How ShareChat is helping local brands with language-focused advertising

As regional language media consumption soars during the lockdown, social media app ShareChat goes full throttle with brand integrations.

Local language social media platform ShareChat is engaging with hyperlocal brands, as well as helping established brands reach a wider audience through local language focused advertising campaigns, as its monetisation strategy takes hold. And at a time when brands are struggling to keep customers engaged in a meaningful manner, they find that focusing on local concerns and speaking in local tongues could help bridge the gaps.

“We have been witnessing a healthy growth since we opened our platform for brand integrations,” said Sunil Kamath, chief business officer, ShareChat. “Our regional strength in Tier 2, 3 and 4 cities, coupled with our unique UGC (user generated content) proposition for brands, is opening new marketing avenues for marketers who want to connect with regional first audiences.”

Much like what video-sharing app TikTok has done, ShareChat and several others are mining the large, mobile-first market in small towns. The 2020 State of the Mobile report by App Annie, a global analytics and market intelligence firm has found that India is right on top, when it comes to app downloads. Between 2016 and 2019, there was a 190 per cent increase in downloads by Indians, which is the highest in the world. Compared to this, globally, downloads went up 45 per cent and China at second place, grew at half the pace at 80 per cent.

Break it down further and for the majority of downloaders, the internet is an entertainment zone with the time spent on entertainment apps in India growing 80 per cent between 2017 and 2019. Also mobile-first emerging markets such as Indonesia, Brazil and India continue to spend the most time in mobile each day. And France, India and Canada saw strong growth with the average user spending 25 per cent more time in mobile each day in 2019 than in 2017.

ShareChat raises $100 million in Series D funding led by Twitter

ShareChat is India's largest regional social network that claims 60 million monthly active users.

Business Standard : ShareChat, a regional social media platform, on Friday announced that it had raised a new round of funding of $100 million in its Series-D funding, where Twitter and TrustBridge Partners are two new investors.

To date, ShareChat has raised $224 million. Existing investors participating in this round include Shunwei Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, India Quotient and Morningside Venture Capital.

This new round of funding will help ShareChat strengthen the technology infrastructure for its platform as the company looks to scale its business. Additionally, ShareChat will acquire talent to help propel the exchange of ideas among its strategic partners. To accelerate the internet ecosystem in India, the company will also be introducing more features to make the experience seamless across devices.

“This is a very exciting time for us at ShareChat as we see our platform growing rapidly. With this new round of funding, we are positioned to take the next leap in our growth story. As we scale up, our focus remains to help the ShareChat community better express themselves in the comfort of their native language,” Ankush Sachdeva, CEO, ShareChat ​said.

Manish Maheshwari, Managing Director of Twitter India said that Twitter and ShareChat are aligned on the broader purpose of serving the public conversation, helping the world learn faster and solve common challenges. This investment will help ShareChat grow and provide the company’s management team access to Twitter’s executives as thought partners, he added.

“Lightspeed is excited to continue to support ShareChat in every financing round – Series A through the current Series D, and beyond. We feel the company has a special opportunity to consolidate its position as the defining media platform to engage India’s diverse, multicultural and multilingual population,” Ravi Mhatre, Founder & Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partner said,.

Tuck Lye Koh, Founding Partner and CEO, Shunwei Capital said, “We are excited to see users creating a lively community with diverse vernacular content on ShareChat. The diversity and depth of user generated content has enhanced the stickiness of the product, and will contribute great business value to ShareChat as a platform. We look forward to the next stage in ShareChat’s evolution.”

Anand Lunia, Partner, India quotient said, “Today, ShareChat stands for opportunities, learning, entertainment, and a lot more.