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Tag: sharechat

  • ShareChat – Entertaining the Regional Audience

    A new era of global communication has been brought about by the emergence of social networking platforms, which have been fueled by the widespread use of smartphones and the internet. But in the midst of this digital transformation, a lot of platforms have unintentionally ignored the linguistic and cultural variety seen in places like India in favor of catering mostly to English-speaking viewers.

    Seeing this void, ShareChat, a social networking site specifically designed with Indian users in mind, arose in January 2015. ShareChat facilitates cultural expression and community cohesiveness by offering a platform for users to connect, share, and interact in their original languages, supporting 15 languages, including Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Gujarati.

    ShareChat’s dedication to linguistic diversity is demonstrated by the variety of vernacular material it offers on subjects including dictionaries, health advice, DIY cures, and inspirational sayings. In addition to addressing a significant gap in the social media scene, ShareChat enables people to express themselves honestly in languages that are consistent with their cultural identities. This is achieved by accommodating the linguistic preferences of its users.

    Read about ShareChat founders, history, funding, revenue model, competitors, business model, and more.

    ShareChat – Company Highlights

    STARTUP NAME SHARECHAT
    Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
    Sector Social Media
    Founders Farid Ahsan, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Ankush Sachdeva
    Founded 2015
    Valuation $1.5B (as per November 2024)
    Website sharechat.com

    ShareChat – About
    ShareChat – Industry
    ShareChat – Founders and Team
    ShareChat – Shareholdings
    ShareChat – Startup Story
    ShareChat – Name and Logo
    ShareChat – Mission and Vision
    ShareChat – Products and Service
    ShareChat – Business Model
    ShareChat – Revenue Model
    ShareChat – ESOP
    ShareChat – Challenges Faced
    ShareChat – Funding and Investors
    ShareChat – Acquisitions
    ShareChat – Growth
    ShareChat – Financials
    ShareChat – Partnership
    ShareChat – Competitors
    ShareChat – Future Plans

    ShareChat – About

    ShareChat, much like any other social networking platform, allows its users to create, discover, and share content with each other. Furthermore, ShareChat users can follow other users on the same platform, regardless of whether they are content creators, friends, or any person of interest, and track regular updates. The ShareChat users are not only excited about consuming the content they find on the platform but are also involved in the creation of this content.

    ShareChat – Industry

    The digital media industry in India is expected to develop at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.49% by 2025, according to a report by Dentsu India. According to the report, in 2024, the industry’s revenue is expected to reach $10.07 billion. This strong development trajectory highlights how important digital media are becoming in India’s changing media environment.

    A growing digital ecosystem, shifting consumer behaviors, and technological improvements have made firms more adept at using digital platforms to connect with and interact with their target markets. The anticipated expansion not only mirrors the burgeoning digital economy but also underscores the prospects and room for creativity in India’s digital media industry.

    Ankush Sachdeva: From 17 Failures to ShareChat Triumph | Education | Professional Life
    Ankush Sachdeva is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sharechat and Moj. Learn more about Ankush Sachdeva’s professional life, education, net worth, and more. Know more about him on Ankush Sachdeva Wikipedia.
    StartupTalkyMegha Rani

    ShareChat – Founders and Team

    ShareChat was founded by Farid Ahsan (Co-Founder and Board Member), Bhanu Pratap Singh (Co-Founder and CTO), and Ankush Sachdeva (Co-Founder and CEO).

    Farid Ahsan (Co-Founder and Board Member), Bhanu Pratap Singh (Co-Founder and CTO), Ankush Sachdeva (Co-Founder and CEO), Co-Founder of ShareChat
    Farid Ahsan (Co-Founder and Board Member), Bhanu Pratap Singh (Co-Founder and CTO), Ankush Sachdeva (Co-Founder and CEO), Co-Founder of ShareChat

    Ankush Sachdeva

    Co-Founder and CEO of ShareChat and Moj, Ankush Sachdeva was a BTech Computer Science student from IIT Kanpur. After Interning at Microsoft, Ankush co-founded ShareChat in 2015. He served the company as the co-founder and CPO of the company before being promoted to the rank of CEO in 2017. ShareChat was Ankush Sachdeva’s 18th attempt to build a startup, and Sharechat has truly turned into a considerable giant operating in the social media space

    Farid Ahsan

    Farid Ahsan was a BTech student who completed his degree in Material Science and Engineering from IIT Kanpur. He currently serves as the Co-Founder and the Board Member of ShareChat. He is also the the Co-Founder of General Autonomy.

    Bhanu Pratap Singh

    Bhanu Pratap Singh was also an IIT Kanpur student who completed his degree in Electrical Engineering there. He is the Head of the technology vertical of the platform, along with serving as the Co-Founder and CTO of ShareChat.

    ShareChat – Shareholdings

    ShareChat shareholding pattern as of March 202 (source: Tracxn)

    ShareChat Shareholders Percentage
    Farid Ahsan 3.8%
    Ankush Sachdeva 3.8%
    Bhanu Pratap Singh 3.8%
    SAIF Partners 7.0%
    HarbourVest Partners 1.1%
    Lightspeed Venture Partners 11.9%
    Touchstone Partners 17.8%
    Twitter Ventures 6.8%
    Shunwei Capital 5.2%
    Brand Capital 4.8%
    Tiger Global Management 3.8%
    Xiaomi 3.6%
    Rainforest Holding 1.3%
    Google 1.2%
    ESOP Pool 4.2%
    Others 19.9%
    ShareChat Shareholders
    ShareChat Shareholders

    ShareChat – Startup Story

    Three IIT graduates, Farid Ahsan, Bhanu Singh, and Ankush Sachdeva, launched ShareChat in 2015 based on a straightforward realization: there was a user base that was ready to express themselves but lacked an appropriate platform. Acknowledging the unexplored market of local audiences, they introduced ShareChat, which at first served as an application for sharing content on WhatsApp.

    They found a substantial preference for Sachin Tendulkar and cricket-related content as they dug deeper into user behavior. ShareChat, a regional language-driven social networking site aimed mostly at users in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, was created as a result of this discovery.

    Within three months, the platform attracted downloads, and India Quotient provided money, demonstrating its rapid growth. When the Indian government outlawed TikTok in 2019, ShareChat’s growth took a further turn for the better. This led the team to create Moj, a short-form video app.

    In spite of the pandemic’s obstacles, ShareChat grew rapidly, gaining millions of users and turning down a substantial Google takeover offer. ShareChat is a monument to the vision and tenacity of Ankush Sachdeva and his team as it grows its user base with the goal of reaching a large audience.

    ShareChat Logo
    ShareChat Logo

    The parent company of ShareChat is “Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd.“

    ShareChat – Mission and Vision

    ShareChat’s mission and vision statement say, “We aspire to help individuals form substantial connections and stay entertained.”

    ShareChat – Products and Service

    ShareChat: Some of the prominent products and services are:

    ShareChat Learning Hub

    In order to better serve marketers, advertisers, and brands, ShareChat has introduced ShareChat Learning Hub, a comprehensive certification program that is unique in its type, in March 2023.

    Pinning Card

    On July 10, 2023, ShareChat revealed the launch of a brand-new feature called Pinning Card, which allows hosts to increase the visibility of their chatroom sessions by pinning them themselves.

    ShareChat – Business Model

    There are two prominent kinds of business models followed by the content marketing community on the internet. The first one helps in building a network where the content material is created and owned by the platform creators. On the other hand, lies the second kind of model, which helps create a major part of the content material for the customers. This is what ShareChat does.

    ShareChat believes in existing as a popular social networking platform, where users can upload photos, and videos, create content, chat with others, make friends, and more. However, unlike the other social media platforms, Sharechat helps in conveying all the messages in the regional languages of India.

    Ingenious Marketing Strategies of ShareChat
    Sharechat is a leading Indian social media service developed by Mohalla Tech. Here’s a look at the marketing strategies of Shatechat.
    StartupTalkyStuti Shree

    ShareChat – Revenue Model

    ShareChat makes revenue from different resources; some of the prominent ones are:

    • ShareChat makes money from its platform through advertising, drawing advertisers in with the help of its sizable user base and engagement data.
    • Innovative content monetization strategies used by ShareChat support the company’s revenue growth and guarantee a long-term business strategy that benefits all of its stakeholders.

    ShareChat – ESOP

    ShareChat’s board has approved adding 5,83,800 new employee stock options (ESOPs) to its existing plan. This increases the total ESOP pool to 14,30,100 options, according to its filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) in February 2025.

