Moj 2022 Wrap! Top Trends on Short Video Platform

Moj, India’s largest short video app, has unveiled its year-end wrap-up with insights on creator growth, what trended in 2022, regional viewership trends, and trends expected to continue in 2023. Micro-influencers and content in regional languages are expected to become the next big thing on Moj, along with the use of lenses that encouraged creators in 2022 to flood the platform with fun content throughout the year. Launched in July 2020, Moj is the largest Indian short video platform with close to 300 million monthly active users. The platform witnesses 3 million content uploads every day that garner close to 6 billion views daily.

QUICK HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS ON MOJ FROM 2022:

12 million monthly active creators created 750 million videos
104K Moj creators across genres earned over 3.5 billion Mints, i.e.,~US$25 million
Users gifted close to 5 million virtual gifts to their favorite creators
Moj created close to 150K earning opportunities for Indian creators through challenges, collaborations, and virtual gifting
45% of trending music was non-film
Moj collaborated with over 75 brands and executed close to 150 influencer-led bespoke campaigns this year
The 766 lenses now available on Moj saw over 130 million videos created in 2022, accounting for 18% of all videos made
Since its launch in July 2022, almost 2 million Moj LIVE streams have taken place
Moj creators ‘Minted’ success

Moj creators are monetarily gratified through Moj’s in-house currency, Mints, for their creative and engaging content on Moj LIVE and short videos. Moj Mints can be redeemed as actual money by the creators. In 2022, 104K creators across genres earned over 3.5 billion Mints, i.e., ~US$25 million. Virtual gifting, brand collaborations, and participating in challenges were the top avenues for creators to generate income on Moj.

The most popular genre that witnessed the highest number of Mints was Romance & Relationships, with 32% of the total Mints. It was followed by Comedy & Fun, which received 23% of the Mints. Moj creators Khwahish Gal, Priya Biswas, Amit Jaiswal, were some of the highest Minters in 2022.

Bringing LIVE the creativity with Moj LIVE

Moj LIVE is a live video streaming platform that enables creators to authentically showcase their talent and deeply engage with their users in real-time. One can use this feature to host live talk shows, live game streaming, jam sessions, stand-up comedy, shayari, cooking, astrology, and much more. Moj LIVE has also become the biggest source for creator monetization thanks to virtual gifting. Several unique and quirky virtual gifting options are available to fans who can appreciate and reward their favourite creators using innovative 3D digital tokens.

With cutting-edge tools and features to manage large-scale live sessions in different languages, up to 2 million viewers have been witnessed in some of the Moj LIVE sessions. In 2022, Moj has supported close to 2 million LIVE streams since its formal launch on 1st July 2022 and sees close to 1.5 million daily active users on LIVE. A total of ~90 million minutes of LIVE content has been consumed on Moj, with close to 2 billion real-time engagements with the creators. To ramp up engagement and make LIVE sessions more entertaining, unique Moj features such as the 'Creators Battle'(two creates take on each other on livestream), 'Gifters Battle' (whoever sends the most virtual gifts wins the battle), and the 'Voters Battle' (whoever votes maximum via. virtual gift wins the battle) were introduced.

Through Moj LIVE sessions, close to 5 million virtual gifts were gifted by users to their favorite creators in 2022. Celebrities like Varun Dhawan, Jhanvi Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Amit Trivedi, Lucky Ali, Jubin Nautiyal, Neha Kakkar, and many more have used this feature to engage with their fans and promote their upcoming projects.

Rise of the regions

Viewership in Tamil increased the most, by almost 71%, followed by Telugu and Bhojpuri. Over 300 million videos were created in regional languages that garnered a whopping total of 50 billion views, a trend that is expected to continue.

Lenses for the win

The year was all about quirky and fun lenses on Moj. The 766 lenses now available on the platform saw over 130 million videos being created this year, accounting for 18% of all videos created on the platform. Some popular lenses were Emoji GIF, Emoji Mood, Paisa Paisa, Frame Me, and Makeover. One of the popular lenses led to the creation of trends such as ‘Paisa Paisa’, which saw more than 500K videos being made using it and got over 1 billion views within a mere 2.5 months. Beauty lenses like Brightside, Warm Vanilla, and Icy blue were popular among the youth, contributing to over 7 million videos.

