CHINESE APPS BAN
INDIAN STARTUPS RISE
The Indian government on June 29 announced that 59 mobile applications with relations to China, the country attacking India on India-China border in Ladakh, will be banned. This decision has been creating buzz and both Chinese and Indian economies are impacted.
So, as a citizen and business venture owner in India, what impact will you have? India is currently in the second phase of reviving from lockdown or Unlock 2.0 where most businesses are planning to be back on track but this unlock 2.0 also began with the news of Indian government banning 59 Chinese origin apps for data security and national sovereignty concerns.
While the Chinese invested applications including the Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's UC Browser along with Tiktok and others were banned in India following a border clash with China, the millions of user base who were using these entertainment, shopping and other platforms are now planning at shifting to Indian alternatives given the Atmanirbhar (self-reliant) India by the Government of India.
The not available in China, yet owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance has been recently in news for distancing itself from its Chinese roots. Yes, out of the 59 apps, the most popular one Tik Tok.
While China's response to India's actions could violate the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. In a statement, a spokesperson at the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi said, "India's measure selectively and discriminatorily aims at certain Chinese apps on ambiguous and far-fetched grounds, runs against fair and transparent procedure requirements, abuses national security exceptions, and [is suspected] of violating the WTO rules.
It also goes against the general trend of international trade and e-commerce, and is not conducive to consumer interests and the market competition in India."
While as mentioned, according to the government, the ban has been imposed under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009.
Since, there is a clear supply imbalance created by the ban, the unprecedented yet obvious opportunity for Indian applications to strengthen their market presence or even create space for start-ups for indigenous mobile applications is present.
We are already hearing news of music apps like Mitron, Roposo and others getting millions of downloads on Google Play Store and Apple Store which are the Indian alternatives of the small video-sharing phenomenon Tik Tok.
Well, one thing is for sure, the users of the banned apps will continue to live their lives and need an app that could perform the similar tasks be it data transfer or video making, so, they are looking and one has been easy to find. Hence, the easy to find Indian apps are witnessing a surge in their popularity overnight.
Removed from the Google Play Store and Apple Store are these applications and their Indian alternatives.
TikTok, Likee, Viva Video, U Video, Vigo Video, Likee, Kwai, Bigo Live Indian Alternatives are Mitron, Roposo, Chingari, Dubsmash
UC Browser, CM Browser, APUS Browser, DU Browser Indian Alternatives are Epic Web Browser, Microsoft edge, Bharat Browser
Xender, ShareIt Indian Alternatives are ShareAll, Files by Google
VivaVideo Indian Alternatives are Photo Video Maker
CamScanner, Vault-Hide Indian Alternatives are Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive
Zoom Indian Alternatives are Jio meet
Shein, ClubFactory, ROMWE Indian Alternatives are Myntra, Koovs, Ajio, LimeRoad and Jabong
Having mentioned some of the alternatives, we cannot ignore the fact that China has a huge stake in many Indian companies. This is another aspect of how China does not only have capacity to influence India as a country.
The border sharing nation has major investors who have invested in companies like Swiggy, Zomato, Delhivery and many more.
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