The government of India announced last week that the popular video-sharing platform, TikTok, would be banned, amongst other Chinese apps citing them as “sovereignty and integrity threats.”
It is worthy to note that after China, which is the host country of TikTok, India records the most downloads of the app worldwide.
They are closely followed by the United States, which is also considering following India’s lead of banning the app. It has, therefore, been a difficult week for TikTok, with rival Instagram determined to make it even more difficult.
Instagram is hoping to replace TikTok with its video-sharing feature called Reels. Facebook Inc., the parent company of Instagram said that testing for the feature will begin in India this week. This will enable more people to keep enjoying and creating video content.
This in-app tool allows users to record and upload 15-seconds long videos to their stories in a similar fashion with TikTok. Testing for Reels in Brazil started in November and has further expanded to France and Germany.
Facebook has also decided to focus solely on Reels, by shutting down its TikTok-like app called Lasso.
The Facebook spokesman said that the decision to test Reels in India is due to the vibrant culture they represent, also adding that videos make up one-third of posts in India on Instagram. A date has, however, not been announced for a global launch.
Reports show that Youtube also plans to launch a competitor for TikTok called Shorts by the end of the year.
The ban on TikTok will possibly benefit Indian companies. Roposo, a homegrown video-sharing app said that 50 million downloads were recorded since its launch in 2014, before the announcement of TikTok’s ban.
After the announcement, 22 million downloads were recorded in just two days.
Chingan also reports strong numbers. The Indian video-sharing app claims to have reached 10 million users just after its launch, three weeks ago.
Following TikTok’s ban in India, its parent company, ByteDance announced its resolve to work with the government, in achieving user security and commitment to the country in general.