    Each 100-stock option can later be converted into one equity share as per the agreement.

    The company expanded its ESOP pool to encourage employee ownership and help attract, retain, and motivate talented employees.

    As per the reports, the newly added ESOPs are worth $108 million, while the total ESOP pool is valued at $265 million. These valuations are based on ShareChat’s $2 billion company valuation.

    ShareChat increased the amount available for its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in May 2024 to INR 3,310 crore. ShareChat’s board had approved a resolution to expand its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) by adding 260,000 new stock options. This increase brings the total ESOP pool to 846,300 options, aimed at rewarding and retaining talent.

    This step is indicative of ShareChat’s dedication to promoting employee engagement and coordinating the team with the organization’s long-term growth goals.

    ShareChat – Challenges Faced

    ShareChat faced several difficulties in 2023 that put its adaptability and tenacity to the test. One major challenge was the requirement to implement a large labor reduction, which affected about 25% of the company’s workers as per a news report of December 20, 2023. This reorganization was a response to the ever-evolving market conditions and the dynamic character of the sector, which required ShareChat to optimize its operations.

    In addition, Mohalla Tech, the parent company of ShareChat, experienced difficulties when Jeet11, its fantasy game subsidiary, closed, resulting in the regrettable layoff of 100 workers.

    These difficulties highlighted ShareChat’s need to carefully negotiate changing market dynamics while giving strategic choices top priority in order to guarantee long-term growth and sustainability. ShareChat persisted in its resolve to overcome these challenges and carry out its objective of providing its consumers with efficient service in the constantly changing digital environment.

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    Here is a list of popular Indian social media apps that have seen a sudden rise in the country after the Chinese apps were banned.
    StartupTalkyAlan Joseph

    ShareChat – Funding and Investors

    ShareChat has raised $1.8 billion to date, over 18 rounds of funding.

    Here’s looking at the most prominent funding rounds for ShareChat:

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    August 5, 2024 Debt Financing $16 million EDBI
    March 27, 2024 Debt Financing $48.8 million –
    November 14, 2023 Seed Round $3 million India Quotient, Elevation Capital
    June 16, 2022 Series H $77.7 million Google and Temasek
    February 10, 2022 Debt Round $100 million Tencent Capital and more
    December 16, 2021 Series G $266 million Alkeon Capital, Temasek, Moore Strategic Ventures
    July 27, 2021 Series F $145 million Temasek, Moore Strategic Ventures and Mirae-Naver Asia Growth Fund.
    April 8, 2021 Series E $502 million Tiger Global Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners
    December 23, 2020 Debt Financing $60 million Twitter Ventures
    September 24, 2020 Series E $40 million –
    August 15, 2019 Series D $100 million Twitter
    September 19, 2018 Series C $99.2 million Shunwei Capital
    January 18, 2018 Series B $18.2 million Shunwei Capital and Xiaomi
    November 23, 2016 Series A $4 million Lightspeed India Partners
    July 13, 2016 Seed Round $1.4 million SAIF Partners
    May 11, 2016 Non Equity Assitance $50K Google Launchpad Accelerator
    March 5, 2015 Seed round – India Quotient

    ShareChat – Acquisitions

    ShareChat acquired 6 companies to date:

    Date Funding Round Investors
    February 10, 2022 $700M MX TakaTak
    September 16, 2020 – HPF Films
    Apr 27, 2020 – Memer
    Apr 24, 2020 – Circle Internet
    Feb 21, 2020 – Elanic
    Mar 2, 2019 – Clip App

    ShareChat – Growth

    ShareChat’s growth highlights are:

    • It has a 32+ million creator community as of March 2024
    • The time spent on ShareChat was 31 minutes as of March 2024
    • The number of shares per month on ShareChat was 2.5 billion+ as of March 2024
    • It has generated 75 billion+ pieces of content as of March 2024
    • The company has 180 million MAU as of March 2024

    ShareChat – Financials

    ShareChat’s financial performance has shown both revenue growth and expense reduction in recent years, though the company continues to operate at a loss. Below is a summary of its financials from FY24 to FY20.

    Particulars FY24 FY23 FY22 FY21 FY20
    Revenue INR 747.1 crore INR 718.8 crore INR 419.2 crore INR 96.6 crore INR 38.1 crore
    Expenses INR 2,644.7 crore INR 5,862.2 crore INR 3,407.6 crore INR 1,557.5 crore INR 715.0 crore
    Profit/Loss INR -1,898.9 crore INR -5,144.3 crore INR 2,988.6 crore INR -1,460.9 crore INR -676.9 crore
    ShareChat Financial
    ShareChat Financial

    Revenue increased by INR 28.3 crore in FY24 compared to FY23, while expenses significantly decreased by INR 3,217.5 crore, reducing the net loss.

    ShareChat Revenue:

    Revenue Breakdown FY24 FY23
    Revenue from Operations INR 718.1 crore INR 552.7 crore
    Other Income INR 29.0 crore INR 166.0 crore
    Total Revenue INR 747.1 crore INR 718.8 crore

    Revenue from operations increased by INR 165.4 crore in FY24, but other income decreased by INR 137 crore, resulting in a modest total revenue increase.

    ShareChat Profit/Loss:

    Profit/Loss FY24 FY23
    Gross Profit INR -1,926.6 crore INR -5,176.1 crore
    Operating Profit INR -1,918.9 crore INR -5,145.1 crore
    Net Profit/Loss INR -1,898.9 crore INR -5,144.3 crore

    ShareChat reduced its net loss by INR 3,245.4 crore in FY24 compared to FY23, mainly due to lower expenses.

    ShareChat Expenses:

    Expense Breakdown FY24 FY23
    Employee Benefit Expense INR 580.4 crore INR 698.0 crore
    Finance Costs INR 510.6 crore INR 340.3 crore
    Amortization & Depreciation INR 16.1 crore INR 1,919.8 crore
    Other Expenses INR 1,537.6 crore INR 2,904.1 crore
    Total Expenses INR 2,644.7 crore INR 5,862.2 crore

    Expenses dropped by INR 3,217.5 crore in FY24, with significant reductions in Amortization & Depreciation and Other Expenses.

    Quick Summary:

    • Revenue: Increased by INR 28.3 crore, driven by higher revenue from operations.
    • Profit/Loss: Net loss reduced by INR 3,245.4 crore, reflecting lower expenses.
    • Expenses: Total expenses decreased by INR 3,217.5 crore, with major cuts in Amortization & Depreciation and Other Expenses.

    ShareChat Business Model | How does ShareChat Make Money
    ShareChat is an Indian social media app founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan. Let’s look at how ShareChat makes money.
    StartupTalkyDamini Bhandary

    ShareChat – Partnership

    ShareChat has partnered with many companies; some of the prominent ones are:

    JioCinema

    ShareChat has teamed up with JioCinema to deliver exclusive short-form content in multiple languages for the Paris Olympics 2024, running from July 26 to August 11, 2024.

    GroupM

    GroupM and ShareChat have partnered on August 29, 2022, to drive a new chapter in contemporary marketing. The strategic alliance will concentrate on offering customers efficiency and efficacy throughout the digital marketing ecosystem’s pillars.

    Dukaan

    In order to help merchants on its platform work with creators on ShareChat and Moj to promote their items through live and video content, Dukaan announced that it has partnered with both platforms on September 9, 2022.

    Httpool

    To increase sales and broaden its market, ShareChat (Mohalla Tech Pvt. Ltd.) has partnered up with Httpool by Aleph, a global partner of significant media platforms, on November 23, 2022.

    ShareChat – Competitors

    Smartphones today are full of social networking and content-sharing applications because that’s what people want to see and do today. In this highly competitive field, ShareChat, directly and indirectly, competes with:

    • Roposo
    • BetterButter
    • Giphy
    • Nerdery
    • Chingari
    • Josh
    • Digg

    ShareChat – Future Plans

    In the future, ShareChat claims that there will be major changes in the way the application functions. The users can fairly expect a lot more variety in the area of content formats. Also, the users can expect a lot more content creators to transform into celebrities, and to see people who become famous on ShareChat. Also, India has 15 official languages and more than 1600 known dialects. So, ShareChat wants to cater to more regional audiences. What the platform doesn’t want is to limit itself to India.

    FAQs

    What is the ShareChat app?

