ShareChat, India’s biggest social media platform, has stated that it has witnessed exponential growth since the government of India announced a ban on 59 Chinese apps, including popular Chinese social media platforms such as TikTok, Helo, Big Live, Likee and Vigo Video. In a media statement, a ShareChat spokesperson has confirmed that through the course of yesterday, June 30, it saw close to 5 lakh new downloads of its app every hour through the day, accounting for a total of 1.5 crore new downloads in India within just yesterday itself.
ShareChat presently states that it has 60 million monthly active users on its platform, which offers a homegrown social media ecosystem in 13 vernacular languages. In a prior interview with News18, Farid Ahsan, co-founder and COO of ShareChat, had stated that the platform had been witnessing a steady growth since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The primary area of growth, however, had remained in the rise of organic engagement on the platform, for which Ahsan stated that ShareChat now has over 90 percent organic engagement across all its vernacular channels.
Berges Malu, ShareChat’s director of public policy, also told News18 that ShareChat expects to see steady growth in light of the ban of the said Chinese apps. He expected to see a gradual but steady growth in ShareChat’s user base, and stated that the ban on the popular Chinese apps may also facilitate a rise in investor interest in Indian social media platforms, since it left a void that Indian players would now be eager to fill up.
Roposo, India’s second largest homegrown social media platform, has also witnessed similar growth since yesterday. Speaking to News18, Mayank Bhangadia, the co-founder and CEO of Roposo, stated that the platform expected to witness over 1 crore new downloads yesterday itself. Roposo, owned by InMobi-backed Glance, claims daily engagement of over 125 million users. In light of the ban on Chinese apps, Bhangadia told News18 that he expects many original content creators, who previously showcased their work on platforms like TikTok, to come onboard and also bring their followers along. This is expected to contribute to the overall growth spurt of major Indian social media platforms.
Other benefactors of this growth includes platforms such as the recently launched Chingari, Bolo Indya and GoSocial. The latter, which is owned by HapRamp, was recently funded by industrialist and entrepreneur Anand Mahindra, and also aims to cash in as a creator-first platform for various verticals.
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