Bharat users need a Dream Girl
And the chinese are cashing on it
Remember the movie “Dream Girl” starring Ayushmaan Khurana as a protagonist? The movie correctly pointed out a very important issue in our society. The problem of loneliness, the void of not having someone to talk to. Well, it seems that we’re still not done with this issue.
In this edition of my substack, I write about how some Chinese companies have identified this issue and are making huge money.
Before we start, I would like to thank my friend Ashish Harhsvardhan, who helped me to structure my thoughts and also developed an outline for this substack. Ashish and I have thoroughly discussed various aspects of this issue ranging from geopolitical impact to impact on our society and the life of an individual.
I have given a lot of time and effort in writing this, hope this will add some value to you.
If I ask you, What is the top grossing app in India on Play Store? I bet you won’t be able to guess it correctly mostly because you don’t even know about it.
Yes, it’s an app called “Chamet”. Probably you’ve never heard of it. Now if I ask you, “Which kind of apps have the maximum presence in Google Play Store’s top grossing list?”, well, it turns out that the answer is “chamet-like” apps.
To give you an estimate, 4 out of 10 top grossing apps are chamet-like. And out of the 45 top grossing apps, 20+ are such apps.
Decluttering Chamet
Let us find out what Chamet offers that has kept itself at number one and the likes of it in top grossing list for at least the past six months (I discovered it in June 2022, and it has maintained its crown position since then).
Chamet describes itself as “Chamet is a 1-on-1 and multiplayer online video and voice chat app, which allows you to make friends from all over the world. With video calling and translation, you can communicate with strangers like face to face anytime and anywhere. Meet new friends with Chamet now! Click to open the world for you!” on Play Store.
After going through the description and images, you might have guessed what Chamet and other apps like this do. If not, I will declutter it for you.
To get to know this in detail, I downloaded the app and used it both from a user perspective and a product manager perspective. Both of these gave me pretty good insights, and I am going to share these with you.
I’ll share my product insights in this format.
These apps target male Bharat users, they primarily onboard users via ads. They convey that through this app you can talk to random girls and make friends. But when you get into users' shoes, the picture is not so straightforward.
Once you sign up for the app, you’ll be bombarded with text messages from girls asking you to call them. You’re also given free credit to make a video call to a stranger for 1 minute.
Most of the time when you use that free credit, you’re connected to a girl (sometimes, they just play a prerecorded video on the other side of the call). Once that call ends, you’re asked to purchase diamonds to make further calls. You use those diamonds while making calls. You must wonder, “Why will anyone pay just to talk to a random stranger?”. Or let’s say even if a few people may pay for this, how come so many people are paying for this that it becomes the top grossing app on Play Store? That too is not just the top position in top grossing apps, but as stated above, there are around 20+ such apps in the top 45 of the top grossing list on Play Store.
Once your free credit for calls ends, you’re then shown girls from various geographies (India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines etc.) who are live on the platform. You can talk to them via a chat, and send them digital gifts like flowers, gift hamper, jewellery etc. (none of this comes free of cost, you need to pay for these digital gifts via diamonds, and you purchase diamonds via your money).
This is an example of Digital Gifting Model. The idea of this mostly originated via china and is now being implemented on Bharat users via apps like ShareChat. The idea is you ask users to send a gift to their faviorate creators, and generally the price of these digital gifts are < $2.
You’ll be surprised to know that ShareChat generates $50 million annualy just via virtual gifting.
You can also make calls to them directly but at a cost. The cost of such calls is around $1 per minute. Most of which is kept by the company and a small portion are given to the girls. The nature of the calls depends on the girl, some prefer just talking/flirting, while most offer a mix of flirting along with semi-nudity on the call, and a few offer a complete show. Thus, the main goal of the girls is to keep the user hooked and to talk for extended periods.
The economics of the show
The amount of money a girl can charge for the call depends on their levels. Their pricing is also dependent on the services they provide and their facial appearance.
