A popular social media app, Tiktok allows its users to create, watch and share short videos that are created on mobile devices or webcams. The app has taken the digital world by storm as users create videos of different genres like pranks, games, entertainment, etc. It owes its popularity to its ease of use, high levels of engagement and addictive quality.
Douyin is a short-form video hosting service created and owned by a Chinese Company called ByteDance. It was originally released in September 2016. The international version of Douyin is called Tiktok, which was launched in 2017 in most markets outside of mainland China for iOS and Android platforms. However, it was only after it merged with another Chinese social media service, Musical.ly in August 2018 that it became available for use worldwide.
Since its launch, Tiktok has rapidly grown and gained popularity in almost every part of the world. By October 2020 Tiktok was downloaded in excess of 2 billion times, making it the third fastest-growing brand of 2020. Growing further, it became the most popular website of 2021, surpassing Google.
Top Downloaded Apps in 2021
The Downfall of TikTok
Controversies Related to TikTok
Although successful and globally popular, Tiktok has had its share of controversies. Through the years, it has been subjected to bans in countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan which have cited reasons like inappropriate content.
These bans, however, were lifted within a short time as the company took proactive steps to take down offensive material as well as set up local offices to monitor and sanitize the content posted on its app.
India Banned TikTok
March 23, 2020, will always be remembered in history as the day the world literally came to a standstill.
China came into sharp focus as the epicentre of the dreaded COVID-19 virus.
India banned 59 Chinese apps including Tiktok in June 2020 citing reasons of security of the state and public and prejudicial to the sovereignty of India.
In January 2021 this ban was made permanent.
India was Tiktok’s largest market with over 200 million users just before the ban.
The Tiktok app was downloaded more in India than anywhere else in the world between July 2019 and June 2020.
The app’s struggle first began in August 2020 with then President Donald Trump.
Trump signed an order to ban all Tiktok transactions in 45 days if it was not sold by ByteDance
Within days, Trump issued a second order giving ByteDance 90 days to sell the US portion of its business to US companies. This was done citing reasons for national security. The Trump administration was concerned over the privacy issues of the app users.
There were talks of Oracle and Walmart buying a stake in Tiktok. This was done to alleviate fears of the misuse of the private data of US citizens.
These tentative deals have been blocked by numerous court challenges and it remains uncertain.
The fight continued with the Joe Biden Administration.
The new administration has yet not set any new policy on the app.
It claims to be evaluating the risks to USA data and will deal with it decisively and effectively if required.
On June 30, 2022, Brendan Carr, one of the commissioners of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) renewed the call to remove the app from Apple and Google’s App Store.
He has written to these companies strongly advocating the removal saying,
“It is clear that TikTok poses an unacceptable national security risk due to its extensive data harvesting being combined with Beijing’s apparently unchecked access to that sensitive data”.
The letter also refers to the numerous controversies that the app has found itself in, over the years. The ByteDance-owned Tiktok however firmly denies sharing user data with the Chinese Government.
This begs the question – Will Tiktok survive if the US succeeds in convincing Apple and Google to remove the app from its stores?
The statistics of Tiktok users
Tiktok has over 138 million users in the US alone.
The age demographic ranges from 13 to 60.
In terms of revenue, the app earned in excess of 500 million dollars in 2020.
The number of users of the app is consistently growing. Even among the adult users.
So yes, if the USA succeeds in convincing Apple and Google to remove the app from its stores, it will certainly be detrimental to the business.
However, the app is still active and growing exponentially around the world. The marketing of the app, although in its nascent stages, is growing in demand due to its vast audience access. There are agencies which are eager to help brands create quirky content that garners eyeballs on Tiktok.
Brands have also joined the app by opening user accounts which are used to create and post mini-videos for promotions. Tiktok offers them the option of promoting their videos to other users for a fee.
Tiktok also makes money from in-app purchases.
Its easy accessibility, high engagement and deep penetration in different markets globally make it the world’s most popular app ever. It is available in more than 150 markets in 75 different languages.
Conclusion
Even if the US market shuts down for this app, the likelihood of the business shutting down is slim. The app is like a multi-headed giant that just grows a new head when an existing head is axed. Having said this, it is imperative for the app to put measures into place that ensure the user of their privacy as well as have a strict policy about the content being posted on it.
FAQs
Is the FCC banning TikTok?
Yes, the FCC has asked Google and Apple to remove the Chinese app, TikTok from their stores.
Is TikTok banned in the US?
