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Owner of India’s ShareChat to Pay $700m for Rival TakaTak

The parent company of India’s ShareChat will acquire local rival MX’s short-video platform in a deal worth about $700 million, as competition heats up in the sector


ShareChat's parent entity will acquire MX's short-video platform called TakaTak. Photo: MX.

 

The parent company of India’s ShareChat will acquire local rival MX’s short-video platform in a deal worth about $700 million, as competition heats up in a sector in which foreign investors have placed major bets.

Indian short-video apps have become popular since New Delhi banned ByteDance’s TikTok and some other Chinese apps in 2020 following a border clash between the armies of the two Asian giants.

After TikTok was banned, ShareChat’s parent entity, Mohalla Tech, launched a similar short-video sharing app named Moj, which has over time garnered 160 million users. MX has roughly 100 million.

In a cash-and-stock deal, ShareChat’s parent entity will acquire MX’s short-video platform called TakaTak, the sources familiar with the discussion said.

The deal could be announced within days, a source revealed. ShareChat and MX declined comment.

ShareChat, in which Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and US app Twitter are investors, is valued at about $4 billion.

With the MX TakaTak acquisition, ShareChat’s parent will now have two short-video apps in its portfolio. The company has plans to deepen its use of artificial intelligence tools and reach a much wider audience.

 

  • Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell

 

 

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George Russell

George Russell is a freelance writer and editor based in Hong Kong who has lived in Asia since 1996. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Post, Variety, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.

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