ShareChat had burnt Rs 440 Cr in Four Year with zero operational revenue in FY19

The annual financial report of sharchat shows a holistic and authentic picture of any company. While Dunzo financial performance in FY19 was surprising for many because the firm spent Rs 225 to earn a rupee in the last fiscal, Bytedance’s rival ShareChat financials would appear more intriguing to you. The company has recorded a loss of Rs 414.73 crore without any revenue from actual operations in FY19.

Importantly, it posted NIL operational revenue in FY18 as well. The losses for the Twitter-backed company has soared in tune of 12.3X from Rs 33.8 crore in FY18. Its total income ~ Rs 25.8 crore ~ consists of revenue earned through interest on investments and gains on the sale of investments only.

ShareChat has been investing heavily in financial assets as the current assets rose 4.13X from Rs 92.18 crore to Rs 381.21 crore. These investments make up about 77.4% of the total assets of the company, which stand at Rs 492.57 crore at the end of FY19.

During the previous fiscal, it purchased investments worth Rs 1,210 crore and gained Rs 14.07 crore on the total sales of investments worth Rs 920.8 crore made by the company in FY19.

Over the past two years, the social media space has turned hyper-competitive with the entry of Bytedance-owned Helo. ShareChat and Helo have been burning much money to command more market share.

Since both companies have prioritised growth, monetising isn’t on their agenda at the moment. It’s worth noting that ShareChat is different from 90% of startups as it’s building a vernacular-only social networking platform for about a billion Indians in their own language.

Such attempts certainly take time to reach the monetisation phase. Nevertheless, the question remains – how long ShareChat can afford to avoid making revenue? For background, it would enter in its fifth year of operations soon.

ShareChat was founded with an idea of bringing the next billion internet users on the platform. The platform is scaling up gradually, with 60 mn Monthly Active Users, and presently, the largest regional social media platform in India. The objective remains to scale up in the regional user generated content  space with the largest reach among the next billion internet users. We have also started working with brands to drive engaging consumer experiences as we start monetizing our platform.