No, TikTok is not banned in the US but might be soon banned over privacy concerns.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Club Factory.
Fashion is not futile. Your clothes and accessories say a lot about your personality and of course your mood. Thankfully now fashion is affordable too!. All thanks to the e-commerce sites now men and women from even remote nooks and corners have easy access to Fashion. An e-commerce site that we cannot miss when it comes to affordable fashion is Club Factory. This China-based e-commerce site offers apparel, accessories, and more at factory prices. Though Club Factory is currently banned in India owing to security threats and rising tension between India and China, we cannot surely afford to miss the story of this amazing e-commerce startup, that gained immense popularity in India. Here is all about Club Factory. The startup story, Club Factory founders, funding, revenue model, and competitors.
Founded in 2014, the Chinese e-commerce platform Club Factory became quite popular internationally as a platform offering trending fashion goods at a very affordable price. Club Factory delivers in many countries across Europe, America, and Asia.
Club Factory’s major USP is that its products are trendy yet much cheaper as compared to many of its competitors. The reason it can offer goods at a much cheaper price is its strong base of over 200,000 suppliers who want to sell directly to consumers and thereby liquidate their inventory.
For customers, Club Factory is very user-friendly as it offers recommendations to consumers based on their past choices of products and their preferred price range. The platform sorts out appropriate suppliers based on the quality of the products, their productivity, performance, and price. According to Club Factory founder Lou Yun, Club Factory uses AI and big data analysis to understand the users and suppliers better. Club Factory App uses AI technology to compare the prices charged by the manufacturers, find the lowest price of a particular product in real-time, and suggest to the customer the product having the lowest price.
Using Big Data Analysis, Club Factory shortlists the products that have the highest probability to be bought from a huge number of SKUs. Club factory offers insights to the manufacturers on the goods that are most preferred by customers so that the manufacturers can take appropriate manufacturing decisions.
In India, Club Factory did face some controversies. The biggest of all controversy was the tax evasion charges raised against Club Factory. Club Factory and a few other Chinese e-commerce companies like Shein were found shipping products from China directly to customers in India by marking these orders as gifts to avoid custom duties. To do away with the problem the Government of India started imposing custom duties on gifts as well from November 2019. Besides these, from late deliveries, late payment to sellers, and delivering damaged products, Club Factory has faced many charges in India.
Yet, Founder Vincent Lou perceived India as one of the biggest markets for Club Factory and had lofty plans to establish the company in India. The company had plans to invest in warehousing, technology, marketing, and delivery, and wanted to become India’s “One-Stop fashion marketplace” for sellers as well as customers. While initially, Club Factory sold only goods imported from Chinese manufacturers, in early 2019, the company adopted the local marketplace strategy whereby it brought in Indian sellers to the platform. The company onboarded around 5000 Indian sellers on the platform and was planning to bring in more local sellers. Club also Factory invested heavily in marketing in India. In 2018 Club Factory appointed Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh and Miss World, 2017 winner Manushi Chhillar as the company’s brand ambassadors.
Ranveer Singh and Manushi Chhillar in a Club Factory Ad
Club factory was looking forward to adding more product categories to the platform soon. But the ban on the app came as a shock to the founders.
Club Factory began as Baokuanyi, which was a SaaS data intelligence platform that helped manufacturers take manufacturing decisions based on stock and inventory-related data of over 200,000 factories. The aim behind starting Baokuanyi was to empower the manufacturers with better inventory data so that they can make their decisions better.
While working with Baokuanyi, the founders realized that liquifying inventory was challenging for manufacturers. So, they thought of coming up with an e-commerce platform through which manufacturers can directly sell to customers. Thus Club Factory was founded.
Currently, too Club Factory has a SaaS product that offers insights to the manufacturers regarding the products that are sold the most and the most popular designs so that the manufacturers do not end up making products that are not in demand.
Vincent Lou and Aaron Jialun Li are the founders of Club Factory.
Vincent Lou
Club Factory founder Vincent Lou holds a Master’s Degree in Computer science from Stanford University. As a student, Vincent had a deep interest in applied AI. At Standford, Vincent along with Aaron Li developed an AI-powered solution to help WHO optimize the costs of medical devices. Vincent worked as a Research Assistant at The University of British Columbia, and also at the Standford Biomedical Informatics Training Program. Vincent was working as a Software Engineering Intern at Facebook during the early years of his career. In 2014, Vincent founded Baokuanyi which later pivoted to become Club Factory.
