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Writer's pictureLakshmi Balasubramanian

How brands and influencers adapted to the Tiktok ban

Love it or hate it, but Tiktok was undoubtedly one of the biggest social media blockbusters until it was banned in India in June 2020. It had equalized content creation across all of India. No design knowledge, no targeting – just a simple platform for users to share content that entertains, and even educates. Moreover, it gave room for vernacular content that was not very prominent on social media platforms. This made TikTok a platform for all. Brands used TikTok galore and digital advertising budgets allocated to the medium rose. What happened after the Tiktok ban?

Perplexed creators initially spent hours together understanding the platform, the audience, and making content. They again had to move to another platform, understand the audience and personas, and start building content. Brands would also have to find where this TikTok audience has found their quota of TikTok-like content.

TikTok brought with itself an ecosystem as a whole – the short form video ecosystem. Indian app developers (and global ones with Indian footprints) grabbed this opportunity and made changes and additions to their platforms to attract content creators and brands. However, newer platforms made entries, and creators and brands pivoted soon thereafter.

Instagram Reels

Instagram Reels have become popular, thanks to Instagram’s active push and algorithm changes. Content creators are gaining more traction via the reels feature, which also is giving users access to quick information and entertainment.

Roposo

Roposo existed in India since 2014, but 40 million users downloaded the app in the next two months after the TikTok ban happened in India. Need we say more?

Bolo Meets

Here, creators launch an online service to his/her follower base. Sessions are facilitated through private video chat rooms, or group video sessions with a maximum of 10 people per session. Influencers are making the most of Bolo Meets for its organic reach and the genuine need for specialised advice / consultation the audience is looking for.

Chingaari

Chingaari is an Indian short-story platform similar to TikTok in its interface, and has its eyes on leveraging micro creators.

Content creators, brands and content are all platform agnostic. However, TikTok has given boost to an ecosystem that is likely to stay, till we find something as disruptive again.

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