Vernacular apps are taking the ease of making communities and winning followers online to local creators in India’s small towns
A recent report reveals that the number of active Internet users in India is expected to touch 900 million by 2025
and look. For the creator that lives in the tiny cities and towns all over India—nearly 90 per cent of a 1.3 billion population is based in semi-rural areas—the only way to reach their audience then would be through homegrown vernacular social media apps, that are bridging the gap that the Metas of the world haven’t been able to, ever since TikTok got banned in 2020. In fact, the Indian SM platforms have penetrated deep into the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, where English is not yet the language of the masses. Management firm RedSeer’s consulting report said that there was an annual increase of 13 per cent in Indian language users against a mere one per cent growth in English-speaking internet users. It has been also estimated that Indian language Internet users will grow at a CAGR of 18 per cent against English language users at 3 per cent (KPMG and Google April 2017 report).
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Roposo and ShareChat are two of the most popular vernacular social media apps
Video-sharing social media app, Roposo, saw their users go up after TikTok shut shop. Launched in 2014 by three IIT Delhi alumni—Mayank Bhangadia, Avinash Saxena and Kaushal Shubhank—the platform has 30 million users today. The fact is that it understands local communities that need a live streaming video ecosystem to showcase their skills—be it dancing, comedy, fashion or singing, but in their own language. Mansi Jain, VP & GM at Roposo, feels that local content creators haven’t managed to find a home with the social media giants, and hence, when platforms like Roposo came by, it was an opportunity for them to get noticed. “Vernacular talent also need a platform where they can find their fans, and build a network. We have had users from cities such as Surat and Jaipur, and from states such as Bengal and Assam, who have shared with us how they are so proud that they can actually share content in their own language,” says Jain. She adds that Roposo made the evolution to live video and now boasts of being a platform where you can watch entertainment as well as shop—“just like a real mall. We plan to expand on this model in the coming year”.
Shashank Shekher and Mansi Jain
A recent report by Internet and Mobile Association of India and data analytics brand consulting company Kantar reveals that the number of active Internet users in India is expected to touch 900 million by 2025 with the rural user base growing over three times faster. It would then make even more sense for apps like Roposo and others like Bharatam and ShareChat to build on their obvious advantage. According to various reports, the regional language networking and content publishing apps market was worth $1 billion last year and was just growing. Along with social media, even dating apps are going the vernacular way, so that every Indian has a chance to fall in love. Apps such as Aisle and QuackQuack have introduced local languages—Aisle has introduced two vernacular apps Arike and Anbe, exclusively for Malayalam and Tamil-speaking users respectively, residing in and out of India.
ShareChat, which was launched in 2015, now has 180 million monthly active users. The app allows users to share their opinions, record their lives and make new friends—all within the comfort of their native language. It operates in 15 Indic languages, and along with enabling social networking, ShareChat also allows users to chat, do commerce, access verified information, news, and digital content. Shashank Shekhar, Senior Director Content Strategy and Operations, ShareChat, told us that since the app launched their live audio product, ShareChat Audio Chatroom, in 2020, it has emerged as India’s largest voice-based hangout destination. “We’ve seen a whole lot of interesting use-cases—from users organising community events like satsangs to antakshari, even celebrating birthdays at midnight. We had seen NRIs join chatrooms to connect with folks from their hometowns at a time when travel was not possible. We have also witnessed people sharing their emotional stories about the pandemic with a group of strangers they just met,” says Shekher, adding that their plans for 2022 is to make the user experience more personalised, elevate content quality by nurturing the creator community and build monetisation models that benefit brands, creators, and the user community simultaneously. “Our reach
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