TikTok rival in web3
One cannot deny the unbridled success of TikTok. The media company came out a few years ago and took over the reins from giants like Facebook and Instagram. Currently, the Meta company sees TikTok as its biggest competition and most serious threat.
TikTok may enjoy a lot of success but at the end of the day, it is still a centralized platform that keeps the rat race alive and well. Many “creators” show up on the platform hoping to create content that gains traction, nets millions of fans and with those fans opportunities to gain profit. The problem with the TikTok system is the same problem with most web2 centralised platforms – it allows celebrities to make even more money.
Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook are created to be open and equal so that means already financially stable celebrities can take advantage of the platform to get even more followers and opportunities than small business owners who were hoping to use the platform to inform others about their offerings.
Recently a new social media platform has emerged with a way for even the smallest creator to gain a profit. Chingari is an app that was born out of necessity. The platform was created in India once the government of that country banned TikTok. One may wonder why anyone would ban TikTok ( with the exception of some of the dance videos being cringe-worthy and TikTok constantly being accused of being racist). There has been news of the social media platform being used by the Chinese government to spy on its users- a claim that has been denied by parent company ByteDance many times.
Chingari is successful in that the platform has created its own token- GARI and has an NFT project with a great utility that works with the platform. The company completed a $19 million funding round which involved over 30 venture funds and individual investors with $13 million of that being led by mobile entertainment company OnMobile.
The platform has already seen success in the past few months. Currently, there are over 1 million GARI holders and 10K wallets activated daily. The Chingari app has seen 5 million daily active users and 40 million monthly active users. The app has been downloaded 163 million times with over 100 million user accounts and views of a content exceeding 200M with the average engagement being about 13 minutes of time spent watching content.
Solanews had the absolute pleasure to speak to the CMO of GARI Network Jimmy Humania about the project and how things can go for the company in the future.
Solanews: Thank you for joining us so we are here to speak on Chingari, the app that could possibly be the next big thing or at least a TikTok Killer. What do you think of that?
Jimmy: We do not want to be known as a TikTok killer, we aren’t going after the app we love TikTok, just at the time the app was banned in India where the company started and we needed to have an offering for the community here, it was a perfect opportunity and time to create something for the people on this side.
Jimmy and Ryisan speak about Chingari
Solanews: So tell us about Chingari, there are of course elements of the app that are reminiscent of TikTok, will it stay that way or are there plans to be different?
Jimmy: There are indeed plans that involve changing the UI of the platform that is in place. These plans take time and effort and may not come this year but there are things being worked on and we feel that the next iteration of the app will be vastly different but very welcome as well.
Solanews: You have a very diverse demographic using your platform. Are we correct in saying most of your clientele is in Asia and aged 18-35
Jimmy: You would be partly right there, we do have a demographic in that area but we also have a lot of activity between the ages 16-65. We have noticed our platform being used by all ages and many groups. Currently, we are in India as you know but we also have people downloading and using our app in other countries such as Turkey and China.
Solanews: China, that is an interesting turn of events. China does not allow many westernized apps to be used in their country without strict regulations and there are tons of rules and restrictions on crypto at the moment,how would you say their rules have affected how your app is being used?
Jimmy: We have made sure that we follow the rules of the government and that nothing on our platform goes against the regulatory compliance.
Solanews: TikTok allows users to start making a profit once a certain number of followers is met and the platform offers it to the user, Chingari is a bit different, care to elaborate?
Jimmy: Sure, so all users are able to gain GARI the minute they start using our platform. This means that everyone, no matter big or small, has the ability to grow and gain on the Chingari platform. Once you start using the platform you start mining our GARI token with the app. We have a total token supply of 1 Billion and this year we have allocated 250,000,000 GARI tokens to the growth of the social media platform via GARI Mining Program. We currently offer 50,000 in a daily reward pool for use on Chingari and 5,000 GARI tokens of that pool is being shared just for users to login to the app daily. This means you can gain GARI tokens even if you aren’t publishing content, just sign on and you get to earn!
Solanews: So what are the steps to start earning, just sign on and you start earning tokens?
Jimmy: Well yes and no, the process involves all users that sign up to then go into their accounts and activate their Chingari wallet in-app so that they may start to earn on the platform. A lot of users aren’t aware of this, we have a lot of users not taking advantage of this, we hope this changes in the future as more of our clientele learns about web3.
Solanews: you mention web3. One main component of web3 is decentralization. What is Chingari planning to do in order to be more decentralized?
Jimmy: That’s an awesome question. At this time there are plans for a DAO, the DAO is not in place yet but eventually, the DAO will be used to handle the platform and the decisions being made on Chingari and GARI Network. We plan to make Chingari a decentralized and fair platform for all to take part.
Solanews: TikTok utilizes what is known as “shadow banning” where a user sees their views throttled or video not pushed out for more to see, will Chingari have any situations like this?
Jimmy: Chingari takes users’ interests and pairs them with content that is tailor-picked for them and their way of life. The algorithm notices trends in consumption and likes and tailors the experience to that user. There will not be anything like shadowbanning because we believe in our users and the content they are providing, everyone deserves a fair chance at having their content seen, if you took the time to make it then you can be secure that it will be seen, we cannot guarantee a number but we will never do anything like shadowban an account.
Solanews: Chingari is mostly in the east, are there any plans to bring it to the west or stateside?
Jimmy: As you know Chingari is already an international app, the app can be downloaded anywhere in the world and users can start earning $GARI tokens. We would love to be in as many countries as possible and are open to working with companies or other entities to do so. We would require our partners to be web3, web2, and crypto savvy and have the ability to help us build.
Solanews: So you have an NFT as well can you tell us a bit more about that?
Jimmy: Yes we have GARI Mining Booster Badges NFT that can be used within the Chingari app. Holders of the NFT are able to exponentially gain more GARI tokens than those that do not have the Booster Badge NFT in-app. The NFT will also allow users to enjoy the metaverse world we have planned. There are more benefits as well such as lifetime access to Chingari-verse, game rewards, membership into the GARI Panda club, voting rights and 10% share in apparel sales. Currently the booster badge NFT is about $250 worth of GARI Tokens and can be seen as a membership fee and not a subscription.
Solanews: This is all very amazing, what would you say is one of the biggest hurdles you have faced so far?
Jimmy: Truthfully just getting users educated on how to use the platform. There are already so many users but a lot of them don’t really understand web3. Just to give a perspective 95% of the world isn’t on web3 yet, so we are in the mass-adoption journey.
We enjoyed our talk with Jimmy and look forward to hearing from him soon and for Chingari to be all over the world.