ByteDance is no mood to give up on Indian market despite its most popular app TIKTOK was unilaterally banned in India earlier this week. This was revealed by ByteDance’s senior executive, Zhen Liu, in an exclusive interview with economic times (ET) Liu said that the Chinese company plans to invest nearly $1 billion in the India market that will be mainly used for creating local data centers across the country.
She also disclosed that the company is planning to launch another app in India next month. She did not confirm whether the app will be in the similar lines as the recently banned TikTOK. However, the senior executive did say that it will be content cum entertainment app.
It must be noted that ByteDance has portfolio of 20 apps, out of which the Chinese company has launched 3 apps in India including the now-banned TikTok, Hello and Vigo. But it was short video app TIKTOK that managed to capture the imagination of the Indian mobile consumers. The app until it was banned earlier this week boosted 125 Mn monthly active users.
With regards to the ban imposed on TikTok Liu told ET “We are constantly learning. We are in India for the long term. We are a very young company and this is the beginning of our journey. This is the market where we want to do the right things and we are very patient.”
TIKTOK Indian Fiasco
The trouble for the Chinese app started when in February this year Tamil Nadu (TN) government called for a complete ban, citing that the app promoted child pornography among teenagers and small children. The controversy later snowballed into legal matter after Madras high court upheld the TN government’s decision and imposed ban on the app.
ByteDance’s hope to revoke the ban by appealing against Madras HC order in Supreme Court (SC) was dashed earlier this week. Following the SC order, Indian government immediately asked Google and Apple to take down the controversial app from their play stores.
India is not the only country to clampdown on TIKTOK. Bangladesh and Indonesia have also cracked down on the app for spreading erotic and adult contents among teenagers.