Latest news with #Moj
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
ShareChat appoints Neha Markanda as its new chief business officer
ShareChat ( Mohalla Tech ), India's homegrown social media company, has announced the appointment of Neha Markanda as its chief business officer for ShareChat and Moj platforms. In her new role, Markanda will spearhead the company's revenue strategy, accelerate business growth and strengthen partnerships with stakeholders across the country. Markanda joins ShareChat from Google India , where she served as head of industry, e-commerce, leading strategy across multiple verticals and delivering consistent market growth. She also spearheaded Google India's health strategy and was instrumental in driving business transformation and AI solutioning across both retail and health tech sectors. With over 22 years of experience and deep expertise in the Indian market, Markanda brings a proven track record in building brands, setting marketing narratives, driving revenue growth, nurturing client relationships and leading high-performing teams. A business leader known for her ability to identify growth opportunities and navigate change with agility, her career spans both consumer products and technology, including senior roles at Meta (Facebook) as head of business marketing, GSK Consumer Healthcare, PepsiCo, ITC and HCL Technologies. Markanda's appointment comes at a pivotal time for ShareChat. With a combined monthly active user base of over 325 million across ShareChat and Moj, the platforms offer unmatched reach and deep regional engagement, providing marketers with a powerful channel to connect with audiences across India. Commenting on the appointment, Ankush Sachdeva, chief executive officer and co-founder, ShareChat and Moj, said, 'We are delighted to welcome Neha Markanda as our chief business officer. Her extensive experience, expertise at brand building, deep understanding of problems that marketers face, the way brands measure return on spends and proven ability to deliver business growth make her an invaluable addition to our leadership team. With her expertise, we aim to strengthen our position as the preferred platform for brands to connect with India's diverse and vibrant audiences. We're confident Neha will be instrumental in driving our next phase of growth, enhancing operational excellence, and creating long-term value for all stakeholders.' Speaking about her new role, Markanda said, 'I am thrilled to join ShareChat at such an exciting juncture in its journey. The Company's scale, reach, and regional resonance is unmatched, thereby offering advertisers an opportunity to strengthen their cultural connect, partner with trusted regional creators and plan for the always on hyperlocal engagement. I look forward to working with the talented teams here to further enhance our offerings and support the business growth ambitions of our partners. I am super stoked about contributing to the company's mission of empowering local content creators and connecting India through its language and culture.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Margaret Pomeranz remembers David Stratton: ‘I feel as though one half of me has gone'
I know I have been reticent about commenting on David Stratton's death (he didn't want to 'pass', he wanted to die – no euphemisms for him!). But apart from wanting to hug my grief to myself, I felt that it was his family who should be considered, not me. And if anyone should have a tribute it is Strats' wife, Susie, who was the most wonderful support to him over these difficult years. I told him he was lucky to have married a younger woman! David was a stoic, he never wallowed in his deteriorating health. He continued to watch a new movie every day and revisit old favourites. He would enthuse about a new Australian film he'd just seen – he never lost that absolute passion for cinema. So much has been written about David's and my partnership over the years that there's not much more to be said, but I have a few recollections that aren't so well known. When we met I was a cinema enthusiast, not a walking encyclopedia of film like David. When he first came into SBS and I tried to talk to him, he brushed me off unceremoniously. I imagine a few people have had that experience with him but over the years he became much more welcoming of people approaching him – especially young film enthusiasts, many of whom he mentored and promoted. He was unstintingly generous in that way. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning When Peter Barrett, the head of programming at SBS, told me I was to become David's producer, I said I didn't think it was a good idea; he didn't think that much of me. But David seemed to welcome someone, anyone, helping him. So I became the producer of his movie introductions, to Movie of the Week and his beloved Cinema Classics. I had to create new lead-ins to these, and David and I decided to use Nino Rota's music. I had such fun with the introduction to the Classics, with images of Polanski's Knife in the Water, Bergman's The Seventh Seal and from Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. Of course David had to approve everything, and we formed a good working relationship. Our first film discussion, or vague disagreement, was about the Australian film The Empty Beach, directed by Chris Thomson, based on a novel by Peter Corris. I was dismissive but, as I listened to David's support for the film, I realised that my reaction had been too facile. It was the beginning of Strats' education of my film appreciation. David was renowned for giving people nicknames. He got the order of my maiden name, Jones-Owen, deliberately wrong and I became Moj to him and everyone who worked on the shows from then on. And I remained Moj to the end. I'm glad I'm still Moj to his family – and all our film show family. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion I think it's extraordinary that, over all the time that David and I worked together, we never had a falling out. Minor disagreements maybe, and maybe more spirited ones on air, but it was a relationship of deep respect – certainly of me for him, maybe a little bit less of him for me – and of deep friendship. Once David took you into the fold you had someone whose loyalty was unquestioned. And it was reciprocal. During all those years we've had family traumas and setbacks, and we always had each other's backs. I knew that if I was in trouble David would be one of the first people I'd turn to. We went to the ABC because I had his back. And when my husband was in hospital with a life-threatening illness he had mine. So maybe you can understand the loss I feel, of this man with whom I had a conversation at least once every week, whom I loved, who was so fine, such a gentle man, who decided to give me credibility in insisting that I sit beside him in those chairs, week after week, discussing films. I woke up in the middle of the night in the immediate aftermath of his death and, in trying to work out how I felt, I decided that I felt amputated – as though one half of me has gone. There's no more Margaret and David. Just as there is no more David and Susie.
