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New Delhi, As global layoffs deepen, Indian startups are not far behind and have sacked thousands of employees in the past 3-4 months, with many more to be given pink slips in the coming months amid deepening funding winter. In <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>, more than 21,000 employees have been laid off by more than 70 startups to day, including from unicorns like BYJU'S, <keyword id="6354720" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="ola" source="Orion">Ola</keyword>, MPL, Innovaccer, Unacademy, Vedantu, Cars24, <keyword id="2808667" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="oyo" source="Orion">OYO</keyword>, Meesho, Udaan and many more. The edtech sector has laid off the most employees, with 16 edtech startups laying off more than 8,000 employees to date. With the onset of January, more and more Indian companies are slashing jobs across the spectrum. The new year has already seen more than 16 homegrown startups sack employees in the country. Social media company <keyword id="3358959" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="sharechat" source="Orion">ShareChat</keyword> (Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd) has laid off 20 per cent of its workforce due to uncertain market conditions. Backed by Twitter, Google, Snap and <keyword id="526777" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="tiger-global" source="Orion">Tiger Global</keyword>, ShareChat has about 2,300 employees, and the layoff impacted about 500 people at the company, Healthtech unicorn Innovaccer has sacked nearly 245 employees, or about 15 per cent of its workforce, across teams in India and the US. Innovaccer cofounder and CEO Abhinav Shashank cited an "uncertain macroeconomic environment" as the reason behind the job cuts, according to an internal mail sent to employees and accessed by leading startup news portal Inc42. This was the second layoff at the company in around 4-5 months' time amid the deepening funding winter and recession fears. In September last year, Innovaccer laid off nearly 120 employees, or less than 8 per cent of its workforce. Online food delivery platform <keyword id="6358977" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="swiggy" source="Orion">Swiggy</keyword> confirmed that the company is laying off 380 employees as food delivery growth slows. MediBuddy, an end-to-end digital healthcare platform in India, has laid off 8 per cent of its workforce, around 200 people, across all departments as a restructuring exercise. Homegrown online vehicle repair platform GoMechanic, backed by <keyword id="563136" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sequoia-india" source="Orion">Sequoia India</keyword>, has laid off 70 per cent of its workforce as the startup struggles to raise funds amid serious concerns of accounting troubles. The company has asked the remaining staff to work without pay for three months, according to reports. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) voice automation startup Skit.ai has asked more than 115 employees to go, mostly from its India team, as part of the "restructuring process" amid the deepening funding winter. Even IT giant <keyword id="10862" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="wipro" source="Orion">Wipro</keyword> has laid off more than 400 fresher employees for poor performance in internal assessment tests. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/budgeting-for-climate-change/articleshow/97378027.cms">Budgeting for the fifth C</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/an-app-that-wants-to-turn-fear-of-stock-markets-into-fun-raises-75-lakh-from-sharks/articleshow/97378121.cms">An app that wants to turn fear of stock markets into fun raises ₹75 lakh from sharks</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/steps-taken-in-subsidence-hit-joshimath-inadequate-declare-himalayas-eco-sensitive-zone-say-experts/articleshow/97411665.cms">Steps taken in subsidence-hit Joshimath inadequate, declare Himalayas eco-sensitive zone, say experts</a>

