Local 'TikToks' Roposo, ShareChat Flourish After India's Ban On Chinese Apps

India, a very large and growing market for most of the Chinese apps has banned as many as 59 popular Chinese Apps. The Indian government blocked all the 59 Chinese apps because of the information available that "they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order". Information Technology Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government has banned the Chinese apps only for the safety, security, sovereignty and integrity of India.

On June 29th, India declared a ban on Chinese apps including TikTok, Helo, UC Browser, Shareit, WeChat, etc in the backdrop of escalating tensions along the between India and China. TikTok was amongst the first mobile apps that disappeared from the Google Play Store after the ban. Later, popular apps like SHAREit, UC Browser, Club Factory among others were taken down.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also signed out of the Weibo account. His photo, posts, and comments have been removed from the handle that has been set up five years ago. Modi had more than 2,44,000 followers on Weibo. According to PM Modi's website, the first post on Weibo reads, “Hello China! Looking forward to interacting with Chinese friends through Weibo."

With the Chinese apps banned in India, most of the Indians are searching for alternatives to these apps. The homegrown apps ShareChat, Roposo, Mitron have got many downloads since the ban on Chinese apps.

Sharechat in a statement said that it has got 15 million new downloads within 48 hours following the ban. It also said that it has now 150 million registered users. Berges Malu, public policy director for ShareChat speaking with a news agency said that, "We welcome the move from the government against platforms that have had serious privacy, cyber-security and national security risks."

For every one hour, the Sparkle app is adding 3 new users. Downloads for Mitron have also increased, but the company has not shared the exact figures. All of these local apps are seeing a boom as Tiktok users are starting to move. Most of these apps follow the TikTok model and have on-board content creators that are being paid for.