4mo ago

Here’s What Happened When India Banned TikTok in 2020

time.com

16 comments

TLDR:
local companies rushed to meet their demand, including MX TakaTak, Chingari, and Moj
meta launched reels, YouTube launched shorts
No mention of users in India rushing out to download and install similar Chinese-language apps. 🤔
- They just don't have that USA streak of "bite my finger to spite my face" or whatever that saying is.
  
  "Cut off their nose to spite their face."
  
  At this point, in the US, it's "stab myself in the gonads to spite my face".
  
  Spider face*
- From first hand experience, Instagram reels took the crown with YT shorts in the second place.
  In my circle, I haven't seen anyone use local social media apps
  
  In my circle, I haven't seen anyone use local social media apps
  That's a bit sad, I was hoping to hear the Indian apps having traction.
  
  It's hard to beat a network with an already established user base (Meta, Google)
  
  Not sure how this is feasible unless you're certain your audience is going to use a VPN too. Seems like a risky way to lose views ie. your revenue stream.
  
  Not that I know of. It's too much hassle for the average person
  
  Well then I guess as long as daddy Sam data mines Indians it ain't as bad sheepooh huh
- Instagram Reels and YT Shorts are very popular in India, especially after the Tiktok ban. Curiously, whilst some Chinese apps are banned, Chinese hardware especially mobile phones are very popular in India.
  Since the ban was done after a Sino India border clash, there was little logic as to why Indian users would migrate to other Chinese apps and the void was filled by domestic and international replacements.
- Since Zuck, Musk and whoever runs Google didn’t lobby heavily to get TikTok banned in India, the users had no reason to be super salty towards those platforms (aside from the usual reasons to hate on those platforms). Over 5he last week I saw as many people on TikTok saying to follow them on Instagram as I saw people saying fuck Zuck, I’m not using Instagram Reels (one dude said he’d rather “walk barefoot over molten glass legos”)

16 comments