Time of India
16-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
ShareChat CBO Gaurav Jain steps down amid leadership shakeup
Amid a string of high-profile exits at vernacular social media platform ShareChat , Gaurav Jain , the chief business officer, is also set to leave the company. 'Today, we shared internally that I'll be moving on from ShareChat and Moj in the coming weeks," Jain said in a LinkedIn post on Monday. Jain, who heads ShareChat's monetisation efforts across functions, joined the company in 2022. Prior to this, he held leadership roles in companies like Google, Meta and Snapchat. Jain's departure will mark the third high-profile exit from ShareChat this year. On February 20, ET reported that Anurag Verma, the company's head of people and culture and Shashank Shekhar, senior director of content strategy and operations, left the company. In an interaction with ET, cofounder and chief financial officer Manohar Singh Charan said that Jain is currently serving his notice period and is in the process of finding his replacement. Live Events 'At a leadership level, this was discussed some time back, and we had kickstarted the process for finding his replacement, and that is at a very advanced stage now,' said Charan. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories The departures also come amid a period of workforce reductions at the Google-backed company. On January 16, ET reported that ShareChat had laid off around 30-40 employees, or 5% of its workforce, as part of cost-cutting measures and was aiming to reduce its employee count to 500 by March 2025. Prior to that, in August, it let go of about 40 employees following a $16 million debt financing round led by Singapore-based EDBI. Founded in 2015 by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan, ShareChat competes with platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. In 2023, Singh and Ahsan left the company to launch General Autonomy, an industrial robotics startup that secured $3 million in funding from India Quotient and Elevation Capital in November of that year. For the fiscal year ended March 2024, Mohalla Tech, the parent company of ShareChat and Moj, reported an operating revenue of Rs 718 crore.
Time of India
16-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Gaurav Jain steps down as chief business officer of ShareChat and Moj
In a significant development for the Indian short-form video and social media landscape, Gaurav Jain , chief business officer of ShareChat and its popular short-form video platform, Moj , has announced his decision to move on from the company. The news, shared by Jain himself in a LinkedIn post today, marks the end of a pivotal tenure focused on building the monetisation narrative for India's "Bharat" audience. Jain's departure comes after a period at ShareChat, where he was elevated to the role of chief business officer in November 2023, having initially joined the company in October 2022 as head of emerging business. During his time, he played a crucial role in shaping the business and revenue models for both ShareChat and Moj, with a particular emphasis on driving monetisation strategies for the burgeoning short-form video ecosystem. In his LinkedIn post, Jain stated, "Today, we shared internally that I'll be moving on from ShareChat and Moj in the coming weeks. This transition has been in the works for sometime, and I'll still be around for a bit longer before taking up a new challenge." Hinting at his future endeavors, Jain added, "As for what's next— I'm going from Bharat to Pan-Asian. More on that soon." This suggests a move to a broader regional leadership role, leveraging his extensive experience in monetising digital platforms across India and the APAC region. Before his stint at ShareChat and Moj, Jain held significant leadership positions at global tech giants. He served as head of APAC Business Expansion at Snap, where he was responsible for Snapchat's monetisation in India and emerging APAC markets. His career also includes impactful roles at Google's APAC agency business and Meta India. Under Jain's leadership, Moj and ShareChat have been actively working towards achieving profitability, focusing on engaging users from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities with vernacular content. The platforms have successfully leveraged influencer marketing and micro-transactions as key revenue drivers, catering to diverse business verticals with tailored solutions.
Mint
02-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Indian influencers to drive $1 trillion consumer expenditure by 2030: BCG report
The influence of India's creator economy on consumer spending is expected to almost triple to $1 trillion by 2030, a Boston Consultancy Group report released on Friday said. India is home to 5 million content creators whose videos influence up to $400 billion of consumer spending. That is, 20% of India's $2,000 billion overall consumer spending. However, as of yet, it impacts only 30% of consumers in India, the report added. That is because a large audience uses social media just for fun. The report said, '70% people watch content online 'to get entertained' and 'to get information', other reasons include 'develop new skills' and 'gain technical knowledge.'" Also read: Finfluencers rejoice at ASCI go-ahead for general advice and promotion on social media after Sebi scrutiny Simultaneously, the creator ecosystem's direct revenues are projected to expand to $100-125 billion in the next five years from $20-25 billion today. The report has found that the creator economy is largely a metropolitan phenomenon. Almost 65% of creators are from urban centres. However, it has also started picking up in Tier 2 and 3 cities. 'Our platforms of ShareChat and Moj have 75% of users and 80% of creators from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. We contribute to diversifying the creator and consumer profile for brands while empowering regional creativity in India. We have also pioneered new monetisation models such as microtransactions, which drive the majority of creator earnings on our platforms today," said Manohar Singh Charan, co-founder of Indian creator platforms Moj and ShareChat. The leading sectors in the creator space include lifestyle categories like fashion, entertainment, beauty and personal care. Also read: Gaming gets costlier! Microsoft hikes Xbox prices globally amid rising tariffs and costs: How much more to pay With this growth, brands are expanding their investment in influencer marketing. The report suggests that 70% of Indian brands plan to scale their influencer budgets by up to three times in the next two to three years. A prime example of this is India's largest FMCG brand, Hindustan Unilever. Mint reported earlier that HUL has broadened its influencer pool by almost 11 times. The increase in budgets will also help these companies deal with the challenges of maximising the return on their investment and the problem of influencers with fake followers. 'What began as a Gen Z and metro-focused phenomenon is now resonating across age groups and smaller cities, unlocking new avenues of influence and engagement," said Vipin Gupta, managing director and partner at BCG. Also read: April auto sales: SUVs race ahead while small cars lose momentum 'Categories like fashion, beauty, and entertainment are leading the charge, while emerging monetization models—such as live commerce and virtual gifting—are redefining how creators and brands drive value together," he added. Content platforms, which are at the centre of this growth, play a vital role. Mint reported earlier that YouTube invested ₹ 210 billion in India's creator economy in the past three years.
