Google In Preliminary Talks To Buy Bengaluru Based Regional Social Media Platform ShareChat

Sundar Pichai led Google Inc is said to be in preliminary talks with Bengaluru based homegrown regional language social media platform ShareChat, reports Economic Times.

Google has signed a term sheet or a non-binding proposal with the company and is conducting a due diligence exercise. If the deal materialises, it could be valued at $1.03 billion. It could be a case whereby all the existing investors in the company could exit, with the founders retaining a small stake.

ShareChat boasts of 160 million users across India and offers services in some 15 vernacular Indian languages.

Following the TikTok ban announced by the Government, ShareChat had also launched a competing short-video format application in July. The same has witnessed phenomenal growth, amassing 80 million users as per industry estimates.

Meanwhile, it should also be noted that earlier this year, Pichai had announced that Google had earmarked $10 billion for investments into India. This was followed by a whopping $4.5 billion investment into Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Platforms for a 7.73 per cent stake.