The rise of the Chinese short video-sharing app TikTok in India has been so spectacular over the past year that it is now nearly impossible for any social media user to not have come across its content.
These user-created videos that often contain memes, lip-syncing songs and sometimes sleazy posts regularly find ways to other popular social media sites including Facebook, WhatsApp and ShareChat. These are the platforms where most adult social media users are now getting introduced to TikTok.
For the young generation though, especially the teenagers and even younger kids, the app needs no introduction. In fact, according to a new report from mobile app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, out of the 18.8 crore new users that TikTok added globally in the first quarter of 2019, 8.86 crore were from India.
Globally, TikTok has far crossed 1.1 billion installs and in the first quarter of 2019, it emerged as the third most installed app in the world, ranking behind only Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, the analysis showed.
But how do you explain the dramatic rise of this app owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance?
“The rise of TikTok (formerly Musical.ly), highlights where the future of the Internet in India is: video,” leading tech policy and media consultant Prasanto K. Roy told IANS.
“Of the 500 million smartphone and mobile broadband users in India, well over 300 million consume predominantly or only video. And as we get the next 200 million online by 2020, the video-only share will rise to over 70 per cent,” he added, indicating the potential for further growth of video sharing apps in the country.
So far, the big drivers of Internet adoption in India have been WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook, with additional help from shopping and taxi apps, and some streaming services such as Hotstar.
“Unfortunately, social media has been an unsafe space and a platform like this (TikTok) which draws children in, and therefore possible predators, needs to be used with care,” Roy said. (IANS)
