Will Indians Replace TikTok?
Indian founders rush to fill the gap created by India’s Monday ban of 59 Chinese apps.
Fewer than 24 hours after the Indian government banned 59 Chinese apps — including TikTok, Likee, UC Browser, WeChat, and Club Factory — on Monday, June 29, emails from founders flooded the inbox of Bengaluru-based venture capitalist Prayank Swaroop, a partner at Accel Partners India. Many of these founders were looking to replace ByteDance’s TikTok, the most popular video-sharing app in India with over 200 million monthly active users in the country.
“I had around 50-60 companies writing to me about alternatives to the apps that have been banned,” said Swaroop, who is bullish on this new opportunity, created virtually overnight. “Many of them started building these apps a few weeks and months ago, and most of them seem serious about it.”
Indian founders are making the best of this opportunity, afforded after months of rising anti-Chinese sentiment in India — and venture capitalists say that they are ready to fund these projects.