India's leading vernacular social networking platform Helo has successfully redefined how its users connect and communicate in desi languages, a top company executive said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Available in 14 languages including Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam, Helo aims to empower users to better express themselves by "consuming and sharing viral content, celebrity news and trending topics," Shyamanga Barooah, Head of Content Operations, Helo, told IANS.
"Helo is a social media platform available in 14 languages: Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Oriya, Bengali, Kannada, Punjabi, Assamese, Haryanvi, Rajasthani and Bhojpuri.
"We are thrilled to share that Helo crossed more than 1 million downloads within the very first month of its India launch in June this year and has been consistently ranked among the top free apps on the Google Play Store," Barooah added.
Launched by Chinese content giant ByteDance, Helo aim to bridge the information gap for Indians, narrowing the digital divide for the larger population.
"With its trending topics feature, Helo also bridges the gap between the real desis and popular celebrities, political figures as well as other key influencers," Barooah noted.
When asked that in an era of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, how does Helo plan to stand out in the crowd, he said that the focus of the company is not about competition but rather on empowering users.
"We continuously innovate to deliver to them a best product experience. In line with this, we are harnessing a data-driven approach to understand our users' requirements better, through conducting on-ground research and gathering qualitative data etc.," Barooah said.
The app has emerged as a preferred destination for celebrities to connect with local fans in regional languages.
Music composer-singer Shankar Mahadevan and actor Hansika Motwani are very popular on Helo, sharing pictures and videos daily for thousands of their fans.
Helo is available in India for both iOS and Android users.
(Shalini Pathak can be contacted at shalini.p@ians.in)