Moj, a short video app, has released its year-end wrap-up, which includes information on creator growth, what trended in 2022, regional viewership trends, and trends that are expected to continue in 2023. Micro-influencers and regional language content are expected to be the next big thing on Moj, along with the use of lenses that encouraged creators to flood the platform with fun content throughout the year in 2022. Moj, which was launched in July 2020, is the largest Indian short video platform, with nearly 300 million monthly active users. Every day, three million pieces of content are uploaded to the platform, which receives close to six billion views.

Looking at the trends observed on Moj in the year gone by, Moj and ShareChat, content strategy and operations senior director Shashank Shekhar said, “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 monetisation. 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 monetisation 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.”

Moj creators ‘Minted’ success

Moj creators are compensated monetarily for their creative and engaging content on Moj Live and short videos using Moj's in-house currency, Mints. The creators can redeem Moj Mints for real money. In 2022, 104K creators from various genres earned over 3.5 billion Mints, or $25 million. The most popular ways for creators to earn money on Moj were virtual gifting, brand collaborations, and participating in challenges.

Romance & relationships was the most popular genre in terms of Mints, accounting for 32 per cent of all Mints. Following that was comedy & fun, which received 23 per cent of the Mints. In 2022, Moj creators Khwahish Gal, Priya Biswas, and Amit Jaiswal were among the highest Minters.

Moj Live

With cutting-edge tools and features for managing large-scale live sessions in multiple languages, some Moj Live sessions have attracted up to two million viewers. Moj has supported nearly 2 million live streams since its formal launch on July 1 and has nearly 1.5 million daily active users on Live. Moj has had 90 million minutes of live content consumed, with nearly two billion real-time engagements with the creators.

Unique Moj features such as the 'Creators Battle' (two creators take on each other on Livestream), the 'Gifters Battle' (whoever sends the most virtual gifts wins the battle), and the 'Voters Battle' (whoever votes the most via. virtual gift wins the battle) were introduced to increase engagement and make Live sessions more entertaining.

In 2022, users gave nearly five million virtual gifts to their favourite creators via Moj Live sessions. Celebrities such as Varun Dhawan, Jhanvi Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Amit Trivedi, Lucky Ali, Jubin Nautiyal, Neha Kakkar, and others have used this feature to interact with their fans and promote upcoming projects.

Regional growth

Tamil viewers increased by nearly 71 per cent, followed by Telugu and Bhojpuri. Over 300 million videos in regional languages were created, with a total of 50 billion views, a trend that is expected to continue.

Lenses

On Moj, the year was all about quirky and fun lenses. Over 130 million videos were created this year using the 766 lenses now available on the platform, accounting for 18 per cent of all videos created on the platform.

Emoji GIF, Emoji Mood, Paisa Paisa, Frame Me, and Makeover were some of the most popular lenses. One of the popular lenses inspired the creation of trends such as 'Paisa Paisa,' which saw over 500K videos made with it and over 1 billion views in just two and a half months. Beauty lenses such as Brightside, Warm Vanilla, and Icy Blue were popular among teenagers, contributing to more than seven million videos.

Music

Music was an important part of the entertainment on Moj in 2022, elevating the short video experience to the next level. Moj's creators used a wide range of music to set trends on the app, including old classics, the most recent lofi remixes, regional music, and even independent music. Regional and local songs accounted for 20 per cent of all music trending on Moj, with the most popular being Bullet (Telugu), Gypsy (Haryanavi), and Ra Ra Rakkama (Kannada).

Film music accounted for 55 per cent of trending music on the platform in the last six months, with 20 per cent being new releases. Manike, Meri Jaan, Kesariya, and Bullet were the top trending new film music releases.

Non-film music accounted for approximately 45 per cent of trending music, with the most popular songs including Think About You, Gypsy, Dhokha, Kuch Baatein, Pagla Pagli 3, Dhoke Pyaar Ke, Tumsa Koi Pyaara, and Baarish Ki Jaaye, among others.

The most popular songs from the 1990s were by Alka  Yagnik, Kumar Sanu, Lata Mangeshkar, and Udit Narayan. More than 30 million videos were created, with 76 billion video plays on their songs.

Moj creators

The platform has evolved into a creative haven for singers, dancers, comedians, and fitness enthusiasts from across the country. For Moj creators, it has been the ultimate entertainment destination. Moj created nearly 150K earning opportunities for Moj creators this year through challenges, collaborations, and virtual gifting.

Many Moj creators have built a following by catering to a specific demographic. Moj creators such as Neetu Nair, Riya Nehal, Bhavi Chandramani, and Aishwarya Kanna have landed roles in films and music videos. Because of his success on Moj, another creator, Himanshu Srivastava from Gairatganj, MP, opened a dance studio in Mumbai. Regional creators experienced significant growth on Moj in 2022. Ashish Dash from Toraniapal, Odisha, became the first Odia creator to reach one million followers on Moj.

Collaborations

This year, Moj worked with over 75 brands and ran nearly 150 influencer-led bespoke campaigns. Thums Up (12 billion views), Emami (4.2 billion views), Dettol (10 billion views), and other brands worked with Moj to create engaging hashtag challenges with unique AR-supported lenses and hook steps that received massive traction in Tier II and III markets.

Several new and unique partnerships in 2022 assisted in scouting and discovering various talents in India. This year saw the launch of numerous digital-first experiences on Moj. For the first time, Femina Miss India 2022 held their auditions digitally on Moj, and Sony Entertainment Television hosted India's Got Talent's Wildcard entry (IGT) auditions on Moj. Moj was recently used as an audition platform by Thirukumaran Entertainment's production house to scout for the lead in the upcoming Tamil film, Hyena.