It took TikTok just a few years to build an audience of 200 million users in India. India was its biggest market. Then, on June 29, 2020, The Indian government banned TikTok, along with 58 other Chinese apps, after a simmering conflict between India and China erupted into violence.
A popular form of entertainment disappeared overnight. Now, as American politicians discuss a plan that could shut down access to the 170 million Americans who use TikTok, India's example is a preview of what may come.
TikTok, owned by ByteDance in Beijing, established a broad base in 2017 in dozens of Indian languages. Their content—short videos—tended to be homey and hyperlocal, with endless home productions, many filmed in small towns or farms. TikTok became a platform for entrepreneurs to create businesses.
Veer Sharma was 26 when the ban began. He had 7 million followers on TikTok, where he posted videos of him and his friends singing along to songs and joking around with songs from Hindi movies. He had barely finished a formal education, but his achievements on TikTok made him proud.
Sharma earned 100 thousand rupees, about $1,200, a month. He bought a Mercedes. After he started the ban, he barely had time to record one last video. “Our times together will end soon and I don't know how or when we will be able to meet again,” he told his fans.
“Then I cried and cried,” she said.
However, India soon adapted to the lack of TikTok. Meta's Instagram swooped in with its Reels and Alphabet's YouTube with its Shorts, both TikTok-like products, and converted many of the influencers and viewers who had become inactive.
Several Indian companies tried to fill TikTok's void, but American tech giants, with their deeper pockets and expanding global audiences, came to dominate India. The country is now the largest market for both YouTube (nearly 500 million monthly users) and Instagram (362 million).
India and China have had troops on their border since 1962. In 2020, that frozen conflict turned heated. In one night of brutal hand-to-hand combat, 20 Indian soldiers were killed, along with at least four Chinese, something China has never officially confirmed.
Two weeks later, India shut down TikTok. India has already banned more than 500 Chinese apps, says Nikhil Pahwa, a digital policy analyst in New Delhi.
After the ban went into effect, the Bharatiya Janata Party — Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party — contacted Sharma, who said he was depressed. He had already been contacted by Moj, a Bengaluru-based TikTok rival. Sharma's career recovered after he posted a clip with the Chief Minister of the State of him and started making promotional videos with other BJP elected officials.
Ulhas Kamathe, a 44-year-old from Mumbai, had achieved a moment of international fame on TikTok by devouring chicken dishes while muttering “piece of chicken leg” with his mouth full. After losing his nearly 7 million followers on TikTok, he now has 5 million on YouTube, 4 million on Instagram and 3 million on Facebook.
“I have rebuilt without help—alone,” he said.
#influencers #public #India #adapted #TikTok #ban
