ShareChat, other homegrown apps log strong growth after ban on Chinese apps

Homegrown apps like ShareChat, Roposo and Chingari have seen a significant growth in downloads and user signups on their platforms after the government banned 59 Chinese apps earlier this week.

ShareChat, India's largest regional language social media platform, said it has witnessed an "exponential growth" in the last two days. The platform claimed to have recorded 5 lakh downloads on an hourly basis, and over 15 million downloads since the ban was announced on Monday evening.

"We are excited to see the way people are exploring ShareChat for the endless possibilities it offers to the people and making it the preferred Indian social media platform...Enabling us to emerge as the leader in the Indian social media landscape. We are confident that this sets up the foundation of another success for ShareChat," ShareChat COO and co-founder Farid Ahsan told PTI.

The company said it has already seen more than one lakh posts supporting the government move towards banning Chinese applications. The posts were liked by over one million users, with over half a million shares on WhatsApp.

ShareChat has over 150 million registered users and 60 million monthly active users across 15 Indian languages.

Another homegrown app, Roposo - which describes itself as a 'Made in India' short video app with over 65 million downloads - said many TikTok users, including influencers have moved to its platform following the ban.

TikTok, a short video sharing app by Chinese firm ByteDance which had 200 million users in India, was among the 59 apps that have been blocked. On Tuesday, the app was taken down from Google and Apple app stores, and even its India website has been taken down. Another ByteDance app, Helo has also been banned by the government. Roposo said TikTok users, including influencers with huge fan followings have started switching to its platform in large numbers after the ban. Influencers who have switched to Roposo include Prem Vats and Noor Afshan who had fan followings of 9.5 million and 9 million, respectively on TikTok, it noted.

InMobi Group-led Roposo is available in 12 Indian languages and has more than 14 million video creators and 80 million videos are created monthly, it said.

"Our mission is to provide Indians with the largest talent platform that is truly Indian. We have built Roposo as a clean and ethical platform. The unique idea of channels in Roposo provides every talented Indian with an opportunity to grow rapidly," Roposo co-founder Mayank Bhangadia said.

Boxengage.Com, which was launched during the lockdown, said it has seen a 10X surge in active-user mark within 24 hours after the ban to over one lakh. The platform allows video sharing and offers digital experiences and services.

In order to address privacy concerns, Boxengage.Com is currently operating a website only, and would shortly launch its mobile app, it added.

Industry executives believe the government's move to ban these Chinese apps presents an opportunity for homegrown companies to woo millions of young users and brands onto their platforms.

This would also provide developers of these apps the unique opportunity to mirror the success that global tech giants have enjoyed in India over the past few years, they said.

Chingari - which is being touted as a rival to TikTok - has seen manifold growth in usage in the past few weeks. It has crossed more than 2.5 million downloads from 5,50,000 downloads in about 10 days.

Sumit Ghosh, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Chinagri app said the step taken by the government was good and welcomed TikTok users to come and try its app saying it is "100 per cent India grown app, and made for the passionate Indians".

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Naveen Mishra, senior research director at Gartner, said with the ban of TikTok, 200 million Indian consumers are evaluating alternates.

"This ban creates immediate opportunities for Indian developers to create a similar robust platform. There are a bunch of early stage similar Indian products, which will be aggressively tested by Indian consumers now. Accelerated product evolution based on local customer feedback is key to be successful in this new scenario," he said.