ShareChat scales down live commerce biz, a month after laying off nearly 600 staff

ShareChat logos are seen in this illustration taken on July 26, 2021. (File image. Source: Reuters)

Google and Twitter-backed social media platform ShareChat has scaled down its live commerce business, a month after laying off close to 600 employees as the company shifts its focus towards profitability after reporting a loss of nearly Rs 3,000 crore for FY22 (2021-22).

"Live commerce is an important long-term strategic bet for us and we shall continue to invest in scaling it over time. However, in the immediate terms, we have calibrated the budget outlay on this area," a spokesperson for the company said in a statement on February 15.

"That said, it’s far from being shut down. We continue to remain bullish on this space in India. E-commerce continues to be a very big market and we believe that social commerce can be a large play in India in the longer term," the spokesperson added.

News website Inc42 first reported the development saying the company is planning to shut down the live commerce vertical.

In October 2021, e-commerce platform Flipkart and Sharechat’s short video platform Moj had announced partnering for video and live commerce where Moj users will be able to shop on the former’s online platform. According to Inc42's report, live commerce was one of ShareChat's core businesses and the company had plans to invest aggressively in it.

ShareChat has been aggressively looking to cut costs since December last year while focusing to monetise its offerings. In December, ShareChat also shut down its fantasy gaming vertical called Jeet11 and laid off more than 100 employees.

“We are razor focussed on our monetisation efforts going into 2023. As part of our 2023 plans, we’ve realigned resources on projects with a higher weight on immediate wins either in the form of increased revenue or reduced costs," the spokesperson added.

In January, just a week after laying off 600 employees, ShareChat's two co-founders Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan stepped down from active executive roles at the company. ShareChat made the development public after Moneycontrol sent queries to the company about it.

The Google and Twitter-backed social media platform for vernacular languages in India has also seen a flurry of senior management exits in the last two years. In January, Moneycontrol reported in detail about the crisis at ShareChat.

Mohalla Tech, the parent company of ShareChat, is currently valued at around $4.9 billion. In June 2022, it closed its Series H funding round, raising around $520 million from Google's parent company Alphabet and Singapore-based Temasek Holdings.

In December 2021, ShareChat raised $226 million as part of the same funding round and was valued at around $3.7 billion at that time.

ShareChat, founded in 2015 by three IIT Kanpur alumni - Sachdeva, Farid Ahsan, and Bhanu Singh - was an early player in regional language content. It launched Moj in June 2020, following the TikTok ban, and has seen significant growth in the segment, alongside DailyHunt's Josh. ShareChat and Moj have a combined user base of approximately 340 million.