ShareChat

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ShareChat
File:ShareChat app logo.png
Original author(s)Ankush Sachdeva
Developer(s)Mohalla Tech
Initial releaseOctober 2015; 8 years ago (2015-10)
Template:Infobox software/stacked
Operating system
Size
Available in15 languages
List of languages
Type
LicenceFreeware
Websitewww.sharechat.com
Mohalla Tech
IndustryInternet
FoundedJanuary 2015; 9 years ago (2015-01)
Founder(s)
  • Ankush Sachdeva
  • Bhanu Pratap Singh
  • Farid Ahsan
HeadquartersBangalore, India
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Ankush Sachdeva (CEO)
  • Bhanu Pratap Singh (CTO)
  • Farid Ahsan (COO)
Products

ShareChat is an Indian social media and social networking service, developed by Bangalore-based Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd. It was founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan,[1] and incorporated on 8 January 2015. ShareChat has over 250 million monthly active users[2] across 15 Indic languages. The company's application offers features that include private messaging, tagging and a personal messaging feature, enabling users to share videos, jokes, songs and other language based social content with other unknown users.

Foundation and history[edit]

ShareChat's holding company, Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd, was incorporated in January 2015 by three IIT Kanpur graduates[3][4][5] — Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan. The company is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, and presently employs over 400 people.[6]

Initially, ShareChat primarily worked as a content sharing platform, without any scope of users generating their own content. In April 2016, ShareChat enabled user-generated content creation on its platform, allowing its users to share their own posters and creative content. At around the same time, it also introduced open tagging for users, which would allow anyone to create their own hashtags depending on the content.[7]

The key people at the hierarchy of ShareChat include Ankush Sachdeva (co-founder and Chief Executive Officer), Farid Ahsan (co-founder and Chief Operating Officer), Bhanu Pratap Singh (co-founder and Chief Technical Officer), and Debdoot Mukherjee (Vice President - Data Science). All of the co-founders featured in Forbes’ 30 under 30 Asia 2018, having been recognized for their work with language-first approach in the social media landscape.[8][9]

In the wake of the ban on TikTok by the Indian government in June 2020, ShareChat launched the similar Moj app and grew substantially. In September 2020, ShareChat raised $40 million from investors Dr. Pawan Munjal of Hero MotoCorp, Ajay Shridhar Shriram of DCM Shriram, Twitter, SAIF Partners, Lightspeed Ventures and India Quotient.[10] By April 2021 ShareChat had raised $500 million from investors and was valued at over $2 billion.[11]

Acquisitions[edit]

In March 2019, Mohalla Tech acquired Transversal Tech-owned short video sharing platform, Clip.[12] In February 2020, it acquired Bengaluru-based online fashion marketplace Elanic.[13] In March 2020, it acquired a meme discovery and sharing platform, Memer.[14] In August 2020, it acquired a hyperlocal information platform, Circle Internet.[15]

Initiatives against misinformation[edit]

On April 17, 2019, ShareChat took down around half a million pieces of content and removed 54,000 accounts for spreading fake news, hate speech, spam and conducting coordinated misinformation campaign.[16]

Layoff and re-hire[edit]

ShareChat laid off 101 employees or a quarter of its employees in May 2020.[17] Ankush Sachdeva said "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."[18]

ShareChat has rehired over 50% of the laid-off workforce with the success of its newly launched short video platform, Moj. It is also expected to hire 150-200 more people by March 2021[19]

Moj[edit]

ShareChat's app Moj, launched on 29 June 2020, is a short-video platform that emulates the features of TikTok, which was among the apps banned by the Indian government in June 2020.

ShareChat itself is a competitor to Helo, another social media platform that was owned by TikTok's parent company, Bytedance. However, Bytedance has been accused by ShareChat of copying its design and UI pixel to pixel in 2018. Following Delhi High Court's direction, Bytedance changed its design for Helo[20]

In a tweet, Ankush Sachdeva, co-founder and CEO of ShareChat, said the app was coded in 30 hours. It has received Google Play Best of 2020 Awards, as of 1 December 2020.[21]

Moj today has emerged as India's number one short video app with the highest monthly active users. It has over 160 million monthly active users. In a recent feature by TechCrunch, Moj was positioned as #1 short video platform in India, beating others like MX TakaTak, Josh and Roposo.

See Also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ "ShareChat: The no-English social network". forbesindia.com. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  2. ↑ "ShareChat's Monthly Active User Base Reaches 160 Mn, Riding On Tier I Growth". Inc42 Media. 5 November 2020. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  3. ↑ "IIT-K alumni-made ShareChat app wields local languages to challenge Facebook". Hindustan Times. 7 June 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  4. ↑ www.tofler.in. "Mohalla Tech Private Limited". www.tofler.in. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  5. ↑ "Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd - Company Profile and News - Bloomberg Markets". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 22 November 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ↑ "ShareChat hires back half of laid-off employees, expected to add another 150-200 in six months". The Economic Times. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  7. ↑ "ShareChat announces 'Private Messaging', 'Shake-N-Chat', 'Open Tagging' on its platform". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  8. ↑ "ShareChat founders, all UPites, figure on Forbes' 30 under 30 Asia list". Hindustan Times/. 14 April 2018. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  9. ↑ "30 Under 30: How ShareChat is helping non-English users access digital content". Forbes India. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  10. ↑ "Twitter-backed Indian social network ShareChat raises $40 million". TechCrunch. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  11. ↑ Murgia, Madhumita (7 April 2021). "ShareChat valued at $2bn after India's TikTok ban". Financial Times. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  12. ↑ "Exclusive: Clip Gets Acquired By ShareChat In All Cash Deal To Help It Fight Off ByteDance in India". Inc42 Media. 1 March 2019. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  13. ↑ "Acquisitions". INC42. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  14. ↑ "ShareChat buys meme sharing app Memer". EconomicTimes.com. Retrieved 12 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ↑ Banerjee, Prasid (24 August 2020). "ShareChat acquires hyperlocal information platform Circle Internet". Livemint. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  16. ↑ Mandavia, Megha (17 April 2019). "ShareChat takes down half a million pieces of content, 54K accounts removed". The Economic Times. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
  17. ↑ Grados, O. B. (April 1975). "[The laboratory in programs for enteric infection control]". Boletin de la Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana. Pan American Sanitary Bureau. 78 (4): 318–322. ISSN 0030-0632. PMID 123456.
  18. ↑ "ShareChat lays off 101 employees as advertising market tanks".
  19. ↑ "ShareChat hires back half of laid-off employees, expected to add another 150-200 in six months". The Economic Times. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  20. ↑ Christopher, Nilesh. "ByteDance: Taken to court by ShareChat, ByteDance says Helo to new design". The Economic Times. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  21. ↑ "Google Play Best of 2020 Awards Revealed". 1 December 2020.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.bharatpedia.org/index.php?title=ShareChat&oldid=159114"