Build, Build, Build: “India’s TikTok” Chingari Launches NFT Video Marketplace

After shaking up the video sharing landscape, India’s hottest young social media app Chingari has set its sights on Web3. The platform, affectionately known as the nation’s TikTok, has just released a video NFT (vNFT) marketplace called Creator Cuts. Alongside the social token GARI, Chingari’s Solana blockchain integration looks set to create new relationships between content creators and viewers, giving both the opportunity to profit from creating and enjoying the content they love.

Chingari’s rapid ascent

In just under four years, Chingari has consistently emerged as the most disruptive force in India’s social media landscape. After hitting the Google Play Store in November 2018, it was a few years before the application developed by Sumit Ghosh, Biswatma Nayak and Deepak Salvi took off. Once it did, however, it quickly became unstoppable.

A ban on TikTok in 2020 really kicked things off for homegrown apps that offer similar video clip platforms. Among them was Chingari. But what sets Chingari apart from the pack is its embrace of radical new technologies – like those that power Web3.

But even before Chingari integrated the Solana blockchain, the app was loaded with innovative features that helped it secure a rapidly growing user base. Not only was Chingari available in 11 local Indian languages, but it integrated powerful augmented reality features, voiceovers, funky filters on the Chingari camera and embedded music.

This commitment to innovation attracted users – and lots of them – which helped the app win the AtmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge award in August 2020. The sudden rise made the platform appeal to established media and entertainment brands as well. During 2020 and beyond, the partnerships began to roll in. The likes of Biigbang Amusement, Kadak Entertainment, BandEdge and TrueFan all jumped on board. Such a rapid rise also helped secure investments, such as the $13 million round led by OnMobile in April 2021.

Enter blockchain, GARI and Creator Cuts

After success after success, anyone would forgive the Chingari team for taking a breather. Instead, it continued down an interesting and highly innovative path.

In early 2022, the platform integrated the Solana blockchain and launched the GARI token – a cryptocurrency intended to drive a circular creator economy. Concurrent with the launch, the project released its own wallet to help onboard users with encryption and give them the means to participate in the Web3 revolution. When they go live, users can earn crypto assets by engaging with their favorite creators’ content.

Now with a user base of more than 130 million and seeing daily active users often top 5 million, Chingari has delivered a world first with its vNFT marketplace, Creator Cuts.

Creator Cuts aims to bridge the gap between content creators and their followers by offering another way for the former to monetize their work. Interestingly, however, it extends this earning potential to content consumers as well.

When someone buys a vNFT, they automatically receive GARI rewards directly into any Solana compatible wallet they hold the token. Set at 10% of content creators’ total platform revenue and delivered daily, this not only stimulates a vibrant primary and secondary market for vNFTs, but also encourages creators to continue creating the best content for their followers.

Creator Cuts are a big deal: Here’s why

The Creator Cuts perfectly showcase Web3’s disruptive potential. The platform offers a complete reimagining of the balance of power between content creators, their fans and even the company that hosts content.

In Web2, the companies kept tight control over the bag. Platforms like YouTube, Spotify and others are notorious for their lean revenue splits, leaving creators liable to bring in users who feel like they’ve pulled the trigger.

Web3, on the other hand, empowers creators by giving them the tools to monetize their content at will. For example, when auctioning a video clip on Creator Cuts, the creator takes the lion’s share of the revenue and platform users can generate passive income by interacting with and sharing the content they love.

Although Web3 is still a very new niche, examples like Creator Cuts show a promising alternative to the corporate-controlled Internet, pointing toward a new, more democratized, and ultimately fairer future.