Lokal, a hyperlocal social media platform focused around community updates, jobs, matrimonial, real estate, and classifieds, today announced its entry into Maharashtra. The application will provide hyper-local solutions in Marathi and has already witnessed a significant number of active users across 36 districts of the state.
In the journey to make the internet meaningful for tier 2/3 India, this expansion marks an important milestone. Addressing the need for native language platforms, Lokal aims to garner 10 million users within a year. Since Marathi is one of the most spoken languages, Lokal believes the state will contribute 25% of revenue in the coming quarter.
Founded in 2018, Lokal offers the highest district level density of users, given its focus on smaller geographical areas. It is on a mission to strengthen hyperlocal communities by enabling its users to share, interact, and transact in their native language. The application commenced its operations from Telangana and has been a key catalyst in empowering digital opportunities for tier 2 and tier 3 states of south India. As the state boasts of its increasing number of emerging businesses, Lokal identified Maharashtra as their entry point in the western part of the country.
Lokal is currently operational in 150+ districts across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and now Maharashtra. Lokal is also planning to extend its footprint in the high potential international markets of Southeast Asia.
Commenting on this strategic move, Jani Pasha, Co-founder and CEO of Lokal, said, “We are a country with a remarkable diversity of societies, demographics, traditions, and languages. Our mission is to democratise digitisation by enabling every non-English speaking Indian with relevant digital opportunities in their native language.
The expansion to Maharashtra is a key component of our growth plans in India. It is a state where culture, commerce, and community are at its heart, and we are certain our location-level services will serve the state of Maharashtra well.”
Lokal has successfully garnered over 10 million downloads. The application played an instrumental role last year during multiple region-specific lockdowns. It bridged the communication gap with real-time pandemic updates, lockdown measures, and information on the availability of daily commodities. Since an increasing number of users from non-metro cities adopted a digital-first approach via Lokal App, its revenue has increased tenfold year on year and is growing at a 30% month-on-month basis.
