Verizon Media brings trailblazing MAKERS brand to India

• Online women’s platform MAKERS India will engage and empower the country’s growing audience of women online 
• MAKERS India to partner with YourStory as it shapes a new narrative for Indian women 

New Delhi, October 7 2019: Verizon Media, home to widely-used consumer brands like Yahoo Cricket, Yahoo Mail and HuffPost India today launched MAKERS India. The launch follows the success of MAKERS, a digital and video storytelling platform, that has accelerated the women’s movement in the US. 

MAKERS India will be the gateway to powerful stories from trailblazing women in the country, influencing a narrative that can drive real impact and change. The launch comes at a pivotal moment in the women’s movement in India, championing issues like gender equality and inclusivity in the workplace. Through visual storytelling, podcasts, live events, documentaries and award-winning digital content, MAKERS India will lead conversations that nurture an inclusive, empowered community of women in the country.

The inaugural event launched the campaign #OurTimeIsNow. MAKERS India will power this campaign that urges Indians to take a stand and collectively raise their voices, both online and offline, to accelerate the women’s movement in India. #OurTimeIsNow will amplify the voices of women breaking down cultural and societal barriers. It will give a powerful voice to women who have till now gone unheard or not had the opportunities to make bolder choices.

As it expands its footprint, MAKERS India has entered a strategic partnership with start-up media platform YourStoryto help connect the MAKERS India community with women changemakers both online and on the ground. 

“From the moment we founded MAKERS, the vision was to harness the power of storytelling and sharing real life experiences to inspire action. We are thrilled to take the MAKERS mission to India to celebrate and support all women who are speaking up, speaking out, and using their voices to drive equality forward,” said Dyllan McGee, Founder & Executive Producer, MAKERS

“We see compelling opportunities to serve India’s expanding audience of women, who now comprise over 42% of Internet users in the country. Now more than ever, women in India are raising their voice for change. Given the digital revolution unfolding across the country and the Government of India’s push for women’s inclusion, especially at the workplace, this is an exciting time for us to launch MAKERS India. Together with YourStory, we want to empower this growing community of Indian women to propel change and shape a new narrative for women in the country as it takes forward the innovative, powerful storytelling MAKERS is known for in the US,” said Rose Tsou, Head of International and eCommerce, Verizon Media.

“Bringing together YourStory’s content expertise with Verizon Media’s leading-edge tech will create an unparalleled platform to connect women in India and catalyze change. Together, we have an incredible opportunity to drive impact with MAKERS India, to advance the women’s movement in India,” said Shradha Sharma, Founder, CEO and Chief Editor of YourStory.

MAKERS India will create new avenues for women to come together as a community. It will also offer brands the opportunity to engage meaningfully with women audiences in India through relevant, interactive forums and events, on themes that matter to women here.

MAKERS snapshot

• MAKERS.com launched in 2012 in the US. The MAKERS movement grew out of Emmy and DuPont award-winning journalist and filmmaker Dyllan McGee’s documentary film Makers: Women Who Make America, about the struggle for women's equality 
• This unique global digital and video storytelling platform has the largest and most dynamic collection of women's stories ever assembled. 
• To date, MAKERS has over 4,500 videos from more than 400 groundbreaking women. 
• These include original interviews with global women leaders like Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Sheryl Sandberg. 

About Verizon

Verizon Media, a division of Verizon Communications, Inc., houses a trusted media ecosystem of premium brands like Yahoo, TechCrunch and HuffPost to help people stay informed and entertained, communicate and transact, while creating new ways for advertisers and media partners to connect. From XR experiences to advertising and content technology, Verizon Media is an incubator of innovation and is revolutionizing the next generation of content creation in a 5G world.

About MAKERS 

MAKERS is a media brand that exists to accelerate the women’s movement through stories of real life experiences that ignite passion and action. With a large video collection of influential women's profiles, live events, Emmy-nominated documentaries, and award-winning digital content, MAKERS has been uniting women in every industry, at every level, around the issues that matter most, one story at a time. Current MAKERS include: media mogul & philanthropist Oprah Winfrey; writer, actor, producer Lena Waithe; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg; feminist and writer Gloria Steinem; comedian Ellen DeGeneres, Mars Rover engineer Diana Trujillo; CEO Ginni Rometty; writer and producer Shonda Rhimes; YouTube sensation Lilly Singh; former Vice President Joe Biden; and athlete Russell Wilson. For more information, visit MAKERS.com.

YourStory 

YourStory is India's leading digital storytelling platform for entrepreneurs and changemakers, with over 100 million loyal readers and hundreds of partners who rely on the company’s content, community, and connects for inspiration, information, and intelligent insights on the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem. Founded by Shradha Sharma in 2008, YourStory began by chronicling India’s then-nascent startup ecosystem and, over the past decade, has consistently championed and celebrated the stories of entrepreneurs and changemakers. Since its inception, YourStory has told more than 90,000 stories, creating a rich repository of data and content on the startup ecosystem. It has also extended its focus to changemakers in different fields, launching SMBStory, a platform focused on non-tech small and medium businesses, in 2018, in addition to its women-first platform HerStory and its user-generated-content platform MyStory. Today, YourStory is credited with playing a crucial role in shaping the narrative of the Indian startup ecosystem and enabling the success of thousands of entrepreneurs over the years.