Twitter, one of the biggest social media platforms in the world, has been trying to capture India’s massive population, but has had little success in the country. Till date, the company has only about 75 million users in India (according to App Annie), which is none too special, considering how India is now the second largest Internet market. Thus, to get a bigger piece of what can be the next Silicon Valley, Twitter tried to buy the massively popular Indian social media company ‘ShareChat’ and its short video platform Moj, a report from TechCrunch claims.
ShareChat operates a vernacular social media platform, and has emerged as one of the few Indian social media companies to survive the market, which is dominated by American players like Facebook and SnapChat. ShareChat, the main platform from the startup, boasts about 160 million users, and its latest short video platform and TikTok look-a-like Moj has also been able to attract about 80 million users. Thus, a possible acquisition could have allowed Twitter to expand its userbase in India rapidly fast.
Moreover, Twitter’s idea of turning Moj into a global TikTok alternative, especially in the face of rising concern about ByteDance’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, could have paid dividends for the American social media giant.
However, the report adds that the talks have now climaxed, and no deal has been reached.
Thus, ShareChat along with Moj, at least for the time being, will remain an India-owned operation.
Moreover, now that the talks have ended, the company is looking to get back on the horse and talk to investors about its latest financing round. The startup has been able to ink deals with the likes of Snap, and Twitter. Thus, a new financing round will probably see participation from these companies. It’s also being speculated that the new round will attract the attention of Google.
This is not the first time that Twitter has tried to use an Indian social media platform to make inroads in the country. Recently, the company launched its ‘Moments’ feature in India, and pursued the help of Dailyhunt to do so.