    ShareChat app, much like any other social networking platform, allows its users to create, discover, and share content with one another. However, the platform is distinguished by the regional languages that ShareChat uses for the content shared.

    What services does ShareChat provide?

    ShareChat provides its users with health tips, homemade remedies, weight loss, religious quotes, and a dictionary to only name a few.

    What is ShareChat business model?

    ShareChat follows a social media and content-sharing business model. It earns revenue through advertising, brand partnerships, and in-app monetization while providing a platform for users to create, share, and consume content in regional languages.

    What is ShareChat revenue model?

    The revenue model of ShareChat is mainly based on advertising, brand promotions, and in-app monetization through features like virtual gifts and premium content.

    Who is the founder of ShareChat?

    ShareChat was founded by Farid Ahsan, Bhanu Singh, and Ankush Sachdeva.

    Who is the CEO of ShareChat?

    Ankush Sachdeva is the CEO of ShareChat and has been doing so since 2017.

    What is ShareChat launch date?

    ShareChat was launched in 2015.

    Who are the competitors of ShareChat?

    ShareChat, directly and indirectly, competes with Roposo, BetterButter, Giphy, Nerdery, Digg, and many more.

  • Ankush Sachdeva: From 17 Failures to ShareChat Triumph

    When we talk about our present, Social Media is one of the prime things out there, that made a place in our life. There is hardly anyone who is not on social media. People use them to post about their daily life updates, consume entertainment, stay connected with acquaintances, and whatnot. In this scenario, one Indian decided to find a social media platform that would change the way Indians perceive social media.

    Ankush Sachdeva is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Co-Founder of the Indian social media platforms, Sharechat and Moj, which were launched in 2015, and 2020 respectively. He supervises both the companies’ growth strategy and examines product development. Ankush Sachdeva is the Founder of Mohalla Tech Private Limited firm which owns Sharechat and Moj. Sharechat has over 180 million monthly active users and the app supports 15 Indian languages.

    Ankush Sachdeva – Biography

    Name Ankush Sachdeva
    Born 1992
    Born Place Ghaziabad
    Age 34 (2024)
    Nationality Indian
    Education IIT Kanpur
    Profession Computer Programmer & Entrepreneur
    Position CEO & Co-Founder, ShareChat and Moj

    Ankush Sachdeva – Education
    Ankush Sachdeva – Professional Life
    Ankush Sachdeva – Mohalla Tech
    Ankush Sachdeva – Sharechat
    Ankush Sachdeva – Moj
    Ankush Sachdeva – Honors & Awards

    Ankush Sachdeva – Education

    Ankush completed his primary education at Somerville School, Noida. He pursued B.Tech in Computer Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. He also was an intern at Microsoft Hyderabad for three months.

    Ankush Sachdeva – Professional Life

    The man whose inspiration was likes of He has been a part of the Programming Club of his college. He was a coordinator in the programming team for one year. Ankush Sachdeva is a computer programmer and entrepreneur who is the founder of two companies.

    Ankush with his IIT Kanpur friends, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan, founded Mohalla Private Pvt. Ltd., which launched Sharechat in 2015. All three friends had a common passion for product development and product management, thus they came to work hand in hand and try something new. First of all, they tried to develop 14 to 16 products, including a crime data analyzer for the Delhi Police Department. This does not help them in gaining impactful results. The trio finally took their first step towards success when they propelled their social media platform, Sharechat.

    Mohalla Tech also launched Moj, which is a video-sharing app in the year 2020, the app experienced good popularity after the ban of TikTok.

    Initially, Ankush served as the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Sharechat for around two years. He later became the co-founder and CEO of Sharechat. He is holding his CEO position for the last few years.

    Ankush Sachdeva – Mohalla Tech

    Ankush Sachdeva established the parent company, Mohalla Tech Private Limited in 2015, which launched Sharechat and Moj. The company eventually got bigger after projecting the Indian social networking sites, Sharechat and Moj.

    Mohalla Tech acquired various companies including,

    • Transversal Tech, a short video-sharing platform
    • Elanic, an online fashion marketplace
    • Memer, a meme discovery and sharing platform
    • Circle Internet, a hyperlocal information platform

    Ankush has been escorting various ideas to make Sharechat a leading social media network in India.

    Ankush Sachdeva – Sharechat

    ShareChat Logo
    ShareChat Logo

    Ankush has been a part of Sharechat since the beginning. Sharechat allows users to share content from varied digital platforms to its own interface and vice versa. After 17 unsuccessful startup attempts, Ankush Sachdeva teamed up with his two friends from IIT, Farid Ahsan, and Bhanu Singh, for his 18th venture. Together, they launched the ShareChat app in October 2015.

    Sharechat is an Indian social networking site that provides content consumption and video-sharing platforms only in Indian vernacular languages. The headquarters of the company is in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Currently, 600 employees work for the company.

    Currently, it offers its services in 15 Indian languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Haryanvi, Kannada, Rajasthani, Assamese, Bhojpuri, Odia and Urdu. The company aims to empower individuals by escorting them to share their experiences, voice their opinions, build relevant communities, and discover new trends and opportunities in their native language. The app scrolls down the use of English and encourages users to interact in their language by sharing varied content through Sharechat.

    As of 2024, the valuation of the company has dropped by 60% to under $2 billion from a $5 billion valuation in 2022. The company joined the Unicorn Club a long time ago.

    ShareChat – Entertaining the Regional Audience with Amazing Content!
    ShareChat allows its users to create, discover and share content. Here’s more about ShareChat founders, funding, competitors, business model and more.
    StartupTalkyVidhi Punamiya

    Ankush Sachdeva – Moj

    Moj App Logo
    Moj App Logo

    Moj founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan in 2020 is a video-sharing platform packed with features like special effects, emoticons, stickers, and short videos ranging from 15 seconds to one minute across categories like dance, travel, singing, acting, humor, and education. Available in 16 languages, including Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, and more, Moj allows users to download videos and caters to diverse audiences.

    Launched soon after the Indian government banned TikTok, Moj gained over 100 million downloads within just six months.

    Moj Success Story – India’s Short Video Creation App
    Here’s presenting all about Moj, India’s No.1 Short-Video App. Read about its success story, founders, business model, competitors, and more.
    StartupTalkyShalini Rath

    Ankush Sachdeva – Honors & Awards

    He won several honors and awards during his academic career. The following awards were won by him:

    • He received the first position at TechOlympics, in the Algorithmic Programming Contest held at IIT Bombay’s annual technical festival.
    • He received the first position at BattleCity, where he developed AI for the Tron game for an online bot versus bot-competition held at the annual technical festival of IIT Kanpur.
    • He won the Jury’s Choice Award at Yahoo HackU 2012 for developing an Android app within 24 hours to toggle the user’s ringing mode from loud to silent depending on his location preferences and accelerometer data.
    • He won the ACM ICPC Asia Regionals in December 2012.
    • Ankush Sachdeva was also listed on Forbes’30 under 30 Asia in 2018.
    • Ankush Sachdeva is the youngest entrepreneur featured in the inaugural ‘2024 Hurun India Under35s‘ list.

    FAQs

    Who is Ankush Sachdeva?

    Ankush Sachdeva is the co-founder and CEO of ShareChat and Moj.

    What is Ankur Sachdeva age?

    Born in 1992, Ankush is 32 years old (2024).

    Who founded ShareChat?

    ShareChat was founded by Ankush Sachdeva along with Farid Ahsan and Bhanu Singh.

    Is Moj under Mohalla Tech?

    Moj is under Mohalla Tech, it is a video-sharing and content-creating app.

    How many languages does ShareChat allow its audience to use?

    ShareChat allows 15 languages for its audience to use.

  • Moj Success Story – India’s Short Video Creation App

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Moj.

    The growth of interesting new enterprises today is all because of the appropriate usage of social media. The notion of social networking has completely transformed the globe. We can see that the popularity of social networking websites has skyrocketed in recent years.

    While social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc are helping people connect with each other along with their favorite brands and products, on the other hand, there are other social media portals that are allowing people to make videos and become famous. One such social media app that earned tremendous popularity in 2020 is Moj.

    Moj was created when the Indian Government banned TikTok with several other Chinese apps in 2020. It is a short video-sharing social media platform owned by Mohalla Tech Pvt. Ltd. Moj’s parent organization is ShareChat, which was started by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan.

    Here’s presenting all about Moj, India’s No.1 Short-Video App. Read about its success story, founders, business model, competitors, and more.

