20 Things You Didn’t Know About ShareChat
ShareChat is a company that provides social media and social networking services. It is a startup that has grown and prospered by offering unique features that allow people to connect all over the world. There are hundreds of new startups in this niche of the industry that remain small and don’t take off with the mainstream users, but ShareChat has beaten the odds to rise in popularity as one of the leaders in the industry currently. To help you become more familiar with this enterprising startup that has grown impressively in size, here are 20 things you didn’t know about ShareChat.
1. ShareChat was established in 2015
ShareChat has only been in existence for a little over 6 years. It was officially incorporated on January 8, 2015, according to Wikipedia. Although, age-wise it is still in its infancy, ShareChat has grown into a profitable and mature company that has expanded throughout the world.
2. ShareChat originated in India
There has been a boom of new tech startups in the country of India in recent years. It is practically becoming another Silicon Valley with an environment that supports the development of new businesses. ShareChat was founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Farid Ahsan, and Bhanu Pratap Singh. hey came up with the idea to launch an innovative new social media company with unique communication features to help people better connect. The team of founders established Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd to further develop the idea through advanced technology to put their ideas into a functional form.
3. ShareChat is used throughout all of India
The headquarters for ShareChat is located in Bangalore, India, but it was created for use by people throughout the various regions of the country. There are diverse regions throughout India with multiple languages spoken. To move beyond this potential obstacle, the developers’ embedded translation technology includes services in 15 Indic languages. This allows people who live in India to communicate in their native dialects.
4. ShareChat offers unique communication features
As technology continues to advance in the country of India, ShareChat is a leader in the communications realm. Although it’s one of many competitors in this niche of the industry, it is firmly holding its own and maintaining a strong presence in social media. There are currently more than 180 million active users who are enjoying the services offered through its communications platform. People may connect with friends, family, or total strangers on the service with a variety of communication forms to choose from. ShareChat provides private messaging, personal messaging, tagging, the ability to share jokes, videos, songs, and other forms of social content that are language-based.
5. ShareChat acquired Transversal Tech
ShareChat made its first acquisition on March 2, 2019. This date marked a pivotal period of growth and expansion for the startup. After just four years of being in business, the firm was able to purchase a company called Transversal Tech. This is a short video sharing platform that enabled ShareChat to offer yet more diverse services for its customers. The amount of money that this cost ShareChat has not yet been disclosed.
6. ShareChat Acquired Elanic
The second acquisition made by ShareChat was on February 25, 2020. The company was on a roll when it purchased a Bengaluru-based marketing company that focuses on an online fashion marketplace. Elanic added yet more interesting services and it is a company that had more than 5 million downloads in its portfolio with nearly 1 million active listings. This was a sound business move for ShareChat. The cost of the acquisition has not yet been disclosed. At the close of this deal, ShareChat had just expanded its services to include a fashion marketplace, making it a more interesting and attractive option for consumers.
7. ShareChat acquired Memer
Mohalla Tech (ShareChat), continued its period of rapid growth and expansion with the acquisition of a meme discovery and sharing platform called Memer. The purchase deal closed on March 27, 2020, for an undisclosed amount of money. Memer offers more than a million original content pieces for consumers who enjoy sharing entertaining memes.
8. ShareChat acquired Circle Internet
The fourth acquisition made by ShareChat was on August 24, 2020. The company purchased Circle Internet for an undisclosed amount. The company is a provider of local information for internet users living in the cities of Kerala, Rajasthan, Uttar, and Pradesh. This is a useful service that offers people in select cities information from a network of more than 1,000 volunteers to help keep everyone informed about what is going on in their local communities. Although ShareChat is the legal owner of the company, Circle Internet, per the sale agreement will operate independently with no changes in the way it provides informational services.
9. ShareChat has a strong sense of social responsibility
The founders of ShareChat feel strongly that the information that is shared by users on the site must be monitored with assurances that all users are protected from misinformation or other harmful posts. ShareChat develop an initiative against misinformation and took action to remove approximately half of a million pieces of content that were found to be out of alignment with its strict policies for users. Around 54,000 accounts were removed for violation of the policies of spam, providing misinformation in campaign forms, hate speeches, and fake news.
10. ShareChat recently raised $40 million in venture capital funding
According to Tech Crunch, ShareChat has been growing exponentially with the addition of tens of millions of new clients signing up for accounts. Expansion to provide the infrastructure to support such heavy activity is expensive, but the co-founders have all these bases covered. This was the latest round of fundraising that was led by Hero MotoCorp. This investor was joined by DCM Shriram, along with SAIF Partners, Twitter, India Quotient, and Lightspeed Ventures.
