Times Internet’s MXTakaTak and ShareChat’s Moj have announced a strategic alliance in order to form India’s biggest short-form platform nation in which the TikTok platform is prohibited.

The integrated MXTakaTak – Moj platform will include more than 100 million artists, greater than 300 million active users per month (MAU) and more than 250 billion video views per month.

MXTakaTak streaming platform 

Times Internet, the digital part of the giant Indian media conglomerate, the Times Group, operates MX Media Co. MX Media Co., the parent company behind MX TakaTak and popular streaming platform MX Player. The two platforms are run by ShareChat. ShareChat is a social network and media service created in India by Mohalla Tech. MX Media and its shareholders will be strategically shareholders in ShareChat.

Although the numbers weren’t disclosed however, the deal is valued at $900 million in mix of equity and cash, Variety knows. MXTakaTak will continue to operate as a separate platform at present, but the creator base as well as content supply and recommendation algorithms will be combined.

“In the next few months, the experiences of both creators and users will merge, enabling creators from two platforms reach largest audience within India,” the companies stated in a statement. “This will allow users with exclusive features , including top-of-the-line camera creation tools, including Snap filters live commerce, as well as an extensive collection of music.”

In June 2020, the Indian government banned Beijing-headquartered ByteDance’s immensely popular short video app TikTok, which was attracting 200 million MAUs, over ongoing border tensions with China. In the aftermath the app’s popularity, other similar apps exploded across India and the country, with Moj as well as MXTakaTak among the first to break out of the blocks.

Moj v/s MXTakaTak

Moj was launched in July of 2020 and became the biggest Indian short-form video application that has more than 160 million users and more than 50 million creator communities across fifteen Indian languages. Moj has invested heavily in live and social commerce, and has been growing the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning team that now includes more than 100 people in Europe, the U.S., Europe, and India. MXTakaTak also launched in July of 2020 and has reached 150 million MAUs in 10 languages.

Ankush Sachdeva co-founder and CEO of ShareChat and Moj Ankush Sachdeva, CEO and co-founder of ShareChat and Moj “We are at ShareChat are creating India’s biggest content ecosystem that is growing at an incredible rate. MX TakaTak is a popular platform, and this merger consolidates our position within the short video industry. This merger will help us hope to create the most unique content-based platform available on Moj and the largest user base across India.”

MX Media CEO Karan Bedi stated: “As India’s largest digital entertainment platform, MX has always strived to develop world-class products including TakaTak is no different. Together with Moj’s AI capabilities and execution capabilities makes the business a world class Short Video Platform. MX has produced two unicorns within the same business which has created significant value for our shareholders. We will continue to increase the number of times up on OTT streaming in addition to significantly increasing funds.”