70-plus Indian startups show exit door to 21K techies, more pink slips coming

<ul><li>The combined short video platform will have over 300M MAUs and 100M strong creator community.</li><li><keyword id="11984975" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="mx-media" source="Orion">MX Media</keyword> and its shareholders will become strategic shareholders of <keyword id="3358959" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="sharechat" source="Orion">ShareChat</keyword>.</li></ul>MX Media Co. Ltd, the parent company of <keyword id="9555198" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="mx-takatak" source="Orion">MX TakaTak</keyword>, and ShareChat, the parent company of <keyword id="8678883" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="moj" source="Orion">Moj</keyword>, today announced a strategic merger between Moj and MX <keyword id="7638068" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="takatak" source="Orion">TakaTak</keyword>, to create the largest short video platform for Indians, whereby the two platforms will now be controlled by ShareChat. The combined platform will have 100 million creators, over 300 million Monthly Active Users (MAU), and nearly 250 billion monthly video views. Post this transaction, MX Media and its shareholders will become strategic shareholders of ShareChat. Since its launch in July 2020, Moj has emerged as the largest Indian short video app, with over 160 million MAUs and over 50 million creator communities in the 15 Indian languages. The company has been investing heavily in social and live commerce and growing its AI/ML team which is now over 100 people strong and spread across the US, Europe, and India. MX TakaTak was launched in July 2020 and reached 150 million MAUs, across 10 languages. The platform’s deep access to content talent and understanding of the MX Media ecosystem user base has seen this high growth in a short span of time. MX TakaTak will continue to function as a separate platform for now, but the two platforms’ creator base, content supply and recommendation algorithms will be integrated. In the coming months, the experience of users and creators will converge enabling creators from both platforms to reach the most extensive set of audiences in India. This will provide users access to unique features including best-in-class camera creation tools with Snap filters, live commerce, and a vast music library. Commenting on the merger, Ankush Sachdeva, CEO and Cofounder, ShareChat &amp; Moj, said, “We at ShareChat are building India’s largest content ecosystem which has been on an unprecedented growth trajectory. MX TakaTak is a popular platform and this merger further solidifies our position in the short video ecosystem. With this development, we aim to build the largest original content platform on Moj along with the largest community of users across India.” Commenting on the partnership, Karan Bedi, CEO MX Media said, “I am excited to announce the strategic merger of India’s two most popular social media platforms. As India's largest digital entertainment platform, MX has always strived to build superior world class products, and TakaTak is no exception. This combined with Moj’s AI and execution capabilities makes the combined business a truly world class short video platform. MX has created two ‘unicorns’ within one business, unlocking significant value for our shareholders, and will now continue to double down on OTT, with significantly increased financial resources.”

