Recently the Indian short-video sharing platform Chingari brought forward its first-ever crypto-token, ‘GARI COIN’. The launch was held at a public event at Taj Lands’ End, Mumbai. It was launched from the hands of Bollywood celebrity and the brand ambassador of the tech start-up, Salman Khan.
As the launch took place, Chingari claims to be the first social network in India to have issued crypto tokens and it claims to have completed a funding round of over $19 million from more than 30 venture funds and individual investors.
WHAT IS CHINGARI?
India’s internet usage and deliverance have been on the rise since 2016. With such high usage and popularity, rates of social media interaction come higher. A few years back Tiktok, a video-based social networking application took India by storm. It became the prime spot for social interactions through its easy features and short-form videos. The platform was filled with content like stunts, dances, and joke videos. But later, the popular application Tiktok was banned from India regarding some national security issues. It was a high source of income for a huge amount of Indian influencers. With the ban of the application, there was a huge vacuum left in India. For now, one major contender that set out to fill in this vacuum is Chingari.
Chingari is a social interaction startup, a video-sharing app based in Banglore. The application comes with features such as effects, dance, and lip-sync and was launched by Sumit Ghosh, Biswatma Nayak, and Deepak Salvi in November 2018. It also has a shopping feature for the merchandise within. It is currently in competition with the other leading video apps like Instagram Reels and MX Takata. Chingari boasts 50 million monthly active users and 85 million downloads.
Chingari is in hopes of creating a Crypto-Powered Creator Economy. To reach this goal, Chingari is set out to enable short-form video creation. It has also leveraged blockchain technology to allow creators to monetize their content and earn revenues. For this purpose, Chingari has launched its crypto token called “GARI”.
WHAT IS GARI TOKEN?
GARI is the monetary and governance token of India’s leading video-sharing platform, Chingari. GARI will provide creators with the facility to display their content digitally. This change will spread awareness of cryptocurrencies on a large scale. It has been termed as India’s first-ever crypto token and governance token. Moreover, it will give authority to creators over future platform development.
Surprisingly, it has raised $40 million within 24 hours of its live sale on the Republic platform. The platform is all set to create an NFT marketplace to sell and buy videos as NFTs. This is in turn helps in normalizing blockchain for viewers and creators. This has reflected the company’s interest in web3 and crypto.
With the help of this, token creators will be able to participate in the developmental decision. It doesn’t stop here, creators can monetize their content on the blockchain through the token. Users are also able to earn GARI tokens by creating videos on the platform.
WHAT’S NEW ABOUT GARI?
The launch took place as an Initial Dex Offering also known as IDO which is used to represent assets hosted on a decentralized exchange. This is a crowd-funded platform that is used for launching a digital token or coin on a decentralized exchange. IDOs however receive funding from individual investors and yet they do not hold any equity in the project.
Polka Starter, Binance DEX, and Uniswap are some examples of decentralized exchanges that offer IDO services. One of the first IDEOS ever launched, RAVEN, was listed in 2019 on Binance DEX. These listings are comparatively cheaper when it comes to cost and are autonomous with greater control over trading without the involvement of regulating authorities or intermediaries.
Chingari has partnered with Solana blockchain to launch and build the token on a decentralized exchange. Notably, Salman Khan also supported and helped in launching the token.
INSIGHTS TO IDO
IDOs have been the hot topic of discussion as Chingari, the parent company of Clubhouse clone FireSide will go for an IDO for its digital token GARI. It had planned to raise about $16 million through a three-day IDO and ended up raising about $40 million in the public sale of GARI.
THE BOTTOM LINES
Sumit Ghosh, the Founder & CEO of Chingari has said, “Chingari is bringing the web3 revolution to the creator economy with its GARI token. GARI will enable 30 million monthly active users of the Chingari Short video app to get on-chain…” The company Chingari did have a system called Chingari Coins on its app. It allows users and creators to earn money for performing specific activities, like uploading original audio and according to information circulating, Chingari Coins can be redeemed for cash.
The crypto sector is evidently witnessing quick and rapid expansion around the world.
Important Note: The reader is advised to do his or her own due research and diligence before investing in cryptocurrency or crypto assets. No investment of such kind is endorsed by Global Hues.
