TikTok has been the most popular app recently that has enabled users worldwide to share their short videos for consumption on social media platforms. On account of its ease of use and discovery, TikTok caught the imagination of young, old, rich, and poor people. India was its largest audience with an estimated monthly 120 million users and 190.6 million downloads. 

With the recent Indo-China conflict in the Ladakh border, north of the Himalayas, at the Galwan valley, there has been a clamour of voices against the use of Chinese products and apps. In this context, it was discovered that these apps were collecting information from people’s phones illegally. The Indian government felt that the continued use of these apps might pose national security problems. This led to them, eventually banning 59 Chinese apps, and TikTok was one of them. In fact, the Indian Armed Forces had to order troops to remove apps such as Facebook, PUBG and Instagram in view of security measure.

WHAT MADE TIKTOK POPULAR?

• The app was originally called Musically, a popular lip-syncing and dancing app. This attracted the youth’s attention with its catchy short videos that were 15 seconds in length, with a maximum limit of 1 minute. 
•  Chinese app developer Bytedance launched Douyin, a competitor to Musical.ly. Douyin was rebranded to TikTok to appeal to the international market. 
•  Bytedance eventually acquired TikTok in 2017 with an $800 million fee. Musical.ly and Tiktok were merged into one unified brand, Tiktok. Since 2016, the app has gained over 100 million users in 2017, 200 million users in mid-2017, and amassed over 500 million downloads by July 2019.
•  The idea of a 15 second or 1-minute video suited most users for a short form of entertainment. Domestically, it was discovered that Chinese users spent over 600 million hours per day watching Tiktok videos. 
•  TikTok videos could be about anything, such as music, cooking, photography, travel, or simply recording videos. Users would get recommendations even about videos they did not follow. This increased popularity and audience growth.
•  The ‘For You’ page quickly drew attention to videos that were interesting and shared by users and helped gain millions of views.
•  The global reach statistics as of 2020 stand as follows: 466 million from India, 173 million from China, and 123 million from the US.
•  Even after going viral with entertainment-based videos, Tiktok had an increase also in educational and business-based content.
•  Celebrities like Will Smith have used TikTok to share their daily life activities. He had over 5 million followers by October 2019.

OTHER COUNTRIES FOLLOWING THE SUIT

TikTok’s availability expanded to a staggering total of 154 countries worldwide! But with the ban imposed in India, this huge number is speculated to decline. The US is Tiktok’s next largest market after India, with 37.2 million users and over 80 million downloads. Following India’s decision, similar deliberations are happening in the US and other countries too. With the breach of personal information via TikTok, the US Navy and Army have already banned the app. Australia is also vocal about the data privacy breach by TikTok. At present, the UK is investigating a Chinese company, Huawei, which had established 5G networks in the country. Other countries are concerned but may not go for completely banning TikTok.

Did you know?

Facebook user information was breached into access by Cambridge Analytica, a company that used statistics to gather information in 2018 about American voters’ choices. There were major concerns raised regarding the confidentiality of data. This led to a large percentage of people stopping the use of Facebook.

AFFECTS ON THE INDIAN ECONOMY

The trade between India and China is only next to that with the US and amounts to 12% of India’s imports. The trade is mostly concentrated in sectors, namely consumer electronics, pharmaceutical, automotive components, and consumer electronics. We are majorly dependent on China for our drug needs, as 70% of the requirement is fulfilled. Also, Chinese investment is high in our technology sector, and Zomato, Paytm, Big Basket, and Ola have been funded by Chinese majors. Hence it is not easy to wish China away considering how deep-rooted Chinese tentacles are in the Indian Subcontinent.

Key Takeaways:

• In 2018, Chinese apps were ahead, at 43%, against India’s 38%. Apps like TikTok, Shareit, and Xender have been topping Google’s Android ecosystem, accounting for 90-95% of smartphones in India.
• Chinese giants like Alibaba and Tencent have invested billions of dollars in many Indian startups such as Zomato, Paytm, Big Basket, and Ola.
• Chinese apps have been alleged to have Illegally accessed and transmitted user information
• Addiction of users to apps such as TikTok leading to accidents, suicides, and homicides.
• Corporates and Govt are urging young minds to develop Indigenous apps to counter Chinese ones paving the way for being self-sufficient (Atam Nirbhar)

With the clock officially, ‘Tiking’ the time may soon run out for China.