Aaron Jialun Li
Club Factory co-founder Aaron Jialun Li holds a Masters’s degree in Business Marketing. Aaron also did data analysis in Alibaba Group and looked after Product Management at Sharethis before founding the SaaS platform Baokuanyi with Vincent Lou.
Founders, Club Factory
Club Factory – Tagline and Logo
While the company keeps experimenting with its tagline from time to time, the company had to face legal wrath in India in 2020 due to one of its slogans that involved the name of Indian e-commerce unicorn Snapdeal. In 2020, Club Factory was running the “everything cheaper than Snapdeal” ad campaign. Snapdeal approached the Delhi High Court against this ad campaign, in response to which, Club Factory discontinued the ad campaign.
Club Factory logo
Club Factory – Business Model
In India, Club Factory’s business model was quite different than its peers like Amazon and Flipkart. In India, Club Factory charged zero commission from the sellers. The Indian sellers could sell the products through the platform for free.
“Club Factory will continue to provide a level-playing field to all sellers by not charging any commission fee so that they get to increase their earnings while transferring the cost-benefit to buyers,” said Club Factory founder Vincent Lou, in an interview, before the platform got banned in India.
Club Factory does not stock inventories. It uses algorithms to match orders and sellers. When a customer places an order, Club Factory finds a seller who can fulfill the order. The supplier then sends the product to Club Factory’s warehouse, from where Club Factory ships the products to the customers. Club Factory also takes care of customer service.
Club Factory has raised a total amount of $220 million in funding over the 3 funding rounds.
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investor
October 11, 2019
Series D
$100 million
Qiming Venture Partners
February 14, 2018
Series C
$100 million
Bertelsmann Asia Investments
January 1, 2017
Series B
$20 million
–
To date Club Factory has raised funding from 8 investors including institutional investors like Bertelsmann, Qiming Venture Partners, FREES FUND, ZhenFund, Kunlun Trust, and IDG Capital.
Club Factory – Growth
As per 2019 reports, Club Factory had over 70 million users worldwide, of which around 40 million were Indians. Club Factory also emerged as the most downloaded shopping app on the Android platform globally for the months of September and October 2019 (according to Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence platform). Now that Club Factory got banned in India since June 2020, it has lost a huge user base. However, Club Factory is still delivering in many countries In Europe, USA, and Asia.
Club Factory – FAQs
Is Club Factory Working in India?
No Government of India banned Club Factory along with other 58 Chinese apps in June 2020.
Who is the founder of Club Factory?
Chinese entrepreneurs Vincent Lou and Aaron Jialun Li founded Club Factory in 2014.
The government on 2nd September banned 118 applications- a majority of being Chinese, including popular ones such as PUBG, WeChat Work, CamCard, Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade and Alipay; stating that these were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, security of State and public order.” This is in addition to banned Chinese 59 apps including TikTok, Shareit, club Factory, Shein in June to ensure safe cyberspace in the country. These banned chinese apps had over billions of potential Indian users and these apps were successful in luring the users to download them in large numbers.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), said it was invoking its power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009, and in view of the emergent nature of threats has decided to block 118 mobile apps; engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.
It’s such a sheer loss to our country’s dignity and economy that all the while we are bragging and outraging against any service provided to us by China , we never lose to stay in their top 3 users.
The list of banned apps in India includes apps like PUBG, Baidu, AppLock, TikTok, ShareIt, WeChat, UC Browser and so on. A recent study reveals that India has been the world’s fastest-growing app-market over the past few years. Reports suggest that Chinese apps are ruling the Indian app market as users have downloaded them in significant numbers. However, Indian intelligence agencies asked government to block 118 mobile applications as being a threat to national security. India’s security agencies raised concerns that apps in the list of banned Chinese apps are safe.
Chinese apps banned in India released officially by Government on 29 June
As tensions at India and china border has to lead to another list of banned Chinese apps. India’s ministry of information and technology has issued 118 Chinese mobile apps to banned from the Indian market.