ShareChat and MX Media announce a strategic merger of Moj and MX TakaTak

<ul><li>India’s home-grown social network ShareChat is looking for its next round of investment, and Google may reportedly shell out $150 million to $200 million. </li><li>Even <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword> has expressed its interest in ShareChat while chasing <keyword id="6762469" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="TikTok">TikTok</keyword>’s operations in the US. </li><li>Here’s why analysts think it makes sense that Google is looking to ShareChat in order to fill the gaps in its portfolio. </li></ul>Global tech giants are on the hunt for the next big social network. Facebook has rolled out Instagram Reels and Microsoft is looking to get its hands on the real deal by acquiring TikTok’s US business. Meanwhile, in India, Google is trying to finally get a piece of pie by investing in the country’s home-grown social networking platform, ShareChat. Neither Google nor ShareChat have commented on the <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/google-in-talks-with-sharechat-as-latter-scouts-for-150-200-million/articleshow/77582440.cms">Economic Times</a> article, which claims that the companies are in the preliminary stages of negotiating an investment between $150 to $200 million. Nonetheless, analysts believe that Google’s interest in the local-language network will fill in the missing pieces it has in its portfolio. “It’s very well possible that ShareChat will eventually get rebranded as something else for global markets,” founder and CEO of Greyhound Research, Sanchit Vir Gogia told Business Insider. What is ShareChat? ShareChat is a social networking platform, which, within itself, has a TikTok alternative — called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/sharechats-tiktok-rival-moj-crosses-5mn-downloads-on-google-play/articleshow/76811384.cms">Moj</a> — that has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/sharechat-rides-on-the-ban-on-apps-from-china-with-15-million-downloads-in-36-hours-but-is-itself-backed-by-chinese-investors/articleshow/76728139.cms">gained traction</a> since the ban on Chinese apps was announced in India. “This will enable Google to have a shot at its social networking ambitions but as of now, we see it as a strategic investment if it happens,” said counterpoint analyst Tarun Pathak. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="77062280" title="Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Sharechat see substantial increase in time-spent after the ban on Chinese apps: Kantar" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> The investment would not just give Google an opportunity to make headway in the social networking game, but also allow it to leverage ShareChat’s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/users-created-over-100-mn-pieces-of-hindi-content-in-2019-sharechat/articleshow/72965102.cms">vernacular content</a>. It already lost out to Facebook in the west. ShareChat could provide the tech company its second coming. The Indian social network is currently the fastest growing local language social media platform in India with support for 14 Indian languages and more than 60 million active users. It’s one of the reasons that even Microsoft is <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/current/corporate/microsoft-in-prelim-talks-with-sharechat-indian-app-for-100-million-dollars-investment/story/412337.html">reportedly</a> looking to buy it even though it already has a monopoly in the professional networking space with LinkedIn. For ShareChat, an investment from Google would mean an investment by the ‘king of search engine optimisation’ (SEO), he explained. Brands pump in money where searchability is best — the more searchable a platform’s content is, the more likely it is to go viral. TikTok set the tone for social networks to travel from East to West The success of TikTok is only one case study on how the next big global social network won’t start out in the US or Europe but in Asia. But an app that’s popular in India will have a lot of users while being unable to general a lot of money. Indian users are diverse but they don’t like to spend online. “India is not a very high revenue market right now but it is a great testbed market from features, functionality and languages perspective,” said Gogia. Even with TikTok, one-third of its users were from India but the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/tiktok-made-more-money-than-any-other-app-in-july-despite-losing-its-largest-overseas-market/articleshow/77369131.cms">majority of its revenue was still from China.</a> Test local, make money global Many companies like Microsoft and Google already test drive their products in India and other countries before taking them to the US. According to Gogia, Google’s interest in ShareChat could very well be an attempt to drive innovation from a low-risk country and take it across broader global networks. If you look at it from Google’s point of view, it will be able to use the abundance of data to train its algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) models in a very big way. “These models can then be taken into other countries from a monetisation perspective,” explained Gogia. Investing in ShareChat fits in perfectly with Google wanting a piece of the pie in India’s rising digital adoption. “This will give them rich insights on how the next half a billion first time internet users will embrace the internet and help in tweaking their services accordingly and not to forget the indirect benefits to their core advertisement segment,” said Pathak. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/the-heat-is-on-mark-zuckerberg-in-india-as-facebook-and-whatsapp-incur-the-ire-of-modis-rivals/articleshow/77575358.cms">The heat is on Mark Zuckerberg in India as Facebook and WhatsApp incur the ire of Modi's rivals</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/not-only-gmail-google-drive-meet-slides-docs-sites-groups-chat-keep-voice-services-also-facing-issue-as-per-google/articleshow/77652103.cms">Google Drive, Docs, Meet and others are working again after being out of service for over six hours</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/microsoft-is-ending-support-for-the-legacy-internet-explorer-but-its-only-going-to-affect-less-than-5-of-online-users/articleshow/77607727.cms">Microsoft is ending support for the legacy Internet Explorer — but it's only going to affect less than 5% of online users</a>

Google eyes India’s ShareChat as Microsoft goes after TikTok in the US — here’s why it makes sense

