By Sunil Kamath – Chief Business Officer, ShareChat
Communication and networking is basic to all human being and to fulfil this desire of connecting with people we have come a long way from letters to telegrams to social media. Since its birth, it has been evolving and today, probably for a lot of people, the first thing they check when they get up is their social media profiles. Now, it is not just about making friends and meeting people virtually but people are using social media to consume information, news, buy products etc.
India’s multilingual social media users
India is a land with huge cultural diversities and one of the most important barometer is the multilingual culture. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, there are over 1600 native languages spoken and in this age of social media, Digital Diversity of the nation is flourishing as well. With the exponential rise in smartphone and internet penetration in the remotest parts of the country, there is a great deal of hunger to consume content that are local, relevant and are available in vernacular languages.
Today, there are lot of social media platforms available, but the question is what does these specialised vernacular social media platform has to offer.
• A language of your choice: People today are moving away from a one size fits all approach. There is a collective desire for a platform which resonates with one’s cultures and traditions, which in turn also helps them connect to their friends and family irrespective of age. Society today wishes to effortlessly connect with everyone and express their thoughts in a language they are comfortable in.
• Regionalised and relevant conversations: Region specific content has gained immense popularity helping drive conversations around local festivals and events. Localised content gathers significant engagement among people as they instantly connect and want to share this content within their groups. Vernacular social media platform, ShareChat is available in 14 Indian languages and therefore witnesses large number of posts on local events/festivities from across the country such as Ugadi, Litti Chokha festival, Lohri, Raksha Bandhan etc. Also, several businesses today are particularly benefiting from regionalised digital content to extend their reach and target the right consumers.
• Connect with regional celebrities and influencers: Many local celebrities and influencers enjoy interacting with their fans in the language spoken in that specific state/city. People on the other hand, who especially are more comfortable in speaking in their local dialect are ecstatic to speak to their local heroes on digital platforms, where they seem to connect with them on a more personal level.
• Simplifies, unique tech features for first-time internet users: Easy sign up process, a clean user interface is available to simplify the concept of social media for even the first time Internet users.
According to a report, the English language digital consumers will be soon overshadowed by the vernacular internet user base by 2021 and Social media will be at the helm of creating this shift. With social media becoming the one stop destination for consuming news, digital entertainment, making payments, accessing information on government schemes/services, there is a requirement for these content to be available in Indic languages to get the next billion users on Internet and vernacular social media will be the most relevant platform to drive this digital wave.
