India is on mission AatmaNirbhar. While the people of the country may take their own time to shift to Indian products, the “digital world” is already winning this race.
A couple of weeks back, the Government of India banned 59 Chinese apps amid demand to boycott Chinese products. On one hand, to counter the Chinese invasion, our soldiers sacrificed theirlife for the country at the border. But, on the other hand, the decision to ban Chinese apps came in as a big shock for millions of TikTok users. Truly, it was the worst breakup for its users, and they weren’t even ready for it!
TikTok was not just an app in India, it was an active part of many people’s lives.
According to a report by DU Express, an 18-year-old TikTok star, Sandhya Chauhan passed away by suicide. Some people are speculating that the ban on TikTok might be one of the triggers for her extreme step.
In terms of monetary impact, as per a report by the Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB), the ban on TikTok led to a loss of about Rs 120 crore in annual earnings of the top 100 influencers on the platform. A content creator, with a follower base in millions, could earn Rs 30,000-35,000 a month, the report said.
The basic concept of TikTok was to allow users to create and share 15-second videos on the platform. But, as it is said, “one man’s loss is another man’s gain”; app developers got the opportunity to fill the TikTok void. The competition has become like a “Swayamvar” where users (bride) are in search of a perfect match and the companies (groom) are showing their skills/new features to win them (users).
Here are a few apps that have gained traction and are trying hard to make people forget about TikTok.
- Mitron: Once removed from Google Play Store and then listed back, the Bengaluru-based app, Mitron has now touched 25 million downloads. Also, as per a report by India.com, the company claimed that about 40 million videos are viewed on the platform per hour while nearly one million new videos are created per day.
- Chingari: This app surely gave TikTok a run for its money after it received support from Indian billionaire businessman Anand Mahindra! As per a report by Hindustan Times, while TikTok was limited to uploading videos and exploring content in a news feed-esque fashion, Chingari, in addition to these features allows users to interact with new people, share content with them and also provides trending news, entertainment news, love quotes and more.
- Instagram Reels: Does this new feature integrated into Instagram need any introduction with how aggressively it’s being promoted all over by celebrities? Just like TikTok, Instagram Reels also lets you record short videos and edit them with music tracks, filters, and more. Though still at the testing phase, this feature has already garnered the attention of Instagraminfluencers and content creators.
- Moj: ShareChat’s Moj is trending on Google PlayStore. It made its debut on June 29 and amassed 10 million downloads within a week. Apart from having similar features like TikTok, according to The Financial Express, the app also has the facility for users to lip-sync, and the interface of the app is simple and user friendly.
- Roposo: The app has been around since late 2014. The latest version which was released last month helped it to gain attention. Roposo, similar to TikTok, is a platform where people post creative videos. Reportedly, the platform has been acquired by InMobi, which is a global mobile advertising company based out of Bangalore. Roposo has over 50 million downloads.
- ShareChat: This app saw a massive rise in downloads post the ban on Chinese apps. As per a report by The Indian Express, between June 19 and June 28, the app was downloaded by 1,400,000 smartphone users. In the next 10-day period, ShareChat was downloaded by 5,000,000 smartphone users, an increase of 257%.
- Trell: As per a report by Business Insider, the interface used for this app is much better than Roposo and Moj. You can switch between tabs — like Travel, Reaction Videos, Food, and others — to choose the kind of content you want to share or the type of content you want to see. With a rating of 4.6 stars, Trell is the lowest ranked as compared to its peers.
- GaanaHotShot: This newly launched app is by Gaana. Released on the same line, HotShot allows Indian content enthusiasts intuitive, seamless, and snappy tools to create and share short viral videos and stories. “With this, we hope to add another 100 million new users to our platform over the next year, taking the total to 250 million,” Gaana Chief Executive Officer Prashan Agarwal told PTI.
- Bolo Indya: According to The Indian Express’ report, the app witnessed a huge jump in new useractivity following the first 24 hours of the Chinese app ban. Quoting Varun Saxena, co-founder, Bolo Indya, it said, “We saw over 2.5 lakh installs, with 87% of these signing up and creating videos and 1.27 crore videos have been created in June, with 6.37 lakh videos created in last 24 hours; with this 70 lakh hours of video content has been consumed in the last 24 hours”.
- HiPi: Owned by Zee5, this is the latest one on the block. Reportedly, unlike TikTok, which caps lip-synced videos at 15 seconds, HiPi videos will be over a minute long. It will be free to begin with, but HiPi’s ad-supported format could give way to a subscription-driven service integrating it more closely with ZEE5.
Though companies are trying there best to please people, it will be very difficult to make them forget about TikTok. Till then, looks like the race will continue, untill people find a perfect alternative.