The merger will create the largest short video platform for Indians with 300 million monthly active users (MAU), a 100 million strong creator community and nearly 250 billion monthly video views.
As part of the strategic transaction, MX Media and its shareholders will become the largest shareholders of ShareChat, while the two platforms will be controlled by ShareChat.
The cash and stock deal will value MX Takatak at over $700 million, said a source with direct knowledge of the development.
MX Media is owned by Times Internet, the digital arm of the Times Group, which also publishes The Economic Times newspaper and ETtech.
The two companies said in a joint statement that this strategic partnership will enable both MX Media and ShareChat to further benefit from the synergies between long-form and short form, at a significantly larger scale, in an accelerated manner.
Discover the stories of your interest
“I am excited to announce the strategic merger of India’s two most popular social media platforms,” said Karan Bedi, CEO, MX Media. “MX has always strived to build superior world class products, and Takatak is no exception. This combined with Moj’s AI and execution capabilities makes the combined business a truly world class short video platform.”
‘OTT focus to continue’
Bedi added that MX has created two unicorns within one business, unlocking significant value for shareholders. “We will now continue to double down on OTT, with significantly increased financial resources.”
MX Takatak was launched in July 2020 and reached 150 million MAUs, across 10 languages. The platform’s deep access to content talent, understanding of the MX Media ecosystem user base and AI-driven technology has seen this high growth in a short span of time, according to the statement.
“We at ShareChat are building India’s largest AI-powered content ecosystem which has been on an unprecedented growth trajectory,” said Ankush Sachdeva, CEO and Cofounder, ShareChat & Moj. “MX Takatak is a popular platform and this merger further solidifies our position in the short video ecosystem. With this development, we aim to build the largest original content platform on Moj along with the largest community of users across India.”
Post the deal, both the platforms will continue to function separately for now, but the creator base, content supply and recommendation algorithms will be integrated.
Moj, since its launch in July 2020, has amassed over 160 million MAUs and over 50 million creator communities in 15 Indian languages. The company has been investing heavily in social and live commerce and growing its AI/ML team, which is now over 100 people strong and spread across the US, Europe and India as per the joint announcement.
In the coming months, the experience of users and creators will converge, enabling creators from both platforms to reach the most extensive set of audiences in India. This will provide users access to unique features including best-in-class camera creation tools with Snap filters, live commerce, and a vast music library.
