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In 2013, Chinese brand Lenovo was among the players fighting for a share of the India market.
Amongst the built-in apps it introduced in one of its handsets at that time was ‘SHAREit’, which enables file transfers. After a couple of years under Lenovo, SHAREit was hived off as a separate company.
In 2019, SHAREit is no longer a mere file transfer app. Taking advantage of cheap internet plans, the company is leveraging the OTT (over the top) platform and streams content sourced from a host of players.
According to industry observers, the company has transformed from a mere tool and has identified itself as a content discovery, curation, consumption and sharing platform.
Today, India is SHAREit’s top market by user-base, with 200 million active monthly users (with nearly 70 per cent of them coming from Tier-II cities and onwards).
According to Karam Malhotra, CEO, SHAREit India, the country is among the top five global markets in terms of revenues. This despite the fact that monetisation began as recently as 6-9 months ago, primarily through advertisements. Plans are now afoot to make the India operations, a ₹100-crore business by introducing new revenue streams like gaming and video ads.
A growing segment
On the table is a possible foray into the gaming segment, with micro-transactions and in-app purchase options representing major sources of potential revenue.
“Gaming is something that we are very excited about; especially with options for in-app purchases. So that is one of the segments that we are looking at for revenue growth,” Malhotra told BusinessLine .
Compared to global markets where in-app purchases (during gaming) are said to run into billions of dollars, the Indian market is said to be at a nascent stage (less than $100 million).
However, this is changing with users or gamers transacting during select games like PUBG.
Malhotra points out that there is scope for growth in the segment, especially in the ₹1-10 price points. Easy integration with payment platforms will further accelerate growth. The other concept that SHAREit is looking at is high-engagement games.
“We intend to be present in the ₹2-3 segment. But, discussions are still on in this regard,” he said.
On opening up its platform for video-ads, Malhotra says these are early days. The possible revenue stream can come into play over a period of time once other revenue streams are in place.
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