Recently, Mohalla Tech, the parent company of ShareChat and short video platform Moj, announced a strategic merger with MX Media to combine forces with MX TakaTak. Moj and MX TakaTak now have over 300 million Monthly Active Users (MAUs) combined, with 100 million creators. Ajit Varghese speaks to Venkata Susmita Biswas about the company’s short-video focus, social commerce, and the avenues for monetisation. Edited excerpts:
Is customer acquisition the main focus behind the merger with MX TakaTak?
The overall thought is that we are adding audiences—almost 90% of the audience on MX TakaTak and Moj are unduplicated. So, we are adding reach and more MAUs to our ecosystem. This is because just like all other short video apps that have come up in the last two years, we are focussed on user acquisition in the first phase of our journey. The advantages are improved retention of users, greater personalisation of the content, and more users for creators to reach out to and, thereby, influence.
Do you also have social commerce ambitions? And are you focussed mainly on partnering marketplaces?
One of the big features of the short video ecosystem is the movement towards live commerce and video commerce. A large base of users and creators on the platform will tie in very nicely when we move into commercial video content as we will have more people to monetise from and more creators who can influence users. Eventually, brands and advertisers will find these attributes very lucrative as they can reach a wider base of users and more content will translate into improved retention. This, in turn, will impact engagement with brands.
For now, we have a tie-up with Flipkart whereby when an influencer puts out a video and the merchandise in the video matches the Flipkart catalog, the user can head directly to the Flipkart ecosystem and make a purchase. We are working on making the tech integration between apps seamless. Currently, in India, video commerce is at a nascent stage, so we are developing the ecosystem in partnership with somebody who is good at the commerce side of things. And once this model becomes more prevalent, there will be multiple ways in which the ecosystem can develop. This is a long-term bet for us.
How do you monetise the ShareChat ecosystem?
We are just 12-18 months old from the monetisation point of view. We have four different windows for monetisation. These are in-stream ads, influencer marketing on Moj, chatrooms on ShareChat, and video commerce, in the future. Advertising on our platforms is video-heavy and non-traditional in nature. We are seeing increasing interest in the influencer video space and hashtag campaigns. After the Flipkart tie-up with Moj, brands are showing interest in the commerce space.
How are brands and creators leveraging ShareChat’s audio chatrooms feature?
Creating an organised chatroom which can be managed and controlled well is where monetisation will come into play. We can address audience and host interactions, and ensure that branding is visible and is being seen. Or the entire tech backend can be handled by ShareChat. Whether it is creating the atmosphere, ability to bring influencers into the chatroom, or holding multiple sessions for product launches and other brand events over a period—we can assist brands. Creators can also monetise chatrooms through virtual gifting.
How do you differentiate your short-form videos and social commerce offering, considering you compete with biggies like Instagram’s Reels?
I believe that in every ecosystem the ‘rule of three’ applies; three players emerge at the top, with a lot of challengers. We have already made a good move by acquiring MX TakaTak, ensuring that we are in the top two. Now, it is time to move on to phase two and phase three of our journey to strengthen our offerings. We can become the number one player in another two to three years.
What we see currently is that global app ecosystems have concentrated their algorithms, content ecosystems, and user bases in the top tier cities of India. In comparison, most of our audiences who are in the 18-25 years age group hail from
tier-II and tier-III markets. We will continue to focus on the mass market. I am sure that as we improve our algorithms and personalise content, we will appeal to a wider audience.