It was India’s answer to TikTok, as anti-China sentiments ran high in the country following border standoffs and coronavirus outbreak. Launched in May, “Made in India” Mitron TV was a smash hit even though founders Anish Khandelwal and Shivank Agarwal were testing waters with a beta version of the short-video app while working full-time jobs. The instant success of Mitron, which has over five million downloads, put the spotlight on the two young men. Then came reports that the source code of the app was bought for Rs 2,500 from a Pakistani developer. More controversy followed when Google removed the app from its Play Store for allegedly violating guidelines. The app was reinstated within days but some questions still need answers.
In an email interview with Moneycontrol’s Priyanka Sahay, Khandelwal and Agarwal say Mitron’s popularity took them by surprise. They say the origin of the developer is not relevant as they are the legal owners of the codebase and any claim to the contrary is libellous. Edited excerpts:
Q. What was the idea behind Mitron? How did you decide on the name? Whose idea was it?
Our thought process has always been that Indian consumers should be served by Indian platforms and Indian data should always be secured on Indian servers. We always had a desire to have an Indian social media platform which understands and abides by Indian community guidelines. It pained us to see so many videos of hate and violence on different platforms, which cease to respect the law of the land. We spent a lot of time brainstorming on our startup idea before we decided to build Mitron. Our mission is to build a short-form video app that reimagines digital engagement and entertainment while being sensitive to the users in our market and compliant with our local laws.
The word Mitron means friends and is more Indian. We were looking for names to represent friends or a social circle. We had a couple of other options but Shivank's proposal for Mitron won the title race.
Q) Mitron is a word associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which he often uses in his public addresses. Is the name the reason for your popularity?
We knew people could relate to it and that was the idea behind keeping a more Indian name but, we don’t think that it is the only reason for our user base.
Many apps have tried to copy us, at present, there are 80 apps which have tried to use our name and logo but none of them are anywhere close to the user base that we have. Mitron TV is focused on being sensitive to the users in our market and being compliant with our local laws. We are working with our users to create a more India-centric product and we believe that is working well for us.
Q) Did you expect such a response? Were you prepared for Mitron’s success or was it overwhelming?
We launched an initial version of Mitron just over a month ago, making continuous improvements even as we were continued with our jobs. Our plan was to go fully behind Mitron from June after some initial iterations on the product. Mitron TV, to our pleasant surprise, started to take off rapidly. Frankly, we weren’t prepared for such a sharp rise in the adoption of the product. Given the rise of Mitron, the main challenge we faced was to address several aspects of the business in a very short period of time.
Our first launch only allowed users to view videos and upload was an offline process. We thought users would not be very interested in creating content at first. But, we received too many requests for adding upload features. We did a silent release of the next version with video upload feature and the response from users was amazing. It was beyond that we could have handled and it crashed our servers. We spent a few days making our services scalable and in no time we were serving 2 million daily users and 250,000 daily video uploads.
Our users are very reactive, any issue is caught very early and as soon as we resolve it, we see increased usage in that direction. The popularity of Mitron TV matters to us. We are working on expanding our team and our focus is only on the product. We are looking at continuous feedback to improve our offering.
Q)What has been the reaction of your family, friends, colleagues? Have you come to be known as the “Mitron guys”?
We now call each other Mitr (Hindi for a friend). We are receiving positive feedback and they are supporting us in our journey.
Q) A lot has been said about the source code. What is the issue and is Mitron an “Indian” app?
The codebase of Mitron is proprietary and we are the legal owners of the codebase. Any claim by any party claiming that it is a repackaged app is false, malicious and libellous. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation around this.
Firstly, we live in a world where many packets of technology can be open-sourced or purchased legally for use in your own app. Almost every well-known tech company purchases packets of codebase or open-sources codebase for use in their own applications. When any company purchases or open-sources such code, the focus is on the suitability of the code for the company's purpose and not the origin of the developer. So, any discussion around the origin of the developer is not relevant to us. We are an Indian startup that is based in Bangalore.
Mitron is an Indian app which is developed in India and as part of our mission to build a great experience for our users, we will always remain open to using any open-source code or legally purchased codebase that we can build on top of, in our application. And we have used servers in India for data storage and computation.
Q) This is not your first startup and you must know the basic business principles. Why didn’t you include privacy policy before going live?
We are from technical backgrounds. We were working with the experts in this domain to get the right privacy policy and terms of use for our users.
Q. Also, can you clarify the relevance of the California Consumer Privacy Act for the Indian market? Do you plan further changes to your privacy policy to make it more relevant for Indian users?
We have already updated the privacy policy and terms of use. We are working to make it more self-explanatory and understandable for our users. We follow GDPR data protection rights.
Q) Both of you are from small towns. Tell us a little about your early years and family? Do your parents and siblings use Mitron?
Agarwal: I was born and brought up in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh. Since childhood, I have been very fond of writing, especially poems. Had been subjected to the scolding of parents due to madness for cricket. I used to play cricket even during the extreme summer days. My father is a professor in mathematics and my mother is a housewife. My wife is working with JPMC. Sister is currently working with IBM in Hyderabad. Yes, all of us are using Mitron extensively, initially because of my pressure, now more naturally.
Khandelwal: I was born in Chakulia, Jharkhand, where I studied till Class 7. I did my 10th from Bongaigaon, Assam and Plus Two from Kolkata. I got through AIEEE and got into NIT Nagpur. I love playing outdoor sports, cricket and badminton being my favourite ones. I live with my family in Bengaluru. My father is a businessman and my mother helps him along with taking care of the house with my wife and sister. My sister is from a commerce background and is working with Motherhood hospitals. My wife is a teacher and my biggest critic. Everyone in the family is using it (Mitron). They are all very excited about it and are equally devoted in making it successful.
Q) Where did you meet? What's your educational background?
We first met in 2016 during our stint with MakeMyTrip. We are both computer science graduates.
Q) What is the business model of Mitron? How do you plan to make money?
This is something for later. Our focus, as of now, is to create the right platform for our users.
Q) Shivank has worked on another startup before. How is that company doing now? Anish, have you tried your hands at entrepreneurship or is this your first startup?
I (Khandelwal) have worked on a few ideas on hospitality and the IOT domain. In fact, this is not the first project Shivank and I are working on together.
Q) TikTok mostly has its hold in Tier 3-4 cities. Are you going to target the same audience?
We envision Mitron to be the platform every Indian can relate to. We want every individual from every part of the country to be able to enjoy, learn and express on our platform. We want to cover all aspects of India, it is a long journey and we have just started it. We believe that our product is going to be shaped by our users and hence, understanding the needs of all segments of users is important for us.
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