ShareChat

ShareChat is an Indian social media and social networking service, based in Bangalore, India. It was developed by Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd. and founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan.[1] It was incorporated on 8 January 2015. ShareChat has over 160 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.

ShareChat
Original author(s)Ankush Sachdeva
Developer(s)Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd.
Initial releaseOctober 2015 (2015-10)
Stable release(s)
Android13.3.8 / January 15, 2021 (2021-01-15)
iOS2.7.2 / July 31, 2020 (2020-07-31)
Operating system
Size
Available in15 languages
List of languages
Type
LicenceFreeware
Websitewww.sharechat.com
Mohalla Tech pvt Ltd.
Type of businessPrivate
FoundedJanuary 2015 (2015-01)
HeadquartersBangalore, India
Area servedIndia
Founder(s)Ankush Sachdeva

Farid Ahsan

Bhanu Pratap Singh
CEOAnkush Sachdeva
Key people
  • Ankush Sachdeva
  • Farid Ahsan
  • Bhanu Pratap Singh
  • Venkatesh Ramaswamy
  • Debdoot Mukherjee
IndustrySoftware
ProductsMoj
Logo of the ShareChat application

Foundation and history

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), Venkatesh Ramaswamy (Vice President - Engineering) 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 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]

Acquisition

Clip acquisition

On 2 March 2019, Mohalla Tech acquired Transversal Tech-owned short video sharing platform, Clip, for an undisclosed amount.[11][12] Prior to the acquisition, Clip had nearly 10 million MAUs on its platform.

Elanic acquisition

On February 25, 2020, Mohalla Tech acquired Bengaluru-based online fashion marketplace Elanic, for an undisclosed amount.[13] Prior to the acquisition, Elanic had over 5 million downloads with close to 1 million active listings.

Memer acquisition

On March 27, 2020, Mohalla Tech acquired a meme discovery and sharing platform, Memer, for an undisclosed amount.[14] Since its inception, over a million original content pieces have been created on the platform.

Circle Internet acquisition

On August 24, 2020, Mohalla Tech acquired a hyperlocal information platform, Circle Internet for an undisclosed amount.[15] Circle Internet provides local information to Indian language internet users in tier-II and tier-III cities, with presence in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Kerala, and a network of over 1,000 volunteers. Circle Internet will continue to operate independently.

Initiatives against misinformation

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

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]

ShareChat Moj

ShareChat Moj (launched on June 29, 2020) is a short-video platform that emulates the features of TikTok, which was amongst the apps banned by the Indian government.

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]

See also

References
  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.
  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. "Acquisitions". Crunchbase. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  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.
  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.
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