    Moj – Company Highlights

    Headquarters Bangalore, India
    Sector Technology, Information, Internet, Social Media
    Founder Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan.
    Founded 2020
    Revenue $102 million (2021)
    Parent Organisation ShareChat, Mohalla Tech Pvt. Ltd
    Website mojapp.in

    Moj – Company Highlights
    About Moj and How it works?
    Moj – Industry Details
    Moj – Founder and Team
    Moj – Startup Story / How it all started?
    Moj – Name, Tagline, Logo
    Moj – Business & Revenue Model
    Moj – Mergers, and Acquisition
    Moj – Advertisement and Social Media Campaigns
    Moj – Competitors
    Moj – Future Plans

    About Moj and How it works?

    Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd, situated in Bangalore, owns both Moj and ShareChar. Moj is an Indian video-sharing online platform with multiple features. It includes special effects, emoticons, stickers, and short movies ranging in length from 15 seconds to one minute in categories such as dancing, travel, singing, acting, humor, and education.

    Moj allows users to download videos and is available in 16 languages. These languages include – Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Haryanvi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Tamil, Telugu, and English.

    The application was published nearly immediately after the Indian government banned TikTok, and over 100 million people downloaded it in just 6 months. The Moj app claims to have about 160 million Monthly Active Users (MAU), over 50 million creator communities, and nearly 4.5 billion video play per day.

    Moj – Industry Details

    With easy access to the Internet, social media has become an integral part of our lives. India is witnessing digital transformation every day. As a result, the number of social media users is expected to reach 448 million by 2023.

    Moj – Founder and Team

    Moj is founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan.

    Ankush Sachdeva,Bhanu Pratap Singh & Farid Ahsan
    Ankush Sachdeva,Bhanu Pratap Singh & Farid Ahsan

    Ankush Sachdeva

    Ankush Sachdeva is the co-founder and CEO of ShareChat and Moj. He is a BTech Computer Science student who graduated from IIT Kanpur. Ankush worked as the company’s co-founder and CPO until being appointed to the position of CEO in 2017. Ankush co-founded ShareChat in 2015 after interning at Microsoft, which is said to be his 18th startup effort. He has been featured in Forbes‘ 30 under 30 Asia 2018.

    Bhanu Pratap Singh

    An IIT Kapur graduate, Bhanu Pratap Singh is the Co-founder and CTO of ShareChat. He has also co-founded Moj along with Ankush Sachdeva and Farid Ahsan. In his role, he heads a team of chosen coders and engineers from throughout the nation who are constantly upgrading the platform in order to create a product that gives a smooth experience to India’s next billion Internet users.

    Farid Ahsan

    Farid Ahsan graduated from IIT Kanpur in 2014 with a B.Tech in Metallurgical and Material Engineering. After receiving his degree from IIT Kanpur, Farid Ahsan worked as an Analyst in Corporate Finance at Deutsche Bank in Mumbai, India. He co-founded ShareChat with Ankush Sachdeva and Bhanu Pratap Singh in 2015 and Moj in 2020.

    Moj – Startup Story / How it all started?

    Moj’s story began when Ankush Sachdeva set to work just hours after the Indian government banned the usage of TikTok with a slew of other Chinese applications on the grounds of nationwide security.

    The co-founder and CEO of ShareChat, a local language social networking app, assembled a team along with his friends,

    Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan to replicate the successful Chinese short video platform. With such determination and results of working day and night, Moj was available for download on the Play Store within 30 hours.

    As of now, Moj has become India’s No.1 Short Video app with over 50 million content creators on its platform and is available in 16 Indian languages.

    Moj – Business & Revenue Model

    Short video platforms have a wide range of business models. However, Moj’s business model is seen to be operating on a B2C business model.

    Moj allows its users to freely use the app and make money from it by creating content on its platform. Moj app helps its customers to create 15-second videos to share with others. While generating videos, Moj users have access to several video effects, allowing them to make their films appear professional and appealing.

    Moj allows its customers to make money either through Affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, collaboration, etc. These are some of the methods through which Moj also generates its revenue.

    Another main source of revenue for Moj is advertising. A lot of companies use Moj as their platform to promote their products and services. The majority of the companies believe that a large number of people watch videos on such platforms (Moj), and sponsoring them will prove to be beneficial for their company as their advertisement will reach out to a large audience.

    Moj LIVE

    Recently, Moj launched a new service to mark its second anniversary, called Moj LIVE, a live video streaming platform that will allow its users to display their skills and interact with their audience in real-time.

    Creators from throughout the country may use Moj LIVE to produce compelling content in a variety of genres, including live discussion shows, live game streaming, jam sessions, stand-up comedy, cuisine, astrology, and more.

    Moj has also allied with Flipkart. In October 2021, it was reported that Flipkart and Moj will collaborate to offer video and live commerce, with Moj users able to purchase on the former’s web platform.

    Moj – Mergers, and Acquisition

    Moj has combined with MX TakaTak, which is owned by MX media, to produce the largest short video platform for Indians. There are around 100 million artists on the combined platform, over 300 million Monthly Active Users (MAU), and nearly 250 billion monthly video views.

    This is what Ankush Sachdeva says about the merging, “By 2025, we want to grow monetizable creators on our platform to 10 lakh from 1 lakh at present. Our fundamental belief is that you will have far more creators in India than you have today. Many of them may not be knowing that they are going to be creators. We will help them earn $450 million ( ₹3,500 crores) through virtual gifting, live commerce, advertising, etc.”

    Moj – Advertisement and Social Media Campaigns

    In 2021, Moj launched a new campaign #SwipeUpWithMoj, to boost its brand memory as the ultimate entertainment destination. The company had partnered with Bollywood actress Ananya Pandey and Tollywood actor Vijay Deverakonda as brand ambassadors for the campaign. In the video, they are seen in the app’s brand videos as well as content creators on Moj. The campaign by Moj is based on a greater understanding of the consumers’ need for exciting and engaging content that helps them captivate their attention by adding some fun to their daily life.

    Moj – Competitors

    After the ban of TikTok, India is witnessing many such short-video platforms that are competing with each other to gain a maximum number of creators. With so many social media platforms today, Moj competes with many competitors. Some of these are:

    1. Josh
    2. Mitron
    3. Koo
    4. Kutumb
    5. Chingari
    6. Digg
    7. Roposo
    8. Tna Tan

    Moj – Future Plans

    Moj is all set to launch a new program known as, “Moj for Creators”. Through this program, Moj plans to help creators strengthen their earnings by 2025. It has already started working on offering monetizable features to the platform. Furthermore, the company expects to help content creators earn Rs 3,500 crores by 2025.
    Ankush Sachdeva, CEO, and Co-founder of Moj says, “We are drawing these numbers from our internal projections and existing trends. But if you look at industry expectations, it is going to be probably even more aggressive during these early times. We look at creating at least a million monetizable creators by the end of 2025 and today we already have visibility of 100,000 creators on the platform.”

    FAQs

    Who is the CEO of Moj?

    Ankush Sachdeva is the CEO of Moj.

    Where is the head office of Moj?

    The head office of Moj is in Bangaluru.

    Which is the parent company of Moj?

    The parent company of Moj is ShareChat.

  • Ingenious Marketing Strategies of ShareChat

    India has the world’s second-largest internet user population, with more than 350 million users connected and counting. According to the reports of Statista analysis, roughly 71 percent of these users come from small, lower-tier cities. This figure is unsurprisingly appealing and thanks to increased awareness and information access, these people are the next set of consumers. But how can one organization get in touch with them in the most efficient way?

    About ShareChat
    Key Marketing Strategies of ShareChat
    Covid-19 Marketing Strategy of ShareChat
    Unique Features of ShareChat Marketing Strategy

    About ShareChat

    ShareChat, India’s own social media platform, seems to have succeeded in finding the answer and showcases its regional skills. It is one of a kind platform that supports 15 Indian languages and dialects but not English. It strives to provide a welcome place on the internet for individuals to communicate their ideas, thoughts, and emotions without any language barrier, not just for those who want to use this space in their mother tongue but also for those who are new to the internet.

    Users can exchange films, jokes, songs, and other language-based with other users via the company’s app, which includes private messaging, tagging, and personal messaging options.

    ShareChat engages with local brands with local languages and also helps esteemed and established brands reach a wider audience. At such times, when brands are trying their best to keep customers busy in meaningful ways, sharing chat helped them discover that paying attention to local issues and communicating in local dialects is a big help in fixing the gap.

