 "TikTok | Photo: Bloomberg")
With 125 million active users straddling on its digital platform in India and South-East Asia daily, Glance — part of the inMobi group — has set an ambitious growth plan in a bid to become a global powerhouse.
According to sources, it has started negotiations with Chinese tech giant Bytedance to acquire TikTok, which was banned in India, in order to achieve the objective.
While inMobi group declined to comment on the issue, the company’s founder Naveen Tiwari, in an interview a few days ago, clearly expressed his admiration for TikTok.
Tiwari had said, “Glance is among the top 10 consumer-facing global digital platforms, in terms of users. And, we have achieved that scale in just two years. The only others that had done it so fast are TikTok and WeChat.”
Tiwari wants to hit one billion users across the world in a few years. His plan this year is to take Glance to the US, Europe and Latin America. It also includes deepening reach in South-East Asia, where it is already available in Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia, among others markets.
But still, India would be a key focus area and acquisition of TikTok will bring in more users.
Glance, which is already a Unicorn, uses a unique technology by utilising the lock screen to offer a range of content from short videos, movie clips, news and sports, among others.
It is, in many ways, a super app, whose content is available not through an app which needs you to get into the phone. It is available on the lock screen.
However, the technology requires the company to tie up with device manufacturers to pre-load it on their phones. Glance has tie ups with Xioami, Samsung and Vivo, among others.
The company already understands the power of TikTok’s short video, which had in no time grabbed over 200 million daily users in India. It was just beginning to monetise its content like it has across the globe.
In November last year, Glance bought Roposo, a TikTok clone, which hit top of the charts, in terms of downloads, after TikTok was banned by the government in June 2020.
Analysts say acquisition of TikTok will provide Glance a strong brand, which it can integrate. Or, it can run it as a separate entity as an app so that it is available on all phones.
Some point out that with Google as partner, there is always a possibility that Glance could be integrated with all android devices. This will help increase user base and usage, therefore, result in monetisation.
It is already looking at a two-pronged strategy to raise revenue – advertising on the content and introducing e-commerce on the platform – which is different from Amazon and Flipkart.
The plan is to create a Bazaar, which is an influencer-led impulsive shopping platform, where consumer experience (till last mile delivery) will be owned by Glance.
