Why India's twitter isn't twitter? 🐣
Social game isn't straightforward in India.
Welcome to the 206th edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every week I write 2 pieces on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 95,300+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more
A couple months back, the whole OpenAI gossip kept spilling over LinkedIn & Twitter. And we think the whole India was talking / thinking about - it wasn’t. Most Indians aren't on any of the platforms. Instagram isn't really popular outside of certain age buckets.
So where are Indians sharing stuff? 👇
Take the IPL example - you & I are in the echochamber- our thoughts & influence comes from a tiny percentage of India's internet population, around ~ 12 Crores between Twitter + Instagram. Internet penetration is far beyond that number. I would divide this into 3 core segments.
1. One-To-One communication.
2. One-To-Many communication.
3. Many-To-Many communication.
One-To-One communication.
The biggest players are WhatsApp (48 Cr) & Facebook Messenger (13 Cr). Interestingly, there is 20 Cr monthly active users on Snapchat. This pattern by age, city, and life motivations is unique to India.
One-To-Many communication.
Telegram is at 7 Crores & I would arguably say it's the most under-the radar one-to-many channel out there. It's a more democratized version of reddit behavior. Plus, YouTube with its 46 Cr userbase, tops the list.
Many-To-Many communication (!!!)
The first place to look for is LinkedIn & Twitter and even Facebook to an extent. But majority Bharat Janta is on WhatsApp. And platforms built on the whole WhatsApp platform are winning.
Take the insight behind ShareChat.
It allows users to share Diwali wishes/ Videos/ Images from Sharechat to WhatsApp groups/ DMs. 38 million users used Sharechat this Diwali to wish their friends/families. That’s not the same audience you saw on LinkedIn or Twitter.
The same goes for the Tik-tok segment. Since the 2020 ban on Tik-Tok, the Indian smaller players like Chingari/ Moj/ Josh have tried taking their place.
Think for a minute - what are some of the social platforms your parents/ kids/ nephew-niece are using. Why are they using them? We are sitting on the subculture insight & need to pay attention.
This post was triggered when I saw my mother (58-year-old) using Sharechat - she also consumes Moj. On the contrary, I saw my niece (a 14-year-old) using nothing but Snapchat. I don't use either of what they use.
Ask your immediate family what they consume as their primary source of social news - so many insights will pop up. That’s all for now.
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