ShareChat and MX Media announce a strategic merger of Moj and MX TakaTak
MX Media Co. Ltd, the parent company of MX TakaTak, and ShareChat, the parent company of Moj, announced a strategic merger between Moj and MX TakaTak, to create the largest short video platform for Indians, whereby the two platforms will now be controlled by ShareChat. The combined platform will have 100 million creators, over 300 million Monthly Active Users (MAU), and nearly 250 billion monthly video views. Since its launch in July 2020, Moj has emerged as the largest Indian short video app, with over 160 million MAUs and over 50 million creator communities in the 15 Indian languages. The company has been investing heavily in social and live commerce and growing its AI/ML team which is now over 100 people strong and spread across the US, Europe, and India. MX TakaTak was launched in July 2020 and reached 150 million MAUs, across 10 languages. The platform’s deep access to content talent and understanding of the MX Media ecosystem user base has seen this high growth in a short span of time.
From scrolling to spending: how ‘shoppable’ ads will reshape India’s influencer marketing
In today’s world of digital advertising, everything is a shopfront — or at least has the potential to be. Thanks to tools like Instagram’s Shop Now button or YouTube’s new Shoppable Ads format, social media is now no longer a mere driver of engagement, but a point of sale itself. Yet Indian brands and marketers are only just getting to grips with social media’s shoppability. But, if effectively leveraged, they will have a key opportunity to convert scrolling into selling. Needless to say, this has nothing to do with India’s social media and online entertainment scene, which is nothing short of booming. As of last year, social network user penetration in India sat at 54 percent and is set to rise by another 13 percent over the next four years. Meanwhile, in 2020’s third quarter, social networking made up 80 percent of India’s app usage, falling second place to messaging apps. India’s top influencers, from the likes of Avneet Kaur or Komal Pandey, draw millions of followers to their channels and, judging by their recent content, have a vast repertoire of brands under their belts. But what is noticeable in their and other influencers’ content is an absence of calls-to-action aside from an obligatory advertiser tag. Shoppable technology takes away the extra step of clicking an external link to a brand’s website and allows consumers to seamlessly buy a product immediately upon viewing the content.
India to permanently ban 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok
India has permanently blocked 59 Chinese apps including TikTok almost seven months after issuing show cause notices to ban them following a prolonged border standoff with China. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in new notices to the apps last week, has said their answers and clarifications following the ban were found to be inadequate. As a result, the temporary block has now been made permanent. The government had banned 59 Chinese apps in June last year referring to them as being “prejudicial” to India’s sovereignty, integrity and national security. The list included TikTok, Helo, We Chat, Alibaba’s UC Browser and UC News, Shein, Club Factory, Likee, Bigo Live, Kwai, Clash of Kings and Cam Scanner besides others. The apps were blocked under section 69 A of the Information Technology Act and relevant provisions under IT rules 2009.
Rural digital connectivity via BharatNet project to surpass urban connectivity
Lauding the Centre’s efforts to push through digital connectivity projects in rural parts of the country through the BharatNet flagship project, the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that internet connectivity in rural India has increased at a better pace and will soon surpass urban connectivity.While responding to the debate on the General Budget 2022-23 in the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman said that as per the report of ‘Internet and Mobile Association’, the rural internet user base is growing three times faster and is likely to surpass the urban user numbers. According to Sitharaman, “the data consumption through Bharatnet optical fibre surpassed 13,000 terrabytes in June 2021 while the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) report in August 2021 said that the total number of internet subscribers has gone up to 82.5 crore.”Sitharaman further announced that the Union Budget 2022 has laid provisions for laying optical fibre connections in rural and remote areas and contracts in this regard will be awarded this year and will be completed by 2025.While replying to the Opposition’s comments on Bangladesh growing faster than India, Sitharaman said that India’s economy is 10 times bigger than Bangladesh, so if Bangladesh grew at 10% and India grew just at 1%, the absolute number in terms of growth will be the same.
Inside Flipkart’s live commerce push
Flipkart has joined the live commerce bandwagon, in what marks the entry of one of the largest e-tailers experimenting with the medium. Flipkart is betting big on live commerce and also actively conducting live shopping streams on its app with social media influencers. It has also created a ‘feed’ — similar to the one on photo and video sharing application Instagram – on its platform where prominent influencers can be seen showcasing various fashion wear that can be bought directly from the feed. According to its mobile application, it conducts multiple live shopping sessions on its application. Aside from live shopping, the company seems to be using influencers with a relatively smaller following – under 100,000 – to appeal to a younger audience. The company is leveraging their following and mass appeal among the younger audience to sell products.
Online commerce led to 533% growth in search for D2C brands in 2021
From adapting to the abrupt constraints imposed by the outbreak of COVID-19 for maintaining continuity in how Indians lived, learned, shopped, and worked, today they have become adept at leveraging internet access to make more informed choices and better decisions, and seek support for their hybrid lifestyles, reveals Google annual Year in Search report for 2021. The accelerated expansion of the internet user base in India over the past two years has also led to millions of new Google searches per day across user segments, channels, and needs making Search a key touchpoint for relevant and helpful information. Launching the report, Sapna Chadha, Vice President, Marketing, Google India & Southeast Asia, said, “This year’s report is headlined by a surge in searches across a spectrum of existing and emerging trends and provides a unique insight into the connected Indian’s preference for a digital-first life. As people become increasingly adept online, Search has become their ‘go-to’ for making sense of a hybrid world in which more and more services and solutions are also now online. Businesses will need to take a proactive role in responding to this consumer transition that’s well underway by providing seamless paths to purchase across online and otherwise. Along with convenience, brands will need to continuously build trust and confidence amongst their consumers as they make more choices and decisions online.”
Around 414k conversations in India happened on the Metaverse in early Jan 2022
GIPSI, part of Tonic Worldwide, launched the first Insights report on the Metaverse as NFTs. Experience is at the core of the metaverse, which is now called Web 3.0. When GIPSI deep dived into AI data to understand and decode the Metaverse, it observed that people need to experience it first-hand, and not just learn about it passively. The report, “Metaverse Loading ” is a collection of NFTs on Opensea.io. which can be viewed, liked and shared. “Metaverse loading” is a snackable mini report in the form of NFTs. The idea is to nudge people to get started on the topic of the metaverse and encourage them to start their own Metaverse journey. Metaverse is here to stay. As of early Jan‘22, 23.4 million conversations were happening globally and 414k conversations were happening in India. GIPSI reports rapidly changing emotions around the metaverse. What started as ‘fear’ has evolved into ‘concern’ which needs discussion and answers. On the other hand, the ‘mockery’ around it being a kiddish concept or a smokescreen has now got the audiences to feel the FOMO. The early adopters of metaverse identified by GIPSI, based on the data as of early Jan ‘22 are Gamers, with 3.95 Million conversations. They are the metaverse natives. There will be some side effects too – Impact of the use of AR & VR Glasses on eyes. There has been a 1420% increase in conversations happening around and how it will affect mental health.
