Times Group's decision to sell short video platform MX TakaTak is a curious one.
Within a month of its inception in mid-2020, TakaTak had over 25 million installs. Within six months, it had 120 million installs.
Today, TakaTak is India's third-largest short video platform, and with ~150 million monthly active users, it was gaining on #2 platform Moj.
Despite this traction, Times Group—India's largest media conglomerate—decided to surrender the TakaTak reins, selling the company outright to Moj's parent, ShareChat. The deal, it has learnt that all-stock one worth between $600-700 million.
Times Group's decision to effectively be a well-compensated passenger on the short video ride rather than the pilot highlights the costs, both financial and operational, of fighting a pitched battle in an ecosystem that is still a good distance away from effective monetisation.
While the Moj-TakaTak combine will likely dwarf its rivals, figuring out how to turn it into a money-spinning machine, à la TikTok, is now ShareChat's headache. It needs to solve for, among other things, engaging ad formats, curation, quality, and variety of content. All while figuring out how to grow a user base that will soon hit saturation