With more than 58 million <keyword id="1600866" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Installs">installs</keyword> in March, TikTok became the most downloaded non-gaming <keyword id="235499" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="APP">app</keyword> worldwide last month, said a new report. TikTok was followed by Facebook which became the second most installed non-gaming app worldwide for March with more than 56 million installs, showed the data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower. Instagram, WhatsApp and <keyword id="176655" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="messenger">Messenger</keyword> - all of which are part of the Facebook family of apps - rounded out the top five most installed non-gaming apps worldwide for the month. The countries with the largest number of TikTok installs were from Douyin in China at 11 per cent, followed by the US at 10 per cent, Sensor Tower said. The countries with the largest number of Facebook installs were from <keyword id="3658" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="India">India</keyword> at 25 per cent, followed by the US at 8 per cent. The other apps which made it to the top 10 in the overall list include <keyword id="6358096" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="snapchat">Snapchat</keyword>, Josh, Zoom, Telegram and CapCut. However, the data showed that Facebook retained the top position in terms of downloads from Google Play Store. <keyword id="3358959" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShareChat">ShareChat</keyword>'s short video platform <keyword id="8678883" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="moj">Moj</keyword> also made it to the top 10 list of most downloaded non-gaming apps worldwide from Google Play Store for March, according to Sensor Tower. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/aadhaar-pan-and-bank-account-numbers-leaked-in-upstox-data-breach/articleshow/82025949.cms">Discount broker Upstox suffers data breach – Aadhaar, PAN and bank account numbers leaked</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/environment/news/how-ash-from-st-vincents-volcano-is-covering-the-caribbeans-largest-island-nation/slidelist/82025420.cms">Devastating images show how ash from St Vincent’s volcano is covering the Caribbean's largest island nation</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/lg-wing-gets-a-40000-price-cut-a-week-after-the-company-shuts-its-smartphone-business/articleshow/82027401.cms">LG Wing gets a ₹40,000 price cut a week after the company shuts its smartphone business</a>

TikTok scores 58 million installs to maintain its lead as the most downloaded non-gaming app for a second month in a row in March

Home-grown regional language social media platform <keyword id="3358959" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShareChat">ShareChat</keyword> on Wednesday announced that it had to let go of 101 of its employees, or about a fourth of the company's total workforce, due to the COVID-19-induced uncertainties in the advertising market. The Bengaluru-based company's cost-saving measures were announced in an email to employees by Ankush Sachdeva, Cofounder and CEO of the five-year-old firm which competes against the likes of Facebook and TikTok. "... today with the market uncertainties due to COVID-19, we are compelled to take a relook at our business. We have had to make a few decisions that would allow us to become leaner and position the company better for the future," Sachdeva said in the email. A ShareChat spokesperson later confirmed the decision to lay off 101 employees. "The global pandemic along with various local market uncertainties have had an impact on our business plans. This has pushed us towards certain tough decisions including a revised leaner structure while we continue to grow," the spokesperson said in a statement. "We've had to let go of 101 of our employees who've been part of our start-up journey. This was not an easy decision to make." ShareChat said it will provide a comprehensive severance package and extend assistance to the impacted associates with their outplacement support. The Twitter-backed firm started monetisation through advertisements only last year. But the COVID-19 brought uncertainties to the ad market. "We have to focus on our core product and feed recommendation driven growth levers while scaling back on the others. We need to go back to our fundamentals in terms of only picking bets that move the needle for growth," Sachdeva said. "We believe the Ad Market would remain unpredictable this year. We are streamlining our revenue teams to these new expectations yet will keep working towards building the necessary technology infrastructure," he said. In another big change, which is in line with Twitter's decision to allow some employees to work from home forever, ShareChat said that it would be partially remote at all times in the future. "We have adapted well to the remote working environment. Hence, we have relooked at the requirement of physical office spaces. We would be partially remote at all times in the future," Sachdeva said in the email. ShareChat, which has over 60 million monthly active users, raised $100 million in a new round of funding in last August. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/ms-dhoni-backed-khatabook-adds-to-its-line-up-of-star-investors-sequoia-and-tencent-get-more-stake-in-indias-largest-small-business-app/articleshow/75842295.cms">MS Dhoni-backed Khatabook adds to its line-up of star investors ⁠— Sequoia and Tencent get more stake in India's largest small business app</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/faisal-siddiquis-tiktok-acid-attack-video-is-adding-to-the-growing-list-of-problems-for-the-platform-in-india/articleshow/75800571.cms">Faizal Siddiqui’s TikTok acid attack video is adding to the growing list of problems for the platform in India</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/tiktok-gogole-play-ratings-fall-to-1-3-stars-after-4-million-comments/articleshow/75842653.cms">Tiktok got 4 million comments on Google Play Store dragging down its rating to 1.3⁠ — but it may not disappear yet</a>

