Chingari has hit 10 million downloads on Google Play Store in no time.
Bengaluru: Chingari was launched in November 2018 and its not a new app, but it has found a new love in the Indian Tik Toker. June 29, 2020, was D Day for Tik Tokers and Tik Tok This is following Teek Talk of the Government, post the border standoff in the Galwan valley which killed 20 Indian Soldiers and saw 59 Chinese apps banned including the famous money-spinning, star-maker Tik Tok. Ever since the ban, the Indian TikTok alternative has seen a sudden surge in numbers. The company notes that it reached a milestone of 30 lakh downloads in just 10 days and had even once seen about 500,000 downloads in just 72 hours. Not all the Tik Tokers have taken to it. But with no options on the table, it could be the next big Short Video App.
Chingari users get points (per view) for their videos, which later can be redeemed for money. The TikTok-like app was founded by two Bengaluru-based programmers, Biswatma Nayak and Siddharth Gautam. It is available in multiple Indic languages — Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu. The app was first launched on Google Play in November 2018 while it debuted on iOS in January 2019.
Alongside TikTok, 58 other Chinese apps are included in the interim ban in India. TikTok says that it will meet government authorities and issue a clarification on any unresolved issue regarding data and user privacy. The Indian government banned these apps on grounds of prejudice ‘to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, the security of the state, and public order.’
For several Indian companies, this has represented a growth opportunity. Some, like Roposo that have been in the short video space for some time now, gathered a lot of attention in the recent few weeks. More recent apps like Mitron are also rising in popularity. Roposo (launched in 2014) has crossed 5 crore downloads. Mitron, launched in April this year, has seen more than 1 crore downloads.
Its Atmanirbhar at its best. With the Chinese gone, Indians will make do with the next best thing, and with that, it WILL become the best thing perhaps.
Even eminent and prominent Social Media proponent Anand Mahindra has endorsed it in a tweet.
I hadn’t ever downloaded TikTok but I have just downloaded Chingari… More power to you… https://t.co/9BknBvb8j3
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) June 28, 2020
With that tweet alone the downloads jumped a millionfold. Sonam Wangchuk, the educator and innovator who inspired the Phunsuk Wangdu character in Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots, issued a call on YouTube, encouraging citizens to boycott Chinese goods, asking his viewers to give up “software in a week” and “hardware in a year”.
Sumit Ghosh spoke to theprint.in about the meteoric rise (it is akin to the rise of PayTM post DEMO by NAMO) and called it an accidental start-up. The co-founder of this Chingari App is Biswatma Nayak. It was incubated by Globussoft a software development company that Ghosh founded nine years ago.
Ghosh and Nayak – a brilliant App maker – met at Globussoft and in 2017 started ideating over how to connect India and Bharat. Speaking to theprint.in Ghosh says, ” “Music.ly was really taking off, and these video apps were getting attention in the tier-2 and 3 towns of India,” said Ghosh, referring to the social video app environment then. “India lives in tier-1 cities, and Bharat lives in tier-2 and tier-3 cities,” said Ghosh, who is the chief of product at Chingari. “Hailing from Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, I very well understand the needs of the tier-2 Bharat. Given this scenario, we came super-app for India, where users will open it in the morning, consume some news, watch videos, get some entertainment, play some games, and just use it for everyday entertainment. Our tech is very close to the creative experience of TikTok. Users can record a video, record a video over audio, act on a movie dialogue, and things like that. This is the main kind of content for teens. This is the reason why the app is doing well now,” said Ghosh.
“Our retention numbers and the app’s daily engagement time are also witnessing a solid increase. Our team is working round the clock to provide all our customers with a seamless experience,” said Biswatma Nayak, Co-founder told Swrajyamag.com. “We would like to welcome all TikTok users to come and try Chingari, a 100 percent ‘Made In India’ app,” said Sumit Ghosh, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer.
“When the video of Sonam Wangchuk went viral, I realized this was the opportunity we needed and did some marketing on Instagram and other platforms for our app as Make in India. People then started sharing news and opinions about the app on other social media platforms,” said Ghosh.
Chingari’s success has other spinoffs like employment. Chingari will now be the property of a new company that plans to hire at least 100 people. So earnings will multiply for many many people.
But according to theprint.in, the app does have its bugs. After all its still evolving. “I’ve attempted to create an account, and post-creation, I’m always told my profile does not exist,” said Delhi-based media professional Tanzila Anis. “I have never been able to successfully log in, and I’ve only heard of people being unable to log in, which sometimes makes me wonder who’s posting all this content and how come the app works for them.”
Tech journalist Ivan Mehta echoed the concerns, calling the app “buggy”. “There is no segregation of topics and most of them don’t have any hashtags to identify trends. When you tap on a hashtag, it fails to load. The app is overall buggy, and it appears the only thing they’ve managed to replicate from TikTok is the endless scrolling feed,” he said.
According to the article in theprint.in Users have also complained about the content and lack of curation and personalization. “The content is only sexualized women as far as you could see,” said Anis. “While a lot of videos might be similar to TikTok content, there is no curation. TikTok at least makes sure your landing page is personalized for your preferred content. Further, there is no new content other than news. All videos you see seem to be several months old.”
But these user bugs will be ironed out in the times to come. You cant expect to land when you’ve just taken off, can you?
