India permanently banned TikTok

India temporarily banned TikTok in June 2020 as a result of an ongoing border dispute with China. But in January 2021, the Indian government issued a notice to TikTok permanently banning the app. 

With the majority of TikTok users being under the age of 24 and India being home to the world’s largest youth population, hundreds of millions are looking for the next video-sharing social networking leader.   

India’s infotainment platform

Chingari is a mobile and web based platform with proprietary camera technology and built-in visual effects that allows Indians to create and share short-form videos. 

The state-of-the-art platform uses computer vision, artificial intelligence algorithms, and machine learning to give users instant access to talented influencers and personalize their feed. Users can also earn cash rewards for certain actions, give virtual gifts, and will soon be able to purchase items featured in videos seamlessly through the app.   

Redefining the industry with social video commerce technology

Chingari’s proprietary camera tech, built-in editing tools, augmented reality filters and GIF stickers enable users to create and share custom videos. Each user’s feed is personalized using AI & ML technology that identifies content that the user would find interesting. And Chingari promotes engagement through leaderboards & reward programs- the more likes and shares a creator has, the more points they earn which can be redeemed for cash. 

Chingari also engages brand partnerships using sponsored virtual gifts. This gives users the option to select sponsored virtual gifts for their favourite creators and make seamless purchases using Chingari Pay - a wallet users add money to when they join.

Currently, Chingari is developing first of its kind video ecommerce technology. Every video that is uploaded to Chingari will be parsed frame by frame and sent to a computer vision based ML Model to learn about objects in the video. These objects are then matched by a pre-processing engine to a 250 million product catalog of Amazon, Flipkart and some other ecommerce platforms who are piloting this technology with Chingari. 

This technology makes all videos "shoppable" whereby users can simply click and buy products directly through the app using Chingari Pay. Chingari is pushing this feature to beta and is planning a full scale rollout by the end of the first quarter of 2021. 

Substantial downloads and engagement time 

• 50 million downloads within the next 6 months and 100 milllion by October 

• 93 million + videos viewed per day 

• 18 million monthly average users 

• 3 million daily average users 

• 51+ minutes average engagement time

The team also recently launched a state and national level talent hunt with prize money as a way to engage users and generate organic downloads. 

Multiple revenue streams

• Ad revenue 
• Virtual gifting   
  • 30% of revenue goes to influencers who participate. 
  • 70% goes to Chingari.
• Fee based video ecommerce   

Chingari plans on expanding the business model to integrate digital wallets in Chingari’s user profiles. This will give users direct access to the world of cryptocurrencies and to the capabilities of transparent blockchain applications. 

A $500 billion global creator economy and the largest youth population in the world

Chingari is looking to tap into the global creator economy estimated to be valued at $500 billion and is where creators earn an income from making and distributing online content.    

Chingari is also targeting the largest youth population in the world. According to Britannica, more than half of India’s 1.3 billion+ population is under the age of 30 and less than one-fourth is age 45 or older. TikTok reports that 41% of their users are 16-24 years old and roughly 50% of their global audience is under the age of 24. When using TikTok data as a proxy for Chingari’s target market, one can see the potential in India. 

Competitive advantage with proprietary technology

Competitors like MX TakaTak, Instagram Reels, ShareChat, Moj, Roposo, and Trell have similar features for creating videos, but none have been able to leverage AI & ML or video commerce technology. 

This gives Chingari a competitive advantage not only in India but against global industry leaders such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.   

$4.4M raised to date

Chingari is looking to raise an additional $3M in this latest round. Prior investors include Rajat Sharma (India TV's founder), Angelist, FJ Labs, Astarc Ventures, HummingBird Ventures, Ideal Ventures, and Eirene Ventures.

Sumit Ghosh - Founder & CEO 

Sumit is a self proclaimed tech junkie and serial entrepreneur. He began his career as a software engineer at Tata Consultancy Services and left to start Globussoft, an IT and software services provider. After scaling Globussoft to a $9 million annual revenue business,  he founded Socioboard which builds automation products in the digital marketing space. And in 2018, launched Chingari. 

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