    ShareChat does not ask its users to pay any money to use the platform. It earns revenue from Advertisements, financial transactions, and sponsored campaigns.

    Key Marketing Strategies of ShareChat

    Targeting the Language-based Audience

    ShareChat approximately has 60 million active users per month and supports around 15 Indian languages. It is an apparent appeal for advertisements as an average user spends about half an hour per day on the ShareChat app. Brands are interested in partnering with ShareChat not only because it offers advertising solutions, but also integrates unique capabilities to help them achieve optimal reach.

    ShareChat assists local businesses to reach out to a much more language-specific audience and also addresses a wider issue that global businesses face when they attempt to engage individuals in tiny areas.

    Any brand that engages with ShareChat does so intending to leverage the app’s success among language-based internet users and connect better with localized audiences. ShareChat allows well-established brands to strike down their ideas and campaigns and build them according to regional values and flavours.

    It has received support from many social media apps worldwide and has taken measures to reach out to a more wide audience.

    ShareChat uses Appnext Recommendation Engine to reach its target audience. Appnext is a pioneer that provides app suggestions to mobile phone users. Customers are guided by app next via their suffocatingly packed app stores.

    The platform provides users with individualized suggestions for apps. With their collaboration with Appnext, ShareChat’s daily activity has increased significantly allowing users to find a ShareChat that provides easy content discovery through on device and in device app placements to its users.

    ShareChat is mining the market and audience in small cities, similar to what Tiktok once did in India when it wasn’t banned. According to the reports of “App Annie”, a worldwide analytics and market intelligence organization, India ranks number one in terms of downloading apps. India’s downloads increased by 190%, between 2016 to 2019, the greatest rise around the Globe. In comparison, global downloads saw an increase of only 45 percent, while China, which ranks second climbed at half the rate, increasing by 80%.

    Covid-19 Marketing Strategy of ShareChat

    Striking down even further, for the vast majority of potential downloaders; the internet is an entertainment zone, and time spent on such apps increased by 80% in India between the year 2017 to 2019. This data tells us a tale.

    In these times of uncertainty, it takes on greater importance. According to a survey by BARC India and Nielsen on digital consumption, India’s average mobile phone usage is approaching nearly four hours per day which is a 12.5% increase from the pre-COVID period.

    This has been a brilliant opportunity for ShareChat, which moved to make sure that verified information is visible at the head of its feed, prioritizing COVID fact check related content in more than 13 local languages and also increasing the promoting of law and government accounts over its platform. ShareChat also aims to build partnerships with various organizations.

    This leading platform is expanding its avenues, both advertising and revenue and they’re also seeking a balance between the user experience and the business.

    Unique Features of ShareChat Marketing Strategy

    ShareChat is also testing a new ad strategy called splash entries, which is described as the first thing a user sees when they tap the app icon; a vertical ad that is up to 4 seconds and cannot be skipped. The ad appears as the initial post and blends with the user feed, one hundred percent and twice the impressions are all guaranteed with this stunning entry. It also has recently launched a 360-degree solution which is called Divas.

    The platform is based on powerful AI potentiality that relies on first-party user data to ensure that users see only the content that they want which increases in-app usage time.

    ShareChat is also introducing ShareChat TV, which will be the ideal space for long-term content and commercials, giving advertisers new ways to reach their desired audiences. The platform is also planning to launch the ADs platform which is currently in its beta phase, which will allow brands and advertisement agencies to set up, monitor, and target the campaigns on their own.

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    Conclusion

    ShareChat’s popularity and profitability are drawing good investment as well. The platform was part of   100 million dollars funding led by Twitter. According to reports from a Zinnov, 81 percent of tier-2 and 80 percent of tier-3 people prefer to consume content on their mobile phones, and ShareChat has a wide range of content, including love, entertainment, and outstanding user-created content, it is safe to say that the app has direct access to India’s heart, with over 160 million users and increasing day by day.

    FAQs

    What is the marketing strategy employed by ShareChat?

    ShareChat uses Appnext Recommendation Engine to reach its desired target audience.

    Who is the founder of ShareChat?

    Ankush Sachdeva, Farid Ahsan, and Bhanu Singh are the founders of ShareChat.

  • Top 9 Popular Social Media Apps Made in India

    India-based social media apps have seen a rise in the country and worldwide, after the prohibition of the usage of TikTok and some other Chinese apps in India. The Prime Minister of the country has been asking the citizens to shift their usage to “Made in India” apps to work towards what we envision as an “Atma Nirbhar Bharat”, which is the vision of the PM to make India a self-reliant nation.

    So, here’s a look at some of the best Social media apps made in India that you can use:

    Popular Social Media Apps Made in India

    1. Sharechat
    2. Koo
    3. Chingari
    4. Josh
    5. Flik
    6. Moj
    7. Mitron
    8. Leher
    9. Kutumb

    Indian Social Media Apps

    Here are the 9 best Indian social media apps people can use.

    Sharechat

    ShareChat - Indian social media app
    ShareChat – Indian social media app

    ShareChat is an Indian Social Media app. It is a social networking service that is growing to become one of the best social media apps for chatting with its headquarters in Bangalore, India. Mohalla Tech Pvt. Ltd is the parent company and they were the ones who developed the app. Its initial release was during the month of January 2015. ShareChat is available in GooglePlay and also for iOS users. You can use Share Chat in over 15 different languages.

    The company was started by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan, who were graduates of IIT Kanpur. This Mobile Application has 250+ Million monthly active users.

    ShareChat offers features that include private messaging. You can even tag people in videos using this platform. This platform also allows you to share social content with other unknown users such as videos, jokes, songs, and other language-based content.

    ShareChat’s parent company Mohalla tech has acquired some companies lately including Transversal, a tech-owned short video platform; Elanic, which is a Bengaluru-based online fashion marketplace; Member, which is a meme discovery and sharing platform, and Circle Internet, which is a hyperlocal information platform. All the above platforms were acquired for undisclosed amounts.

    Koo

    Koo - Indian social media app
    Koo – Indian social media app

    The app was earlier known as Ku Koo Ku. It was founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna who is the current CEO of the application, and Mayank Bidawatka. In August 2020, the app won the Government of India’s Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge.

    The app won the Aatmanirbhar App Challenge, which was organized by the Indian government to foster local innovation. While Koo has many of the same capabilities as Twitter, it also lets users publish in Indian languages other than Hindi.

    One of Koo’s selling advantages is that it is available in numerous Indian languages. “To connect with Indians in Indian languages,” it says on its website. Koo can be used on a computer (website) or on a mobile device (app). It’s available in the Google Play and Apple App Stores, and users may sign up with their phone number. Currently, English, Kannada, Tamil, Marathi, and Telegu are supported by Koo. Support for Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Malayalam, Punjabi, and Assamese is also in the pipeline, according to their website. A user can write up to 400 characters of text, which is higher than Twitter’s limit of 280 characters. All multimedia functions, including audio and video recording, are likewise supported by Koo.

    Chingari

    Chingari - Indian social media app
    Chingari – Indian social media app

    Chingari is an Indian-based short-video platform. It was launched in the year 2018 in the month of November. It is a video-sharing and social networking service where the users can create short videos.

    Chingari lets its users create videos that provide features to lip-sync, dance, voice-over movie dialogues, etc. The ban of TikTok has led this social media video app to gain a lot of popularity in India.

    Josh

    Josh - Indian social media app
    Josh – Indian social media app

    Josh is an Indian-based short video platform It was launched in the year 2020 in September by Dailyhunt. Dailyhunt is an Indian content and daily news application which is located in Bangalore, India. It provides content in 14 Indian languages. It was founded by Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekar Sohoni who were ex-Nokia employees. It was released initially in the year 2010.

    The short video platform, Josh has short videos which are trending and viral that you can share with your followers. The app lets you create your unique videos. The App has videos on dance, music, comedy, jokes, and pranks. It also has videos on various challenges, pets, cooking.

    The Mobile application has an easy-to-use Josh beauty camera with real-time filters, face stickers, special effects, makeup camera, emojis. Etc. You can even create Duet videos on Josh. You can share the videos on WhatsApp or Facebook and you can set it as your status.

    Josh is India’s number 1 Short videos app. The launch of this platform is considered to be the next step by Dailyhunt to release more apps in the future.

