MUMBAI: The short video app category in India has been growing at an exponential rate. Currently, there are 240 million users that are hooked to these short video apps. This number is expected to rise further in the coming years and reach 575 million by 2025.

India’s leading short video app, Chingari registered a meteoric rise in 2021. The app currently has a user base of 90+ million and has seen two-fold growth since 2020. Chingari is at the #1 rank in the social app category and looks forward to crossing 100+ M user base in 2022. The year 2021 also saw Chingari take bold steps and usher in the era of social commerce. Chingari took lead in this space by making every video on users' feeds shopping-enabled in real-time and also generating affiliate revenues for content creators on its platform.

While this was the first step by Chingari to make creators economy mainstream, it further augmented the category by launching GARI Social Tokens. These tokens foster content monetization and rest the power of content creation directly in the hands of creators. The block chain platform would allow users to obtain tokens for creating and viewing content. $GARI tokens are powered by the high-performance Solana block chain, making Chingari the first major web2 company to integrate web3.

Chingari also got on board, the biggest Bollywood Megastar Salman Khan as the brand ambassador and investor in 2021. Right from its genesis, it has been a motto for Chingari to reach every state of Bharat and getting Salman Khan on-board helped the company in achieving this milestone faster. Salman enjoys immense popularity across India and other regions of the world. Through this association, Chingari is confident that it will power the app to scale to greater heights.

Commenting on these developments, Mr.Sumit Ghosh, Co-founder & CEO, Chingari said, “The year 2021 has been a hallmark year for us. We have got immense support from our users, content creators and even our investors. We were able to raise more than $30 Million in the last year and will look at investing this in upping our technology, strengthening our R&D and introducing newer features that will enhance our users experience.

In 2021, Chingari also forged partnerships with numerous regional OTT platforms and music labels to create a more diverse platform for its users and creators and help them make content in the language they are most comfortable in. Some of the most notable partnerships are with Klick OTT, HoiChoi, Shemaroo Entertainment, Desi Crew Records, AltBalaji, and Gringo Entertainment to name a few. Chingari will continue to balance their regional partnerships in 2022 as well.

Mr Deepak Salvi, Co-founder & COO, Chingari said, “We have had a stupendous year and we will continue to innovate and offer features that our creators and users love. Post-April, our influencer base has doubled, and we have witnessed an increase of 70-80% in our creator’s community. There has been an increased interest from brands and advertising since we have collaborated with Salman Khan. We are looking forward to expand further, explore new challenges and having more fruitful associations in the coming year.”

To stay ahead of the curve, Chingari launched many notable campaigns such as the #WorldMusicDay concert and #SheGotSpark campaign on the occasion of Women’s Day. As the country continued to fight the virus and break the chain, Chingari as a responsible partner launched “Apna Mask” campaign, which was focused on encouraging people to get vaccinated and also highlighted the correct way of wearing a mask. To end the year with a bang Chingari will be celebrating Kisan Diwas with its #ProudFarmer campaign and is looking forward to a great night in Bangalore where Chingari’s 3 lucky influencers will be walking the ramp at the Bangalore Times Fashion Week 2021.

The year 2022 is expected to be a bigger game for Chingari as it is eyeing to set foot into the New Year with a user base of 100 million. It is also working on plans to expand further in the South-East Asian region and create meaningful IPs in the process.