India’s Moj, MX TakaTak Merge to Form Largest Short Video Platform in the Country, Where TikTok Remains Banned

Instances Web’s MX TakaTak and ShareChat’s Moj revealed a strategic merger to create India’s largest short-form video platform — a rustic the place TikTok continues to be banned.

The mixed MX TakaTak-Moj platform may have 100 million creators, greater than 300 million month-to-month energetic customers (MAU), and almost 250 billion month-to-month video views.

Instances Web, the digital arm of large Indian media conglomerate the Instances Group, operates MX Media Co., the guardian firm of MX TakaTak and widespread streaming platform MX Participant. Each platforms will likely be managed by ShareChat, a social media and social networking service developed by India’s Mohalla Tech. MX Media and its shareholders will turn into strategic shareholders of ShareChat.

Whereas numbers weren’t disclosed, the deal is value $900 million in a money and fairness combine, Selection understands. MX TakaTak will proceed to perform as a separate platform for now, however the two platforms’ creator base, content material provide and suggestion algorithms will likely be built-in.

“Within the coming months, the expertise of customers and creators will converge enabling creators from each platforms to achieve essentially the most in depth set of audiences in India,” the businesses mentioned in an announcement. “This may present customers entry to distinctive options together with best-in-class digital camera creation instruments with Snap filters, dwell commerce, and an enormous music library.”

In June 2020, the Indian authorities banned Beijing-headquartered ByteDance’s immensely widespread brief video app TikTok, which was attracting 200 million MAUs, over ongoing border tensions with China. Following this, comparable apps mushroomed in India with Moj and MX TakaTak among the many first to race off the blocks.

Moj launched in July 2020 and emerged as the most important Indian brief video app, with over 160 million MAUs and over 50 million creator communities in 15 Indian languages. The corporate has been investing closely in social and dwell commerce and rising its Synthetic Intelligence and Machine Studying staff which now numbers over 100 folks throughout the U.S., Europe, and India. MX TakaTak additionally launched in July 2020 and reached 150 million MAUs, throughout 10 languages.

Ankush Sachdeva, CEO and co-founder, ShareChat and Moj, mentioned: “We at ShareChat are constructing India’s largest content material ecosystem which has been on an unprecedented development trajectory. MX TakaTak is a well-liked platform and this merger additional solidifies our place within the brief video ecosystem. With this growth, we goal to construct the most important authentic content material platform on Moj together with the most important group of customers throughout India.”

MX Media CEO Karan Bedi mentioned: “As India’s largest digital leisure platform, MX has all the time strived to construct superior world class merchandise, and TakaTak is not any exception. This mixed with Moj’s AI and execution capabilities makes the mixed enterprise a very world class brief video platform. MX has created two ‘unicorns’ inside one enterprise, unlocking vital worth for our shareholders, and can now proceed to double down on OTT [streaming], with considerably elevated monetary sources.”