Plus Network, as a bootstrapped for-profit social enterprise, has always had a lean cost structure. The journey to profitability needs our advertising revenue to exceed our largely fixed operating costs, which will happen as we scale our audience reach to larger numbers.

The digital media business, like the software business has a near-fixed operating cost structure with a negligible cost of distribution, helping us achieve higher levels of profitability with higher reach beyond our break-even point.

Our partnerships revenue will exceed our advertising revenue and help us fund our future initiatives while the advertising revenue remains as a solid financial bedrock.