Problem
The absence of host incentives and engagement support prevented chatrooms from maintaining optimal room dynamics, limiting their ability to scale into a high-engagement growth channel.
Role
Lead UX Designer
Skills
Research, UI & Prototyping
Outcome
Built a monetisation layer that incentivised hosts to maintain healthy room dynamics, converting live conversations into a scalable revenue stream.
＄25 Million
Annual Revenue
1 Billion+
Microtransactions
/ Context
Understanding
Real-time Social Connection.
Within a year of launch, ShareChat’s audio chatrooms became one of India’s largest live audio community, with users streaming over 1.2 billion minutes of audio every month. Learn More
Host & Speakers
Up to 8 audio speakers could participate while others engaged in text.
Hosts were the moderators, curators, and facilitators of the vibe.
Comments
All users entering chatroom can comment via text, stickers and gif.
Text layer for low-pressure interaction to accommodate for shy yet curious users.
Chatroom - Discovery Feed
Chatroom View
Chatroom FTUE for the host
User interest in live conversations was evident (10M+ MAU),
but the absence of a critical mass of active rooms prevented chatrooms from becoming a reliable, high-engagement growth driver.
/ Problem Statement
Demand Existed.
Supply Didn’t Scale.
1:25
Peak Chatroom
Engagement
Engagement vs Online member
Data showed peak engagement at a 1:25 host-to-member ratio, with engagement dropping as room size grew beyond this point due to reduced reciprocity and participation.
Hosts carry much of the responsibility for sustaining conversation and keeping users engaged in real time.
Without clear incentives, hosts had little reason to consistently invest the effort required to maintain this engagement.
/ Research : Host interviews
How can we increase active hosts in the ecosystem?
Ability to Earn
Active hosts streamed for several hours daily and, in return for their sustained contribution, sought meaningful ways to earn from the system.
Social Gratification
Community-level recognition and validation from high-affinity members played a key role in motivating popular hosts to remain consistently active.
We reviewed multiple streaming models across consumer product to understand creator monetisation like Youtube,
Twitch, TikTok etc.
/ Brainstorming
Competitor Analysis
/ Brainstorming
How can we enable
Monetisation for hosts?
Introducing paid visual reactions that let fans express appreciation during live moments while supporting creators.
Hosts can accumulate and redeem these reactions carrying virtual monetary value as real earnings.
By turning real-time engagement into a tangible reward, the system aligned host motivation with audience participation, strengthening both consistency and scale.
Goals &
Design Conceptualisation
Creating a Virtual Economy
Creating an in-app economy where reactions carry monetary value and can be redeemed.
Contextual Relevance
Based on how users naturally react during live audio conversations, we identified common response patterns and designed tiered visual reactions that stood out visually.
01
Progressive Discovery of
paid virtual gifts or reactions.
Gift Discoverability & Selection
Explore: We included a new gift icon which would open a bottomsheet containing all the virtual gifts or reactions.
Selection: Users can select speakers whom they would want to send gifts.
Gift Value: Each gifts are of a certain monetary value redeemable by hosts.
1.1 Possible challenges
Comment engagement might get effected by Overcrowding bottom bar
Gift Discovery
Quick gift for Experienced user
02
Integrating full screen animated gifts
for social validation & screen presence.
We designed a virtual gift system that resonated across India's diverse cultural landscape while driving meaningful economic value for creators? We needed to create digital assets that would:
Appeal viscerally across regional and cultural boundaries
Trigger emotional connections between viewers and creators
Translate cultural context into universal symbols of appreciation
03
Introducing a recharge/wallet flow to enable
transactions for paid virtual gift or reactions.
Recharge prompt - Auto dismissive
Pack Selection
Payment Confirmation
04
Convert paid virtual gifts into
redeemable earnings for hosts.
Earning Cash - Nudge
Empty State - Onboarding
Real time update
Bonus tasks - User engagement
Cash Withdrawal
Transaction Details/Analytics
We hit our first $1M in revenue with 50K+ creators making their earning from the platform while performing live in chatroom.
Key Insights from Interviews
Users sought a reciprocal value from the system in exchange of their contribution.
Building a system for hosts to rally their fans against other hosts.
/ Phase 2
Scaling revenue
from $1M to $25M.
01
Enable hosts to rally their communities
in live battles against other hosts.
Battle Progress Bar
Each gifts sent during ongoing battle get accounted.
Top gift sender gets updated in the progress bar.
Battle's countdown timer keeps track of time left.
Total gifted value determines the winner.
Chatroom FTUE for the host
Battle Ongoing
Live user leaderboard
02
Enabling Hosts to initiate
battles and participate in tournaments.
Battle Creation - Host vs Host
Tournament Battle
Rival Pairing
Battle winner
User Nudge
Transaction Details/Analytics
Learnings and
Outcome
What started as an engagement feature evolved into a large-scale monetisation engine, proving that design-led systems can drive meaningful outcomes for users, creators, and the platform alike.
$25 Million
Annual Revenue
1 Billion+
Micro Transactions
1.8 Million
Users Received Gifts
150K+
Hosts Earned Money
Curious about the work?
Let's Connect.
Phone Number
+919741913592
Email Id
chetan.potnuru@gmail.com