ShareChat sacks 101 employees due to  'market uncertainties' amid COVID-19

<ul><li>The camera kit is an end-to-end solution to include <keyword id="24754" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="snap">Snap</keyword>’s AR platform into apps.</li><li>With the partnership, <keyword id="8678883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="moj">Moj</keyword> will be releasing 30 lenses for creators to use, and will further build 400 more lenses in collaboration with Snap.</li><li>Moj has over 80 million users in India.</li></ul><keyword id="6358096" type="DEFINITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="snapchat">Snapchat</keyword>’s parent company Snap Inc has partnered with Moj, the short video platform by <keyword id="3358959" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShareChat">Sharechat</keyword>, to integrate its camera kit. The camera kit is an end-to-end solution to include Snap’s AR platform into apps. Several global video apps have already partnered with Snap for its camera kit. With the partnership, Moj will be releasing 30 lenses for creators to use, and will further build 400 more lenses in collaboration with Snap. Snapchat users will also be able to access the lenses created by Moj. “This exclusive partnership makes us the first Indian short video platform to bring Snap’s innovative Camera Kit technology to India. The newly launched collection of 30 Lenses will give our community a never seen before social experience and make content creation on Moj a whole lot more fun. We are supremely excited about this collaboration and look forward to our creators making magic with these advanced Lenses and their original ideas,” said Gaurav Mishra, SVP-Product, ShareChat. Interestingly, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/04/google-and-snap-in-talks-to-invest-in-india-social-network-sharechat/">reports </a>also said that Snap was in talks with Sharechat for an investment. “The Moj community and Snapchatters have a lot in common - they are creative and love finding innovative ways to express themselves. Our Camera technology and core values around creativity, privacy, and ephemerality enables us to help developers bring new opportunities to bring engaging experiences to their platforms and communities,” said Ben Schwerin, SVP - Content and Partnerships, Snap Inc. in a statement. In early July, Sharechat had launched Moj – its rival product to TikTok, right after the Chinese app was banned by the Indian government. Since then, Moj has ramped up its offerings as it looks to tap into the millions of users left behind by the ByteDance giant TikTok. The app now has over 80 million users. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/what-happens-if-the-government-bans-cryptocurrencies-should-i-sell-bitcoin-checkout-experts-views/articleshow/80782941.cms">“Should I sell my cryptocurrencies?” and other questions answered on India’s proposed Crypto Ban bill</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/india-is-considering-four-day-work-weeks-but-with-longer-hours/articleshow/80763247.cms">India is considering four-day work weeks but with longer shifts</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/what-is-facial-recognition-technology-and-how-india-is-using-it-to-track-down-protestors-and-individuals/articleshow/80782606.cms">India is ramping up the use of facial recognition to track down individuals without any laws to keep track of how this technology is being used</a>

