Google invests $145 million in two Indian social networks

Google, which has not been successful in this area, is investing in two Indian social networks. These are the Indian start-ups Glance and Roposo, which are actually owned by InMobi, the leader in mobile advertising in India. Google is investing on social networks in India. The American giant has devoted a budget of 145 million dollars to invest in two start-ups specialising in the activation and monetisation of social media, reports VentureBeat. The Californian company is relying on the liquidity of Google’s India Digitalization Fund. This fund is leading these two fundraising campaigns alongside Mithril Partners, the fund of Ajay Royan and Peter Thiel.   GLANCE, the next big Indian social networks These Indian social networks young but experienced. Glance depends on the subsidiary dedicated to mobile marketing activities of InMobi, the leader in mobile advertising in India. This entity focuses on lockscreen technology that allows users to view content when their phone is locked. InMobi created Glance only in March 2019. It relies on artificial intelligence technologies that provide personalised feeds and content in several languages (English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bahasa). The solution, called Lockfeed and available on Android, offers content in different categories such as entertainment, sports, fashion and news. It boasts more than 115 million active daily users who devote 25 minutes a day to it. ROPOSO : Snapchat and Tiktok’s future competitor Roposo (owned by InMobil since November 2019) has developed a platform for sharing very short videos on social networks. It claims more than 33 million active users per month who spend 20 minutes a day consuming content available in more than 10 languages. The Roposo application has been downloaded more than 103 million times from the Google Play Store in November 2020. It has clearly benefited from the ban on the Chinese TikTok application. This agreement demonstrates Google’s strong interest in the Indian technology market. Several unicorns, including InMobi, have surfaced in recent years. Above all, it shows that the interest of the Californian giant is still in social networks, where Google has suffered some setbacks. Glance wants to launch in the United States while Roposo may represent an alternative to TikTok and Snapchat. While both are based in Bangalore, India, their parent company already has offices in San Francisco.