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    Flik

    Flik - Indian social media app
    Flik – Indian social media app

    Flik is a social media app that is trying to change the experience of chatting by making it much more enjoyable and is gearing to stand one of the top social media platforms made in India. The app provides a feature that is a mixture of a social media app and a dating app. It was founded by Bahadursinh Jadeja and launched on the year 10th of September 2019. The parent company of this mobile application is Loopytime Pvt. Ltd.

    You can connect with new people using Flik. Flik helps you in finding friends and increasing your contact. It has an additional feature which is for dating and you can match with a like-minded person on the app. Flik can be considered a dating app as well.

    Flik is one of the few mobile applications that provide features such as social media and dating in a single platform. The app can be used in Hindi. It provides features such as personal messaging, video calls and voice calls, audio messages, etc. If you would like to add live stories of the content Flik allows you to do that, flik is one of the social media sites that help you to share it with your friends.

    Flik allows you to share files in any format such as pdf, ppt, word, mp3, excel, Apk, zip, and much more. Flik is rated for 18+. It has 10K+ downloads on the Play store. The app is available in the Play store and the size is around 12 MB.

    Moj

    Moj - Indian social media app
    Moj – Indian social media app

    Moj app is a social media platform for video sharing and its parent company is ShareChat, and is owned by Mohalla Tech Private Ltd. Moj was founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan. It was founded immediately after TikTok along with other Chinese apps was banned in India after the India-China situation in 2020.

    The social networking platform began its journey on 29 June 2020 and in just two days 50 thousand downloads were made from the Google Play Store. The main features that it offers are special effects, emoticons to use on your videos, and others. Different genres of videos can be made like comedy, education, dancing, and acting. The duration of the videos can be of 15 seconds to 1 minute.

    The app is growing to be one of the most popular social media with a support of over 15 languages and in January 2021, it has crossed 100 million downloads. In 2021, it generated $102 Million in revenue.

    Mitron

    Mitron - Indian social media app
    Mitron – Indian social media app

    Mitron is launched by Shivank Agarwal and Anish Khandelwal on April 11, 2020. It is a video sharing app that provides you with the feature of creating, editing, and sharing your videos. With just a size of 26 Mb, it can easily get fit into your phone space without any problem.

    The features that the offers include a cool range of transitions, special effects. Apart from that, the users can edit their videos as per their requirement and there are various types of audio to choose from and can be used in your video. The app is free. Mitron offers more than 15 different categories for content. This app is very popular in the Indian Short video content ecosystem.

    Leher

    Leher - Indian social media app
    Leher – Indian social media app

    Leher is an India Social networking platform that provides room for audio and video discussion. It was founded in the year 2018 on the month of August by Atul Jaju and Vikas Malpani. It is a live discussing platform and any topic can be discussed here with your community and friends. You can also join the discussion of your favorite topic here.

    It is easier to interact with the audience and one can do live Q&A, polls comments, and one can also send a direct message to the person they want to. The person who is hosting a discussion, and invite other people of their choice in the discussion and can ask them to participate in it. Stickers and Emoji reactions are also offered to the users to make the discussion more fun

    Leher made revenues close to Rs 11 lakhs in FY20, which was a laudable rise from Rs 4 lakhs, which is managed in FY19. It is a competitor of the Clubhouse app.

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    Kutumb

    Kutumb - Indian social media app
    Kutumb – Indian social media app

    Kutumb was founded in the year 2020 by Abhishek Kejriwal and Mohit Sharma and is a social networking platform. Through this app, one can get connected with people through their communication and can share images, videos, news, and other things. All of these can be done in your choice of regional languages.

    During the time of Covid’s second wave, it is through the help of Kutumb app that numerous NGOs managed to collect donations to help the victims of the Covid-19 disease and prevent or overcome its dreadful effects.

    Conclusion

    There are a lot of other famous Indian-based Social Media Apps and we would definitely be able to find a lot more different social media platforms coming up in the future. Some apps like Houseparty, a messaging platform; Trell, which is similar to Pinterest, Helo, and Vero social media platforms, and many more.

    4.7 billion social media app downloads were recorded at the end of the first half of 2021 with Asia leading the charts. India is the leader of social media downloads, as per the same report App Annie. Therefore, every second, someone or the other is registering on one of the popular social media sites including the made in Bharat apps. If you haven’t visited these websites/platforms yet, now is the time to do so!

    FAQ

    What is the first Indian social media app?

    Bharatam is India’s first own Social Networking platform. It is a platform of the Indians, by the Indians, and for the Indians.

    How many Indian apps are there in India?

    There are more than 161,022 apps from Indian publishers on Google Play.

    Which apps are banned in India?

    Some apps that are banned in India are:

    • TikTok
    • Shareit
    • Kwai
    • UC Browser
    • Baidu map
    • Shein
    • Clash of Kings
    • DU battery saver

    What are the Indian Social Media Apps?

    Some popular Indian social media apps are:

    • Sharechat
    • Koo
    • Chingari
    • Josh
    • Flik
    • Moj
    • Mitron
    • Leher
    • Kutumb

  • Bharat vs India – Which One is More Digitally Savvy?

    Gone are the days when only the English language can be used by social media users to communicate. Thanks to various social media apps and the development of technology, people are now able to use their regional language while handling social media. Communication is possible for everyone and they are able to use the language they prefer without any problem.

    When it comes to India, with a population of over 1.3 Billion people, the country is known for its diversity. As per the constitution of India, it has 22 scheduled languages and in total it has 121 languages.

    Time has changed and the people of India are avid users of the internet, especially social media and they can do this in their native languages. In this article, we will talk about the report that is being released by ShareChat and GroupM called ‘Bharat- The Neo India’ and how businesses can benefit from it.

    “Our native language is like a second skin, so much a part of us we resist the idea that it is constantly changing, constantly being renewed.” -Casey Miller

    Bharat – The Neo India
    Why the Report is Important?
    Bharat vs India: Which One is More Tech Savvy?
    Some Other Facts of Bharat Users
    FAQ

    Bharat – The Neo India

    Bharat – The Neo India is a report comprised of ShareChat and GroupM both of them jointly conducted research to find out about the situation of the people who use the internet in their native language.

    This report will help brands and businesses to understand online behaviour, the trends of internet consumption, and the way people use social media. People who are using Indic languages are called Bharat and people who prefer using the English language are referred to as India.

    Why the Report is Important?

    The report made after the thorough research is important because of the reasons below:

    • This will help the businesses to understand the behaviour of the people who uses the internet in their native language.
    • It will help the businesses to form a proper marketing strategy to grab the attention of Bharat and engage them in their business.
    • It will expose all the common misconceptions regarding the people who prefer the Indic languages while using the internet.

    Bharat vs India: Which One is More Tech Savvy?

    The report stated all the information of internet users of Bharat and India, their media behaviour, choice of content, lifestyle, interest, and others. Some of the findings from the report are stated below.

    Bharat or the people who prefer Indic languages can be found throughout the country, in fact, 39% of them are from the metro cities and 53% are from the non-metro cities. The survey was conducted by YouGov on 3432 people from 17 Indian states who are active internet users who put their input into it.

    Financial Activities

    Bharat users are quite aware and in the same range as the Indian users in terms of completing any financial activities online. In fact, people who prefer Bharat are using online payment mode more than Indian users. 56% of Bharat users complete their monetary transactions through net banking and online debit card transactions.

    Not only that, 49% of them use mobile wallets. Bharat users are quite aware of mutual funds, cryptocurrency, stocks, and other new-age investments and are naturally investing in them as well.

    Social Media

    When it comes to social media, Bharat users seem more occupied with it than Indian users. 29% of Bharat users post daily on social media, instead of 22% of Indian users.  39% Bharat uses Social media for consuming News as its primary source.

    Streaming

    The online video streaming platform is a prime source of entertainment nowadays. Streaming videos are more popular amongst Bharat users than watching TV. 50% of Bharat users love to watch free videos while 47% indulge in watching TV.

    Food

    In the case of ordering food online, 42% of Indian users indulge themselves in it compared to 24% Bharat users.

    When it comes to using the technology of Voice search, 26% of Bharat users seem to use it compared to just 15% of Indian users.

    Online Shopping

    Online shopping by Bharat users has increased and in 2021, 46% of them purchased gadgets online. Apart from that, apparel, beauty products, skincare products, and any kind of booking related to travelling.

    All these findings state, that the native language users are not far away from English language users and are maintaining their digital presence quite well. They are technologically aware and are using different platforms and are enjoy the digitalization of everything.

