Homegrown social media platform ShareChat — the parent company of short-video platform Moj — announced a “strategic merger” with Times Internet-owned MX Taka Tak today. The deal, which was first reported by Mint in October 2021, will see Sharechat controlling both the platforms — Moj and Taka Tak. The company said that the combined platform will have 100 million creators and 300 million monthly active users (MAUs).
Following the transaction, MX Media Co. Ltd and its shareholders will become strategic shareholders of ShareChata. The company said that MX Taka Tak will continue to function as a separate platform “for now” but the creator base, content supply and recommendation algorithms of the two platforms will be integrated. Taka Tak will also gain access to camera technology from US-based Snapchat, which is an investor in ShareChat.
“With this development, we aim to build the largest original content platform on Moj along with the largest community of users across India,” said Ankush Sachdeva, chief executive and co-founder of ShareChat and Moj, said, in a statement. Neither company has confirmed the deal value at this time, but a Reuters report earlier said that the deal value could be around $700 million.
The acquisition is a sign of consolidation in India’s short-video market. Platforms like Moj, MX Taka Tak, ad-tech giant InMobi’s Roposo, and more, had all gained from the government’s ban on Chinese TikTok two years ago. Since then, platforms like Roposo have pivoted to Live Video.
ShareChat’s parent firm, Mohalla Tech, employs over 2000 people at the moment, while MX Taka Tak has nearly 150. Employees from Taka Tak are also going to join ShareChat, and the acquisition will help bolster its position in the short-video market here. An October 2021 report from Bain and Company, said that Moj already led India’s short video market, 85% of which is accounted for by the top five players. Taka Tak, unicorn DailyHunt-owned Josh, Roposo and Chinese Zili took the next four spots, respectively.
The report also noted that India’s online video user base had scaled to 350 million, growing at double the rate of countries like China and Indonesia.
Mohalla Tech has raised over $1 billion till date, according to business information platform Crunchbase. The company had raised $266 million as part of its Series G funding round in December 2021, at a valuation of $3.7 billion. At the time, two people aware of developments told Mint that the company is looking to raise $500 million as part of this round, which will raise its valuation to around $5 billion.
