iWorld
India shared 3.5 million posts per hour on Independence Day: ShareChat
Mumbai: ShareChat, India’s leading multilingual social media platform, recently collaborated with the ministry of culture and ministry of Home Affairs for the Independence Day campaign- ‘#Anekta mei Ekta‘. The campaign aimed to celebrate & empower Indians by generating mass awareness and driving engagement on the platform. On 15 August, over 20 million users logged into ShareChat before 7 am. The platform garnered 3.5 million shares per hour in the first few hours.
Social media has become a platform of expression and virtual celebrations for users, even when it comes to celebrating patriotism. The leading trending tag on ShareChat during Independence Day was #SwantantraDiwasKiShubhkamnaein (equivalents in other languages), which amassed 170,000 creations, 750 million views, and 16 million shares in 15 languages.
Talking about the heightened engagement on the platform, ShareChat and Moj Sr. director- of content strategy & operations Shashank Shekhar said, “Indians are certainly enthusiastic about celebrating festivals, and occasions and showering their love for their country on our platforms. We are genuinely grateful to our community of creators, hosts, and users who bring these special days to life through our platforms. For Independence Day ShareChat creators crafted 500,000 pieces of content and the theme of patriotism, which garnered over 2 billion views. One ShareChat creator received 550,000 shares on her posts on patriotism. On Moj, creators curated 745,000 videos, accumulating 1.2 billion video plays. When it comes to representing India, its culture, and society, nothing compares to ShareChat and Moj.”
A set of tricoloured virtual gifts were also introduced on the platforms to celebrate the occasion. Users gifted 1.5 million Independence Day-themed virtual gifts on Moj and ShareChat. Over 300,000 live streams took place on ShareChat audio and Moj video live including flag hoisting events, poetry readings, musical gatherings, quizzes, and debates on Indian history. One of the top hosts on Moj received virtual gifts worth Rs 818,000, while the top creator on ShareChat received virtual gifts worth Rs 850,000.
Patriotism without music is somewhat incomplete. Both ShareChat & Moj have a diverse range of music given different languages and cultural nuances. ‘Desh Mere’, sung by Arijit Singh from the 2021 movie Bhuj topped the charts in content creation with users creating 124,000 videos using this song, garnering 94 million video plays. Apart from this, songs like ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ dominated in Punjabi, Bangla, Telugu, Marathi, and Odia languages, ‘Mera Rang De Basanti Chola’ in Hindi, and ‘Bharathambe Ninna Januma Dina’ in Kannada.
To understand more about how India commemorated Independence Day on the internet, read here.
Gaming
Roblox appoints Sunil Rao as India managing director to drive growth
Former AWS leader to lead creator ecosystem, partnerships and local strategy
MUMBAI: Roblox has appointed Sunil Rao as managing director for India, as the company looks to deepen its footprint in one of its fastest-growing markets.
Rao, who will join in May, will serve as the senior-most representative for Roblox in India, leading local strategy, partnerships and day-to-day operations. His mandate includes strengthening the platform’s presence, supporting the creator ecosystem and aligning India’s market needs with global priorities.
A key focus area will be nurturing India’s growing community of developers and creators, enabling local studios to leverage Roblox’s tools for scaling and monetisation. Globally, the platform’s creator community earned over $1.5 billion in 2025, underlining the economic potential of user-generated content ecosystems.
“Roblox is at the forefront of enabling a new generation of creators and games. India’s scale, creativity, and entrepreneurial energy present a massive opportunity,” said Rao. “I’m excited to build a vibrant and inclusive ecosystem that empowers developers and creators across the country. Ensuring child safety and aligning closely with India’s regulatory framework will be among my top priorities.”
Welcoming the appointment, Roblox vice president international Zhen Fang said India represents a high-potential market for the company. “Sunil brings deep expertise in building operations across diverse markets, and his passion for community-centric platforms makes him the ideal leader to drive our next chapter of growth in the country.”
Rao brings over two decades of experience across technology platforms, venture capital and developer ecosystems. He was previously part of the leadership team at Amazon Web Services, where he led strategy and corporate business development across Asia-Pacific and Japan. He also served as a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, working closely with startups and founders.
Earlier in his career, Rao played a key role in building developer ecosystems at Symbian, Nokia and Google, contributing to the growth of major mobile and internet platforms.
With India’s large youth population and rapidly evolving digital landscape, Roblox’s latest leadership move signals a sharper focus on long-term growth, local relevance and creator-led innovation in the market.