A user pays around ₹100 to get 4500 diamonds, and the average price of a call to level >4 is 4000 diamonds per minute. For this, the girl gets paid 20001 beans. They can cash out their earnings on a weekly basis. 10000 beans make up to be $1. Thus, the girl in the above example earns around ₹10-12 for a minute, while chamet keeps ₹60-70 per minute from this call.
To increase their prices, the girls need to level up. For that, they too need to purchase diamonds. For other users, a level 1 guy can’t talk to a level 5, and above girl, thus, they also need to buy more diamonds to level up.
The separation of currencies (in the from of diamonds and beans) on the platform is done by purpose.
Other features
Apart from its core offering, which is video calls and going live. They also offer other services that ensure the users are hooked to the app. This includes in-app games based on chance, like guessing a number to be drawn, and guessing which car will win. Users can bet a particular amount of diamonds from their account on a certain outcome, if they win they get some more diamonds and if they lose, that much of the diamonds are deducted. They also have features like Party Rooms, where users (both girls and boys) can join a voice chat room.
And one of the most important features for them is PK where two streamers come together and do challenges for fun.
PK also known as Players Knockout, is one of the key ingrediants that goes into making of a live streaming app. This was started in China around 2016.
You can read more about it here.
The dark side
Thus, Indians are spending the most amount of money on In-App Purchases in this particular app, out of all the 2.7 million apps available on Play Store. It has such a huge market that these apps constitute around 60% of the top grossing apps on the Play Store. If we dug, a bit deeper other exciting things pop up. Most of these apps are based out of a particular location in Hong Kong and are very similar in features and UI.
Some of them tend to have almost the same UI as well. One can easily point out that they are the same apps with different names, being put on Play Store, just to reduce the risk of going out of business if one app gets banned or delisted from Play Store.
A bright kid without a proud daddy
Imagine you’re the founder of an app which is top grossing on the Play Store. You’ll not stop posting it about everywhere. But it seems that Chamet differs here, they just have a static website and there is no information about the company its employees, founders or even investors. They have arubawei@gmail.com as their official email address on Play Store.
Upon checking Tracxn, I found an email, which led me to its parent company called Fuliao Hong Kong, but they too don’t share any information.
This needs attention
The government and Google, should both take the required steps to ensure the safety of users on such platforms. These apps also use automated bots, to spam people with messages of women asking to talk to them. Sometimes they also use pre-recorded videos to lure men into making transactions on these platforms.
You can read more about how such apps operate and fool people in this article by Quartz.
The grey picture
Despite having so many flaws, such apps are a boon for some. The girls on these platforms are from various parts of the world, mostly developing countries. In India, they are primarily from tier 2 and below areas and are 18 to 40 years old.
Due to such apps, they now have a source of income, they can work flexibly according to their availability, and most important of all they are safe from any sort of physical abuse. They can also choose to cut a call when they want.
Its users are primarily mid-range income workers in metro cities or people from tier 2 or below cities. They are the ones who can’t go on dating apps like Bumble or Tinder, as they are not accepted there. They don’t have any female exposure at their workplace or society, this makes them deprived of female attention. Such apps are a saviour for them. Through this they can talk to someone, thus escaping their loneliness.
It will be interesting to see if the government in future has any plan to regulate such apps.
fin.
If you are still reading this, thank you so much. Nothing gives me more joy than providing value to others. Please feel free to write a mail to me at rajnishkush2@gmail.com, if you want to discuss anything ranging from startups to politics to products.
Or, if you’re from KGP, let’s meet and talk over a cup of chai.
2000 beans is a guesstimate as I couldn’t get the exact data.
Why has anyone not created a clean, reliable platform chamet-like platform with good ethics? I understand that this space is not generally accepted by the larger society and that might be a reason. I am pretty sure one can create a descent business around this while making the platform trust worthy.
Folks should be able to use such platforms without being looted / scammed.