11. ShareChat is a late-stage venture capital company
ShareChat has advanced its status from a new startup in 2015 through the infancy stages to more mature status. Not by the amount of time that it has been in operation, but rather, by the amount of money it has received as financial backing from its investors. The latest round of venture capital funding was a Series E round, which is considered to be late-stage funding.
12. ShareChat takes care of its employees
We were impressed with the way that ShareChat treats its workers. They show how much each member of their team is valued by providing them with a stock ownership plan, commonly referred to as an ESOP benefit. ShareChat’s executive team recently approved the addition of $14 million to the ESOP for its workers. This is nothing new, however. The recent addition has brought the total to $35 million. This is a powerful incentive for workers to do their best work and to remain loyal to the company. It’s a benefit that not all employers offer.
13. ShareChat recruits the best to stay ahead of the competition
ShareChat is working from a strategic plan that includes recruiting top talent in the technology industry to help make their products and services the most desirable. To retain high-quality workers, they maintain standards of behavior that make the workers feel valued. ShareChat has a culture that shows its employees their value by fostering a comfortable working environment as well as providing monetary incentives that make them want to stay with ShareChat instead of moving on to work for the other companies in the niche that represent competition for ShareChat. Execs shared that the US and Beijing-based companies provide their stiffest competition.
14. ShareChat is developing new AI technologies and expanding music options
ShareChat is continuing to evolve and to investigate new products and services that it feels its users would appreciate. They’re currently set to invest in new products that are based on artificial intelligence, as well as establishing more meaningful partnerships with music labels. Some of the recent venture capital funding is already earmarked for expanding these services for users, but not much elaboration was provided about what the new services might look like or how they will function.
15. ShareChat launched a fantasy sports app
ShareChat recently announced that they have launched a new app in the fantasy sports genre. This is another form of entertainment for its users. This was a discreet launch that came without a lot of fanfare. The app is titled Jeet11. So far the app has been met with a favorable response and it provides users with one more thing to keep them entertained.
16. ShareChat is set to create more monetization avenues
ShareChat is also chartering new territory in the marketing and advertising arena. They’ve recently worked with advertisers to create more income streams for monetization of the site through brand advertisement. The executives in charge are pleased with the progress they’ve made in negotiating deals to start advertising more popular brands to their users. This is just one more way that ShareChat is opening up avenues of active engagement with users. It’s going to keep them more interested in the site so they will spend more time logged into their accounts.
17. ShareChat is a notable model for social media development
According to Fast Company, ShareChat is being eyed by companies through the world. The model is something that is working extremely well for the owners, stakeholders, and for end-users who are enjoying the benefits that it provides them for staying connected. It’s a model that is customized for people who live in the country of India and it does not offer an English language version or translation. Some of the larger American companies are so impressed with it that they are making investments in the firm. Although confirmation is still needed there are rumors flying that Google has been so enamored of the company that it was considered acquiring ShareChat for an offer of a billion dollars. Although at this point it’s still a rumor, usually in the business world, where there’s smoke, there’s fire so we won’t be surprised if we hear about a proposed acquisition in the future.
18. ShareChat is a leader in India’s tech revolution
It’s no secret that India’s interest in internet technology and associated companies has been growing at an exponential rate. This is an industry that is expected to grow from its current status of more than 650 million online users to an estimated 900 million to close to a billion by the year 2023. This is good news for companies like ShareChat, which is one of the leaders in the digital revolution currently. Together with companies offering wireless and cellular 4G services, they’re changing the way that people in India communicate with one another.
19. ShareChat has reached unicorn status
Financial Times revealed that ShareChat has gone over and above the requirements to qualify as a unicorn company. It joined this elite group of high-producing companies with a current valuation that goes beyond the necessary $1 billion valuations by more than double. ShareChat has a current valuation of $2.1 billion. The company has successfully raised $502 million from venture capital rounds.
20. ShareChat is solid and stable.
ShareChat is a company that has made it past the initial years of struggling to become established. It provides people in India with their own social media channel that includes all of the features that make it easy to communicate in their native language. The number of users continues to grow as more people become aware of the technology that can help them to chat with others, share videos, jokes, memes, and more. There is also an online fashion marketplace, online sports fantasies, and much more with new products being added regularly. It only took 9 months after its launch for ShareChat to achieve a user base of 120 million monthly active users and it’s still adding more. It looks like ShareChat is here to stay.
