Short video platform Chingari which shot to popularity after the Indian government banned Chinese apps, including TikTok, in 2020, is laying off 20 per cent of its workforce. Chingari has around 240 employees in India, as per its LinkedIn page. The homegrown Indian short video app launched video NFT marketplace last year.
The employees being laid off by Chingari were informed about the job cuts by the HR team during one-on-one interactions on Monday (June 19), said a report by Inc42. The tech team is among the most impacted ones by the job cuts at Chingari. The startup is offering a two-month salary as severance pay to the employees impacted by the job cut and also extended their health insurance by three months, the report added.
A Chingari spokesperson was quoted as saying: “We deeply regret the need for these workforce reductions of 20% as a part of Chingari’s organisational restructuring. These were one of the toughest decisions for our management and we understand the impact they have on our employees. We are appreciative of their contributions and commitment to Chingari.”
The homegrown short-form video app had announced a new content monetisation plan for its creators and users in November 2022 under which creators and users were said to be offered daily, weekly and monthly subscription plans for monetisation for as low as Rs 20. The platform had said that subscription plans will allow creators and users to withdraw their earnings directly into their bank accounts.
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Under its Gari mining programme, Chingari rewards its creators and users native crypto token, GARI for doing in-app activities like uploading, watching, liking, commenting, and sharing videos, which can be traded on crypto exchanges and later withdrawn into the crypto wallets. However, under its subscription plans, creators and users can withdraw the earnings directly into their bank accounts, making it a friction-free and completely seamless process, said the company.
Chingari has more than 160 million users in over 15 languages, as of November 2022. It has more than 5 million daily active users (DAU) and 40 million monthly active users (MAU). The app has been downloaded more than 170 million times on official Google Play Store, said the company.