    Some Other Facts of Bharat Users

    Every one in five-person who uses social media in their preferred Indic language is investing in Cryptocurrency. 27% of Bharat users pay for using video streaming platform services and 37% of them use the internet for listening to music.

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    Conclusion

    The article concludes that an internet user who prefers their native language is not at all far away from English language users. They have adapted themselves and some Bharat users are even more comfortable in using the digital facilities than the Indian users. They are educated and digitally aware.

    As per the report, it seems Bharat is much more Tech-savvy than India. Businesses can now easily form their market strategy and can touch the market that they were not able to in the past.

    FAQ

    What is Bharat – The Neo India?

    The Neo India is a report comprised of ShareChat and GroupM, both of them jointly conducted research to find out about the situation of the people who use the internet in their native language.

    How many languages are there in India?

    India has 121 languages and 22 scheduled languages.

    What is the difference between Bharat and India?

    People who use Indic languages are called Bharat and people who prefer using the English language are referred to as India.

  • ShareChat Business Model | How does ShareChat Make Money

    Technology brought us the Internet and smartphones. Thanks to these two, we have another medium that is not less of a miracle. Social Media is a part of our daily life. It is almost impossible to imagine, not having a social media account at this age.

    Social media gives us an opportunity to connect with people. It doesn’t matter where they live; one could stay connected with each other through social media. Apart from staying connected with people around the world, one can share their thought, insights basically their life on social media. We also get to have different careerists opportunities as well.

    Some of the well-known and most used social networks are Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, and others. They are the mains that have people flocking over them. Apart from that, there are various other social media platforms that are taking the world by storm. Among all of them, one such platform is ShareChat. In this article, we will talk about this app and take a look at its business model and how it makes money. So let’s get right into the business.

    “The great thing about social media was how it gave a voice to voiceless people.”

    -Jon Ronson

    What Is ShareChat?
    About ShareChat
    Features of ShareChat
    Target Audience of ShareChat
    Business Model of ShareChat
    How Does ShareChat Make Money?
    Revenue Of ShareChat
    FAQ

    What Is ShareChat?

    ShareChat is an Indian social networking platform that gives users an option to connect with people and also share videos, pictures, and status in their own language. The features like direct messaging and tagging are also included in this app. The app has over 160 million active users monthly. Ankush Sachdeva is the current CEO of ShareChat.

    About ShareChat

    ShareChat first started its journey in the year 2015 and was founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan, all of them graduated from IIT Kanpur. The social networking site is under Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd. The headquarters is situated in Bengaluru, India. The company has over 400 employees working for it now.

    In the year 2016, ShareChat enabled its users to create user-generated content that is, they got the option to share photos and videos of their own. In the year 2018, it launched some spectacular features for the users of this app, which made it quite a fan favourite.

    Features of ShareChat

    Some of the highlighted features of this app that makes it popular amongst social media users are down below:

    • The best part of this social media is that it allows people to handle their accounts in their own language. 15 different Indian languages are available in this app namely, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Gujarati, Odia, Kannada, Assamese, Haryanvi, Telugu, Tamil, Rajasthani, and Bhojpuri.
    • Apart from sharing your content on the platform, you get to have a private messaging option, where you can send messages to other users of the app and stay connected with them by having one-to-one communication.
    • Another popular feature is tagging, where you can create a tag and can post whatever you may like under them.
    • You can also follow another user in this app and can see their regular updates here whatever they are sharing.
    • It also has a feature to share any content that exists on the social media platform on WhatsApp.

    Target Audience of ShareChat

    ShareChat target audience is not limited to any certain groups but it mostly targets people who want to use social networking platforms in their mother tongue or any regional language. Plus it is also a safe place for the people who are using the internet and indulging in social media for the very first time.

    Business Model of ShareChat

    There are two ways in how content marketing is done on the internet. The first form is one the content is created by the creators of the platform and is only owned by them and the other form is where the users of the platform generate their own contents. This social media platform falls under the second category. All the contents are user-generated here.

    Those contents are shared with the other users. It includes pictures, videos, posts, GIFs, audio, and others. Apart from that you can connect with several people here and can make friends with whom you can share your daily updates and of course can interact with each other. The feature that makes it unique is that all of these can be done in any 15 regional languages that ShareChat provides to its users.

    How Does ShareChat Make Money?

    ShareChat mostly makes money through advertising. It mainly collects the data of the user’s analyses them and of course, stores them. These data are then given to the advertisers so that they can identify their target audience and advertise their products to them.

    Apart from advertising, it also generates revenue through payment transactions and sponsored campaigns. They also tie up with local brands that sell products and services amongst the regional language-focused audiences.

    In 2020 following the tension between India and China, when India banned Chinese apps. TikTok was also banned. ShareChat launched a short video platform named Moj as its parent company, which has the same features as TikTok on 29 June 2020. This app reportedly has 160 million active users monthly and has beaten its several competitors like MX TakaTak and Josh and is considered India’s top short video creation app.

    Revenue Of ShareChat

    The company faced a big loss in the year 2020, approximately ₹676 crores. The year 2021 bought quite good news for the Indian social media as it enters into the Unicorn club after raising a fund of $502 million and its valuation jumps to $2.1 billion. The funding was received from venture firm Lightspeed Ventures, Tiger Global, Twitter, and Snap Inc.

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    Conclusion

    With so many different social media apps launching every day, there will be few that are going to be successful and will be able to entice people to use them. Some new and exclusive features have to be added to capture the attention of the users, ShareChat, the new member of the Unicorn club has been able to do that.

    FAQ

    Is ShareChat a Startup?

    ShareChat is an Indian social media startup.

    Who is the CEO of ShareChat?

    Ankush Sachdeva is the CEO of ShareChat since 2017.

    Is ShareChat Made In India?

    ShareChat is a social media platform that is particularly made in India.

  • Top Media Startups in India in 2021

    India has become the world’s 3rd-largest start-up base, with 3,100 start-ups provisionally rising 2.2 times from here. This exponential rise in startups has allowed startup media to appear. These sites now cover all start-ups, whether it be startup stories or news about recent startups, their founders and so on. Some media startups in India that cover these segments are:

    POPxo
    Wittyfeed
    Pocket Aces
    Arre
    Vokal
    ShareChat
    Play Simple

    POPxo

    Online platform for Indian women everywhere

    POPxo is the largest online community in India for women to read, watch and shop. It’s a safe place for women to lead their best lives- “Take it a POP.” POPxo is designed for the convergence of advertising and commerce from content to private label brand. POPxo posts content in  six languages—English, Hindi, Marathi, Bangladesh, Tamil and Telugu—that attracts more than 39 million visitors per month, spending over 3 million hours on all its platforms. Leading brands focus on this key audience with POPxo.  All this is enabled by data-driven insights into young women’s lives and hearts in India.

    Wittyfeed

    Modern day platform blogging for everyone

    Indeed, WittyFeed, the article and listicle website, is the largest Indian content company today and the second biggest traffic number company in the world. In the short time since the launch of WittyFeed in 2014, they have been a pioneer, excluding worldwide Buzzfeed.  The two founders, Singhal and Vaishnav, have had big success on Facebook as well with 4.2 million followers on the page. “We realized that it was time to monetize the public with this figure. We have also come to the conclusion, with our research and experience, that there is a boggling mind for the number of people in the virtual world, but there is an immense gap in the quality and volume of the content on the offer.”

    Pocket Aces

    Original Material for the millennium

    Pocket Aces from Mumbai produces and distributes original material to the audience of the millennium.  In July Netflix collaborated with the Content Studio of Pocket Aces, Dice Media, to produce worldwide scripted shows beginning with the new Little Things season. As more and more people get access to the internet via their phones, their taste is evolving. Right now, there are so many creators who are doing sexist, disability content…its old school, cheap humor. So all focus is on fresh content for the new generation.

    Arre

    It offers content in film, audio, text, and doodles, spanning diverse genres

    Arre is open OTT, which was launched in October 2015, and provides original content both on its own website (arre.co.in & Arre apps & social channels), as well as on 20 platforms. It offers content in film, audio, text and doodles, spanning diverse genres such as fiction, factual entertainment, documentary, social exploration and much more.

    Vokal

    Where India shares knowledge

    For Indian non-English Internet users, Vokal is a peer-to-peer information and opinion-sharing site. Currently, the Bengaluru-based company offers Hindi content and plans to start in several languages. Vokal also has a live video streaming feature and reports that its platform contains more than 300K questions. There are more than a thousand questions on specific subjects every day.

