TIKTOK fans in the United States are racing to secure alternatives and safeguard their digital empires ahead of a looming shutdown, evoking the chaos of India’s 2020 ban that erased the app from the lives of 200 million users overnight.
While the US ban has been debated for months, India acted swiftly in June 2020 to block TikTok and nearly 60 other Chinese apps over national security concerns, stripping many creators of their main source of income and shattering a digital community.
This forced content creators to rebuild their followings and businesses on new homegrown apps and established platforms such as Meta-owned Instagram.
While top influencers successfully made the switch and even expanded their audiences, smaller creators struggled.
Gaurav Arora, who had 10.8 million followers on TikTok and bears an uncanny resemblance to Indian cricketer Virat Kohli, said he had to act quickly.
“I used to earn up to 200,000 Indian rupees (RM10,300) per month on TikTok,” said Arora, who shifted to platforms such as YouTube where he now boasts 11.3 million subscribers.
The vacuum left by TikTok drove a surge toward domestic platforms like Moj and Josh, especially in India’s smaller towns and rural areas, where TikTok had transformed locals into stars, showcasing everything from dance routines to personal stories.Moj and Josh, launched a month after the ban, have seen lifetime downloads of roughly 360 million and 308 million respectively in India, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.
“TikTok in India catered to every demography and every type of user, not just tier-1 cities. That’s why other applications like Moj were quickly able to take advantage of the ban,” said Priya Adivarekar, a digital creator.
“For top influencers, these platform disruptions matter a little less, especially since they are already present on a bunch of platforms,” said Aditya Vashistha, assistant professor of Information Science at Cornell University.
“The impact on the micro- and mid-tier influencers is going to be much stronger. I see similar ripple effects both in the US and in India.” — Reuters