Snap chooses Sharechat’s Moj to launch its camera kit in India

<ul><li>Speaking at the Business Insider Global Trends Festival 2020, <keyword id="866223" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kavin-Mittal">Kavin Mittal</keyword> of <keyword id="44033" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="hike">Hike</keyword> said <keyword id="6354632" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-media">social media</keyword> companies grow at the back of the customer data. “Your data, my data – but where’s my cut?” he said. </li><li>The average <keyword id="6262601" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="indian-social-media">Indian social media</keyword> user spends 17 hours on platforms every week and consumes over 8.3 gigabytes of data. </li><li>The next big money from social media will come from ads, micropayments and commerce.</li></ul>India is one of the world's biggest markets for social media. But India's homegrown social media startup Hike's founder Kavin Mittal has a question that he believes can change the way we look at social media in the country – what happens when the customers ask for their cut from these platforms for using their data? According to McKinsey's report, the average Indian social media user spends 17 hours on platforms every week and consumes over 8.3 gigabytes of data – that's higher than the average data usage in the US or China. And this enormous data and user numbers, which is only set to get higher (India's total internet users could cross 800 million by 2023), has got social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, setting up shop in India, and feeding on the data produced in India. Speaking at the Business Insider Global Trends Festival 2020, Mittal said, "It's fascinating to see all these social media companies grow at the back of the customer data. Your data, my data – but where's my cut? Customers being the owner of their own data – this is going to be a radical transformation, especially in a market like India." Mittal believes that is the next big leg of monetisation of social media in India, which has so far been riding on ad revenues. The next big money from social media – ads, micropayments and commerce There’s been a lot spoken about the next big wave of social media and the power of revenue it will bring with it. However, even with the millions of new users coming in, Mittal believes that the cost per thousand is still very low in India and so micropayments or small transactions made by users online will be another thought that drives monetization. However, <keyword id="3395480" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Farid-Ahsan">Farid Ahsan</keyword>, founder of <keyword id="3358959" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShareChat">Sharechat</keyword>, one of India’s largest home grown platforms, still swears by the ad revenue model. “We are not against any sort of monetisation in a low ARPU economy like India. It's important that you are able to build revenue in a way that it's a win-win for everyone whether it's the brand, platform or the user,” said Ahsan. Ahsan believes that the combination of ads and micropayments will lead to a commerce-driven economy. The idea of clubbing ads, micropayments and commerce has also seen the rise of the social commerce vertical in India with homegrown players like Meesho (backed by Facebook), having rapidly made a mark in India. “All of these platforms will eventually become communities with their own economies where there are creators, brands, and consumers. That’s honestly how a platform should be defined – the net GMV of a platform is much larger than what the platform can actually monetize,” he said. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/uber-bus-pradeep-parameswaran-says-india-and-apac-will-follow-egypt-success/articleshow/78788982.cms">EXCLUSIVE: Uber Bus in India soon? Head of Mobility in APAC says he is ready to import the Egypt experiment</a>