    ShareChat

    Sharechat is an Indian social media and social networking service, based in Bangalore, India.

    Sharechat, a social channel of regional language, saw its valuation shoot seven times last year (2018) in the fundraising round of $100 million (InR 720 cr). Daily active users have increased from five minutes in April-May to eight minutes in September in the Bengaluru business. Sharechat would like to go deeper into micro-markets, including north-east India, before it starts focusing on the monetization of its service through ads, marketing and in-app purchases next year.

    Play Simple

    Gaming Platform for Indian mobile games market

    A few years after raising $3.8 million from the most significant venture capital funds, SAIF partners and Chiratae Ventures, mobile game platform PlaySimple looks forward to making most of 2019. (formerly known as IDG Ventures India). Siddharth Jain and his Zynga, colleagues Suraj Nalin and Preeti Reddy and Siddhanth Jain software engineer, created the Bengaluru-based startup. Estimates indicate that the Indian mobile games market is expected to amount to $1.1 billion by 2020, and there will be 628 million users at that time.

    Conclusion

    These startup’s are paving the way for all the emerging startups entering in the Indian Market. Start-ups emerged as this country’s growth engine, funded by risk entrepreneurs who spent resources on India in recent years and founders who spent money recruiting employees in crowds. In order to capitalize on the demographic gain, India needs to generate 10 million jobs per year. For the country’s future growth, entrepreneurs are important. It will be a mission-critical endeavor, in order to deliver the promised troika for food, clothing and shelters, to foster the spirit of creativity and to build the skills that support entrepreneurship among our young population.

    FAQs

    What is a media startup?

    A startup that acts as a media for startups is known as a media startup. These sites cover all start-ups, whether it be startup stories or news about recent startups, their founders and so on.

    What are some media startup platforms in India?

    Some upcoming media platforms in India are:

    • POPxo
    • Wittyfeed
    • Pocket Aces
    • Arre
    • Vokal
    • ShareChat
    • Play Simple

    Is StartupTalky a media startup?

    StartupTalky is a News and media startup.

  • Helo App – A Chinese App that is Letting Millions of Indians Enjoy Content in Their Own Regional Language!

    Helo app is a Chinese social media platform, where besides English, content is also available in 14 other Indian regional languages. Zhang Yiming founded the Helo App in the year 2018.

    People all over the world are spending more and more time on their smartphones, as revealed by a survey carried on by Cybermedia Research (CMR) and smartphone brand Vivo, an average Indian spends one-third of his waking hours on a phone, which amounts to 1800 hours a year. Again as reported by Statista, in February 2020, there are more than 3 billion smartphone users worldwide, while China, India, and the USA have the highest number of smartphone users.

    With the growing prominence of smartphones in our day to day lives, many app development companies are coming up with interesting apps to entice the smartphone using population. Speaking of the Indian app market, many Chinese apps gained popularity among the Indian users, and one such app is Helo. Developed by ‘ByteDance’, the makers of TikTok,

    While currently due to the charges raised against China as regards COVID 19, an increasing number of people are uninstalling Chinese apps including Helo, but since its launch in 2018, it has been downloaded by millions of users, thus making Helo app one of the top downloaded apps in India. Here are some interesting facts and figures about Helo – India’s coolest social app!

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    Helo App – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Helo App
    Headquarter Beijing (China)
    Founder Zhang Yiming
    Founded 2018
    Sector Mobile Application
    Parent Organization ByteDance
    Website helo-app.com

    About Helo App
    Helo App – Country/Headquarters
    Helo App – Founder
    Helo App – Funding & Investors
    Helo App – Competitors
    Helo App – Growth
    Helo App – Future Plans
    Helo App – Latest News
    Helo App – FAQs

    About Helo App

    Helo app showcases itself as India’s coolest social media app and has indeed come up with cool features to keep its users engaged. Once you are on the app, you can scroll through interesting content shared by other Helo app users; share your content which can be in the form of text, photo, video, and poll; follow your favorite celebrities who are present on the platform (from Bollywood stars to popular singers and comedians, there are many known personalities on the platform); you can download the content posted on the platform, and also chat with your friends who are on the Helo app.

    The best part is the Helo app, besides entertaining you, also allows you to earn some money, and there are many ways to make money on the Helo app. You can earn money by referring it your friends, posting content, and even watching videos. Again with the huge number of users available on the platform, the Helo app is a great platform to market your products as well.

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    Helo App – Country/Headquarters

    Helo App is based out of China. Its headquarters is in Beijing, China.

    This social app is a Chinese variant of Sharechat (an Indian local app). Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance in 2012, and Helo is a platform developed by ByteDance.

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    Helo App – Founder

    Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance in 2012, and Helo is a platform developed by ByteDance. Other platforms developed by ByteDance are TikTok, Toutiao, TopBuzz, and Vigo Video. Toutiao is very similar to the Helo app and is quite popular in China. ByteDance is valued at $75 Billion.

    ByteDance Founder Zhang Yiming
    ByteDance Founder Zhang Yiming

    A software engineer by education, Helo app founder Zhang Yiming worked with Kuxun (a travel website), and later for Microsoft. In 2009, Zhang Yiming, started his first entrepreneurial venture 99fang.com, which is an online real estate search platform. Yiming is presently 37 years old.

    Helo App – Funding & Investors

    Helo app’s parent company ByteDance has raised total funding worth $7.4 billion in 9 rounds. ByteDance is also considering a public listing of its shares that may value the company $150 billion and $180 billion. However, as per recent reports, with a sufficient amount of cash in hand, ByteDance is in no hurry to launch an IPO.

    Helo App – Competitors

    India’s very own social sharing app ShareChat is the major competitor of Helo. Helo was initially just the clone of ShareChat and was even taken to court for copying its design and thus violating copyrights. ShareChat later had to change its design to save itself legal proceedings. It claims to have over 60 million monthly active users. In 2019, SharChat also acquired video startup ‘Clip’ to strengthen its fight against ByteDance.

    Interestingly, ByteDance was in talk with ShareChat and wished to invest in it, but later things took a new turn when it decided to compete with ShareChat by launching Helo.

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    Helo App – Growth

    Owing to the availability of content in regional languages, Chinese app Helo is gaining much popularity even in Tier II and Tier III cities of India. As reported, in July 2019, Helo had over 50 million monthly active users (MAUs). Helo app is among the most downloaded apps of Google Play store and had 1 million downloads just within one month of its launch in 2018, and is also one of the top downloaded apps on the App Store.

    Again, besides India, the Helo app also has been made available for download in the US, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Bangladesh to serve Indians in these locations. As claimed by the company in June 2019, users spend an average of 30 minutes on the Helo app, and 85% of the content on the platform is user-generated.

    Helo App – Future Plans

    Helo is a Chinese app and is chasing a target of garnering 100 million users on the platform. To achieve the goal, Helo is trying different techniques to catch the fancy of users and content creators. From free traffic boost to staff support, and Helo live streaming to Helo Analytics, it is providing good opportunities to eligible content creators to increase their followers. It has also started a ‘Helo Stars’ incubation program, whereby it is supporting 100 content creators to reach one million followers.

    Helo App – Latest News

    As per the notification received by The Ministry of Information Technology on Ban of 59 Chinese Apps, one among them is Helo App. Predominantly, India served as the target market for Helo App with over 50 million Indian users and more than 10.8 Million installs over its existence.

    The Helo app ban is going to affect the net worth of ByteDance by a lot! As per the reports generated by Global Times, ByteDance (Parent Company of Helo app and many other chinese apps) is going to face a loss of close to $6 Billion. With its exhaustive investment around $1 Billion in Indian Market, ByteDance is certainly looking up for significant downfall in coming days unless they can get helo app back in India soon.

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    Helo App – FAQs

    Helo App is from which Country?

    Helo app is a social networking app launched by a leading company from China, Bytedance. This social app is a Chinese variant of Sharechat (an Indian local app).

    Who is the Founder of Helo App?

    Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance in 2012, and Helo is a platform developed by ByteDance.

    What are the Top Alternatives to Helo App in India?

    ShareChat, Roposo, Chingari are alternatives to the Helo App in India.

    Who is Helo App’s parent company?

    ByteDance is the parent company of Helo App.

    Is Help app banned in India?

    Yes, unfortunately The Ministry of Information Technology has banned Helo App along with 59 other Chinese Apps in India.