Made In India, Made For India

In 2014, when the wave of “Boycott Chinese Products” in India emerged, it revolutionised the “Make In India” movement, which PM Modi launched on 25th September 2014. The moment was the by-product of rising border tension between India and China when Chinese troops entered Indian territory unlawfully and raised security concerns for India. In 2020, India took a pivotal step against Chinese applications due to national security concerns and banned 59 apps of Chinese origins under Section 69A. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology stated that the ban on Chinese apps  was necessary to safeguard India’s “sovereignty and integrity.”  

From TikTok to Pub-G, ShareIt, WeChat, Clash of Kings, and many more Chinese apps were banned by the Government Of India, which put a halt on the entertainment source of people. This led people to look for alternatives to continue their source of entertainment; one app that became the centre of attraction in those few days was “ShareChat.” Backed by the “Make In India” concept, ShareChat is a one-stop social media platform allowing people to search regional content on their smartphone devices. Presently, the app has over 350 million monthly active users across 15 vernacular languages and has been downloaded over 21 million times. 

An Alternative Souce Of Entertainment To Chinese Apps

When anti-Chinese sentiments were on the rise, ShareChat emerged as the alternative entertainment platform that kept people galvanised. Owned by Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd and founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Afsan in January 2015, ShareChat was set up as a social networking platform to cater to the Indian audience. The app doesn’t have English UI and has 14 Indian regional languages available for Indian users, including Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Bengali, Kannada, Assamese, Rajasthani, Haryanvi, and Bhojpuri. The platform provides its users with multiple vernacular contents across different categories health tips, weight loss, homemade remedies, religious quotes, dictionaries, etc. 

The app allows its users to create, discover, and share content. Additionally, users can follow other users regardless of whether they’re content creators, friends, or any person of interest and track regular updates. In 2018, the platform launched a few exciting features under ShareChat Talkies, such as anonymous chat options, direct messaging, etc. The newly launched features in the app include:

• Private Messaging – Designed for users to go for one-to-one communication in the versatile Indian languages. 
• Shake-N-Chat – Allows people to randomly connects with two or more users engaging with content from similar genres over a personal chat. 
• Open Tagging – Allows users to make tags and post vital content under particular user-generated tags. 

The Rising Growth Phase

Within a few months of launch, the app soon emerged as a big hit and registered 1 lakh downloads within three months. Due to this, ShareChat received Rs. 50 lakh funding from India Quotient. In 2016, the founder switched to User Generated Content (UGC) for ShareChat. The next growth phase started in 2019 when the Government of India banned Chinese Apps. The pandemic made things difficult for startups in India, but it was a boon for ShareChat. The uncertain times helped ShareChat raise its users count from 60 million to 160 million. Such a flabbergasting growth impressed Google, due to which the search engine giant offered ShareChat $1 Billion to acquire the company, but the founders of the company declined the offer. 

Today, the company has more than 400 million users and aims to reach 1 billion users soon. As per the ShareChat mission and vision statement, “We aspire to help individuals and from substantial connection and stay entertained.” 

The Revenue Model 

As a renowned social networking platform, the app allows users to upload photos, videos, develop content, make friends, chat with others, and a lot more. Unlike other social media platforms, ShareChat aids in conveying all the messages in vernacular languages in India. Rather than charging its users to earn revenue, the platform generates revenue via advertising, payment transactions, and sponsored campaigns. The app offers users and creative content creators to make money by posting uniformly original content on the platform. 

The founders of the app claim that there will be significant changes in how the platform functions. Users can expect many content creators to transform into celebrities. Additionally, India has 22 official languages and more than 1600 dialects; ShareChat plans to cater to more regional audiences in the future.

The post ShareChat: By Product Of Make In India For Entertainment first appeared on SmartphoneCrunch.