‘Where’s my cut?’ the question that can revolutionise social media

<ul><li>ShareChat has raised a total of $224 million, with the latest Series D funding of $100 million from Twitter</li><li>The platform is now looking at starting its monetization journey and is reaching out to brands that could advertise on its platform</li><li>The platform’s aim is to get every Indian on to the internet, to a social network of its choice where they can converse in a language they are comfortable in</li></ul>It’s been four years since ShareChat, India’s homegrown regional social networking platform came into being. The platform came into the limelight after it raised $100 million funding in Series-D from Twitter, bringing the total raised in funding to $224 million. The company that was founded in 2015 by CEO Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan, currently has a strong user base of 60 million. It hasn’t been making any money till now, because according to Sunil Kamat, Chief Business Officer, ShareChat, the platform was in the growth-hack mode. As the platform is now starting its monetization journey, it is not only reaching out to brands to partner with them but also planning a major hiring spree. It plans to expand its team from its current strength of 250 to 400 within the next three to four months. While they haven’t put a target figure to where they want to be in the next few years, Kamath shares that for them, the priority is to get more and more people onto the internet and present them with a platform where they are comfortable conversing and sharing their opinions. Edited excerpts: Q) It’s been four years since ShareChat started its journey. How has it been so far? We came into being four years ago, before the data revolution happened. Our journey has been pretty impactful till now. Our co-founders saw a gap in the social media landscape early on and saw a large opportunity for a regional social platform, and that’s where it all began. It's good to be early in the space and we are glad to be at the forefront of change because a lot of people are now trying to mimic our platform. It's a good feeling. Q) How big is the team right now, and how do you plan to scale it up? We will be hiring a lot of talent for the company across various units. Our strength is currently at 250, which we plan to scale up to 400 in the next four months. Q) You say you aren’t chasing targets right now. What are you in it for then? One thing that India has been missing is the ability to get everybody on board. For us, it’s about getting every Indian user to be on a social network of his choice and to make him comfortable with his language. What motivates us is the thought of bringing every Indian user to the Internet and thereby help improve his quality of life over a period of time. Q) What has your revenue model been so far? Our revenue model will be ad-based. Till now, we have been completely focused on growth. However, we are not in this for the short-tem. Our aim is to become one of the largest social networks in India, which means we will be heavily acquisition-based. Now that we have acquired users, it's good to open up to partners, to reach the audience. It's good for our audience too, as they have brands coming on board that they can interact with brands. We will end up building our own journey because it's always been that way for us. We never had parallel system to look up to. But people tend to replicate ShareChat’s journey which is overwhelming. Q) While you’ve been in existence for four years, you haven’t spoken about the platform too much. How have you been reaching out to your audience? Our audience belongs to the Tier II, III and IV markets, so we come up with a lot of regional communication. It's about who you want to communicate to. If I wanted to attract the investor community, I would talk to the mainline media. We are doing a lot of work in the regional side; we work with a network where we get access to regional print, television. However, now that we are starting to monetize the platform, you will see a lot more of us. We were in this growth hack mode all these years and didn’t have too much to talk about. We were just putting our heads together, getting the product fitment right, the initial engagement metrics in place and then scaling up with the acquisition of consumers and audience retention. That journey continues. Now we are aiming at accelerating the reach for the platform, getting people to know about ShareChat and build monetization opportunities for the platform, to see how we can get brands to engage with audiences because it’s a fairly new audience for them as well. Q) You have seen good growth in terms of your consumer base. What have you done right? As a platform, we are very data and insights driven. Since we are a User Generated Content platform, our consumers create content for other users to consume. So, a lot of our learning comes from our users. We see people behaving in a certain manner and modify our platform according to the needs of our consumers. We have a comment section on the platform where we observed people started asking for each other’s numbers and other details. Seeing this, we enabled a chat feature. We also observe the kind of content people are consuming on the platform. Sometimes, a nicely edited content might necessarily not do as well as another piece of normal content that people connect better with. So, these are the insights which we pick up. We unlearn and learn again and that's what keeps us going. Q) Going ahead, what will be your marketing strategy? A lot of our marketing will be focused on driving engagement for consumer on content. We will focus on encouraging consumers to use our camera feature. On the other side, we want to build monetization through brands and marketing channels. Q) Have you seen a lot of interest from marketers? We are still at a very early stage because we are just starting that journey now. I have met top FMCG brands and had amazing conversations. They are the ones who are giving us ideas about how they can use the platform. This is probably the first time that brands will have the ability to put up ads in 14-15 languages on a single platform. It's a challenge and an opportunity at the same time because I don't think digital agencies are equipped to run campaigns in more than a few languages. Q) Are you planning to expand to more languages? As a country, we have 22 official languages. We would love to evaluate a language on the basis of what it brings to the table, whether there’s a significant upside of that language. We have also done dialects like Rajasthani, Haryanvi and Bhojpuri because we are a very visual platform in terms of content. We recently brought in Urdu too. We are currently building a team of people who would be well-versed in these languages too, to be able to help consumers. We have teams for various languages and each of them has learning of their own language. What works in 'A' might not work in 'B' but could work in 'C'. So, they work independently, but there is a lot of common understanding of engaging content. Q) With this new round of funding coming in, what will your key focus areas be? The new round of funding hasn’t changed things much at our end. It's more of a financial transaction at this stage but with every round you raise, you become more responsible, towards your shareholders, and investors. So, we really have to make sure that we have very good stories.

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