Launched in 2018, hyperlocal social media startup Lokal has been steadily making inroads into India. The app is currently active in 180 regions, claims to be profitable in 40 regions, and plans to operate in 500 regions by the end of 2022.
When Jani Pasha and his co-founder Vipul Chaudhary started Lokal in 2018, they wanted to deliver hyperlocal news and developments to their non-English speaking user base.
The app works with a network of 250 field reporters, stringers and field sales teams. It provides hyperlocal news on topics ranging from agriculture and politics to daily information on necessities including food and gas prices.
The Bengaluru-based startup initially attracted users through advertisements on different social media platforms, but much of its user acquisition is organic and through word of mouth.
This pattern is more or less suitable for them until the app users go a step further. In addition to using the app for hyperlocal news, people in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have also started advertising.
Lokal offers classifieds for local businesses and individual sellers, marriage ads, job openings from delivery executive jobs to government jobs, and content on life skills like finance, education, farming, and health tips. Advertising is free in regional languages such as Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, and the app is widely adopted.
As of June 2020, the app, launched in 2018, has 6 million downloads and a 4.5 million user base from more than 25 territories in three states.
But the COVID-19 pandemic quickly led to changes in user habits that affected how Lokal was used.
Consumers locked at home need content more than ever. According to the State of Mobile 2022 report by market research firm App Annie, consumers in the top 10 global mobile markets spend a staggering 4.8 hours a day on mobile devices.
Until now for posting business-related ads and reading news stories, Lokal has become the go-to app for posting medical and food-related requests during the COVID-19 pandemic. A news article posted on the app about needing open-heart surgery helped save the life of a four-month-old baby in the meantime
“Our user base is growing so fast; it’s still growing,” Jani Pasha, co-founder and CEO of Lokal, told YourStory in an interaction.
Lokal’s user base has grown 8x from March 2020 to December 2021 and is expected to grow at least 9-10x in 2022-23.
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