Pocket FM Co-founder and CEO Rohan Nayak has clarified that the company’s decision to discontinue Pocket TV was the conclusion of a planned beta experiment rather than a strategic retreat from the micro-drama category.
In a LinkedIn post, Nayak responded to recent media coverage that characterised the move as the shutdown of Pocket TV, arguing that the headlines did not accurately reflect the purpose of the product.
According to Nayak, Pocket TV was launched as a beta offering and operated for approximately five months before being discontinued after the company gathered insights from the experiment.
Sharing key learnings from the initiative, Nayak said Pocket FM concluded that the current micro-drama model faces significant retention challenges. While attracting initial users was not difficult, sustaining long-term engagement proved to be the more critical hurdle.
He also questioned the economics of the category, claiming that many micro-drama platforms rely heavily on aggressive customer acquisition spending, dark patterns and auto-renewal mechanisms to drive growth. Nayak said Pocket FM is not interested in pursuing such strategies, arguing that businesses dependent on making cancellations difficult lack genuine product-market fit.
Highlighting Pocket FM’s broader approach to growth, Nayak said the company has focused on building user loyalty and retention rather than relying on large marketing budgets. He stated that more than 50% of Pocket FM users remain active after 12 months and claimed the platform has a higher daily active user base than any dedicated micro-drama platform despite spending significantly less on user acquisition.
Nayak maintained that Pocket TV achieved its intended objective as a beta product by helping the company test assumptions, gather insights and identify new opportunities within the category.
He added that the lessons learned from Pocket TV have helped Pocket FM develop what he described as a potentially disruptive approach to the micro-drama space, although he did not provide further details.
Nayak concluded his post on a lighter note, thanking the media for the attention and joking that the company would schedule a press conference the next time it decided to shut down a beta product.
