Ashish Bagari, an 18-year-old management student in Bangalore, has just pocketed his first incentives -- ₹2,000 each from WeChat and Viber for completing an eight-week internship with the messaging app firms.

However, this was not your typical internship with a tech firm. For one, Bagari had a target: get at least 50 people to join the Viber messaging app, provide feedback, upload pictures of the users, and shoot screen captures of users who had good things to say about Viber. The Japanese tech firm had taken in over 120 students each from more than a 100 colleges in Bangalore.

A Delhi-based agency, which helped Viber hire the interns, said the internship programme involved a similar number of colleges in eight cities including Delhi, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Pune and Hyderabad.

It’s a win-win strategy for both: while Ashish gained valuable work experience, for Viber and Chinese firm WeChat it was a low-cost way to acquire more customers and take on rival WhatsApp, which claims a 70-million user base in India.

This is one of the innovative strategies employed by international and domestic messaging app companies to grow their user-base in India.

Nilay Arora, Country Head, WeChat, said the company engages with college students every quarter, making them aware of the app’s latest features and getting feedback from them. “This helps us to stay in touch with youngsters, who are early adopters of technology and hence the best brand ambassadors.”

‘Desi’ touch

WeChat is also working on localising its app to attract more customers. Even home-grown messaging app Hike, launched in 2012, is giving itself a “desi” touch.

It has launched stickers in Indian languages, which allows users to communicate in their vernacular thereby facilitating better expression, a feature unique to Hike. Spanning colloquial expressions to colourful slang, the feature greatly enhances user experience.

Besides, it hires the top 1000 users as ‘Hike Ninjas’, who act as referral agents. For every user recruited, the Ninjas get free talk time on their mobiles.

Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder & CEO, Hike Messenger, said: “We are growing organically and aiming at 100 million users in the next 18 months by focusing on the regional markets. Competition is stiff and we don’t have the legacy other apps have but we are already the second largest app.” The company has grown from 20 million in June last to 35 million by August this year.

Growing market

With the surge in smartphone and mobile Internet penetration, the instant messaging market in India is growing faster than in other countries.

Recently, BlackBerry opened up its popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) for Android users too. Even Google is betting big on its latest app ‘Telegram.’ Line and SnapChat are also becoming popular.

In terms of usage, 90 per cent of smartphone users use a chat app, according to an industry report. Three out of every four smartphone users subscribe to a chat application.

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