New Delhi, Nov. 5 -- Even as India has emerged as a global frontrunner in building a robust digital stack-from UPI to successful homegrown ventures in e-commerce and ride-hailing-the country continues to struggle when it comes to social media platforms.

Past ventures, such as Hike and Koo, failed to gain lasting traction. The reasons lie in a mix of limited scalability, inconsistent funding, weak advertising ecosystems, and an overreliance on imitation rather than innovation. With the government stepping up its push for 'atmanirbharta' (self-reliance) in the digital space, creating sustainable homegrown social media platforms remains an uphill task.

Of the estimated 5.5 billion people using social media globally, about 491 million consu...