New music releases reigned supreme

Music was a crucial part of the entertainment on Moj that elevated the short video experience to the next level in 2022. Moj creators used diversified music that set trends on the app with old classics, the latest Lofi remixes, regional music, and even independent music. 20% of all music that trended on Moj was regional and local songs – the biggest ones being Bullet (Telegu), Gypsy (Haryanavi), and Ra Ra Rakkama (Kannada).

In the last six months, film music took up the largest share of trending music on the platform, at 55%, of which 20% were new releases. The top trending new film music releases were Manike, Meri Jaan, Kesariya and Bullet.

About 45% of trending music was non-film, out of which almost 40% were new releases, the most popular being Think About You, Gypsy, Dhokha, Kuch Baatein, Pagla Pagli 3, Dhoke Pyaar Ke, Tumsa Koi Pyaara, Baarish Ki Jaaye, amongst others. 

Evergreen 90s songs by singers like Alka, Kumar Sanu, Lata Mangeshkar, Udit Narayan were the most popular. More than 30 million videos were created that witnessed a total of 76 billion video plays on their songs.

Some more insights on music trends on Moj in 2022:

The top 50 songs released in the year generated over 5 million videos and the trending 100 songs generated 26 million videos on Moj in 2022

207 new music campaigns were launched through Hashtag challenges on Moj in 14 languages, and across 25 labels
Moj creators collaborated with over 60 celebrity artists to promote new music campaigns. Artists like Rakul Preet, Shamita Shetty, Rahul Vaidya, Aastha Gill, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Gauhar Khan, Aditya Seal, Palak Tiwari etc., were some of the celebs who collaborated with Moj creators

50 music celebs like Amit Trivedi, Lucky Ali, Benny Dayal, Hardy Sandhu, Stebin Ben, Alisha Chinai, and Darshan Raval went LIVE on Moj to promote their music and connect with their audience

Music labels, like Universal and PAA Originals, selected Moj creators to feature as leads in their music videos. Some of the Moj creators who got this golden opportunity to collaborate were Apoorva Arora, Neethu Nair, and Bhavi Chandramani
Creators who made it BIG with Moj

The platform has evolved into a creative haven for singers, dancers, comedians, and fitness enthusiasts, attracting talent from all over the country. It has been the ultimate entertainment destination for Moj creators. This year, Moj created close to 150K earning opportunities for Moj creators through challenges, collaborations, and virtual gifting.Many Moj creators have made a name for themselves by catering to a specific demographic. Moj creators like Neetu Nair, Riya Nehal, Bhavi Chandramani, and Aishwarya Kanna landed roles in movies and mainstream music videos. Another creator, Himanshu Srivastava from Gairatganj, MP, opened a dance studio in Mumbai due to his success on Moj. Regional creators saw a lot of growth on Moj in 2022. For the first time in India, an Odia creator, Ashish Dash from Toraniapal, Odisha, hit 1M followers on Moj.

Strategic creator collaborations paved the way for holistic creator growth

Moj collaborated with over 75 brands and executed close to 150 influencer-led bespoke campaigns this year. Thums Up (12B views), Emami (4.2B views), Dettol (10B views), and other brands collaborated with Moj to create engaging hashtag challenges with unique AR-supported lenses and hook steps that saw massive traction in Tier II and III markets.

Several new and unique partnerships in 2022 helped scout and discover different talents in India. There were many digital-first experiences launched on Moj this year. Femina Miss India 2022 hosted their auditions digitally for the first time on Moj and Sony Entertainment Television hosted India’s Got Talent's Wildcard entry (IGT) auditions on Moj. More recently, Moj served as an audition platform for Thirukumaran Entertainment's production house to scout for their lead in the upcoming Tamil film, Hyena.

QUOTE BY MOJ SPOKESPERSON

Looking at the trends observed on Moj in the year gone by, Shashank Shekhar, Senior Director, Content Strategy and Operations Moj and ShareChat, says, “The year 2022 saw Moj, and our community, grow bigger and stronger. For us, it was a year of breaking out of the clutter through innovative features, creative collaborations, and creator monetization. We reached several milestones not just around the tremendous growth in our creator community but also with never-seen-before creative interventions, which provided our creators avenues for monetization and gave brands an opportunity to engage authentically and organically with their audiences. Moj is geared up for 2023, and we hope to continue our journey towards gaining further inroads to the heartland of India and, of course, holistically grow our creator community by helping them build a sustainable career as an Indian creator.”