PUBG Banned In India
List Of Chinese Apps That Got Banned On 2nd September 2020
| 118 Chinese Apps That Got Banned on 2 September 2020 |
|— |— |— |—
| 1. Apus Launcher Pro-Theme, Live, Wallpapers, Smart |
|2. Apus Launcher-Theme, Call show, Wallpaper, Hide Apps |
|3. Apus Security-Antivirus, Phone Security, Cleaner |
|4. Apus Turbo Cleaner 2020-Junk Cleaner, Anti-virus|
|5. Apus Flashlights-Free & Bright|
|6. Cut Cut- Cut Out & Photo Background Editor|
|7. Baidu|
|8. Baidu Express Edition|
|9. FaceU- Inspire Your Beauty|
|10. ShareSave by Xiomi: Latest Gadgets, Amazing deals|
|11. Camcard- Business Card Reader|
|12. Camcard For SalesForce|
|13. Camcard Business|
|14. CamOCR|
|15. InNote|
|16. VooV Meeting- Tencent Video Conferencing|
|17. Super Clean- Master Of Cleaner, Phone Booster|
|18. WeChat Reading|
|19. Government WeChat|
|20. Small Q Brush|
|21. Tencent Weiyun|
|22. Pitu|
|23. WeChat Work|
|24. Cyber Hunter|
|25. Cyber Hunter Lite|
|26. Knives Out-No rules, Just Fight|
|27. Super Mecha Champions|
|28. LifeAfter|
|29. Dawn Of Isles|
|30. Ludo World-Ludo Superstar|
|31. Chess Rush|
|32. PUBG Mobile Nordic Map:Livik|
|33. PUBG Mobile Lite|
|34. Rise Of Kingdoms:Lost Crusade|
|35. Art Of Conquest: Dark Horizon|
|36. Dank Tanks|
|37. Warpath|
|38. Game Of Sultans|
|39. Gallery Vault: Hide Picture And Videos|
|40. Smart AppLock|
|41. Message Lock(SMS Lock)|
|42. Hide App-Hide Application Icon|
|43. AppLock|
|44. AppLock Lite|
|45. Dual Space- Multiple Accounts & App Cloner|
|46. ZAKZAK Pro- Live Chat & Video Chat Online|
|47. ZAKZAK LIVE: Live Chat & Video Chat|
|48. Music-Mp3 Player|
|49. Music Player- Audio Player & 10 Bands Equilizer|
|50. HD Camera Selfie Beauty Camera|
|51. Cleaner- Phone Booster|
|52. Web Browser & Fast Explorer|
|53. Video Player All Format For Android|
|54. Photo Gallery & Album|
|55. Photo Gallery HD & Editor|
|56. Music player- Bass Booster- free Download|
|57. HD Camera- Beauty Cam With Filters & Panorama|
|58.HD Camera Pro & Selfie Camera|
|59. Music Player- MP3 Player & 10 Bands Equilizer|
|60. Gallery HD|
|61. Web Browser- Fast, privacy & Light Web Explorer |
|62. Web Browser- Secure Explorer|
|63. Music Player- Audio Player|
|64. Video Player- All Format HD Video Player|
|65. Lamour Love All Over The World|
|66. Amour- Video Chat & Call All Over The World|
|67. MV Master- Make Your Status Video & Community|
|68. MV Master- Best Video Maker & Photo Video Editor|
|69. APUS Message Center-Intelligent Management|
|70. LivU Meet New People & Video Chat With Strangers|
|71. Carron Friends: Carrom Board & Pool Game|
|72. Ludo All Star- Play Online Ludo Game & Board Games|
|73. Bike Racing: Moto Traffic Rider Bike Racing Games|
|74. Rangers Of Oblivion: Online ACtion MMO RPG Game|
|75. GO SMS PRO- Messanger, Free Themes, Emoji|
|76. Z Camera- Photo Editor, Beauty Selfie, Collage|
|77. U-Dictionary: OXford Dictionary Freee Now Translate|
|78. Ulike- Define Your Selfie In Trendy Style|
|79. Tantan-Date For Real|
|80. MICO Chat: New Friends Banaen Aur Live Chat Karen|
|81. Kitty Live- Live Streaming & Video Live Chat|
|82. Malay Social Dating App to Date & Meet Singles|
|83. AliPay|
|84. AliPayHK|
|85. Mobile Taobao|
|86. Youku|
|87. Road Of Kings-Endless Glory|
|88. Sina News|
|89. Netease News|
|90. Penguin FM|
|91. Murderous Pursuits|
|92. Tencent Watchlist Tencent technology|
|93. Learn Chinese AI-Super Chinese|
|94. HUYA LIVE- Game Live Stream|
|95. Little Q Album|
|96. Fighting Landlors- Free and Happy Fighting Landlords|
|97. Hi Meitu|
|98. Mobile Legends: Pockets|
|99. VPN for TikTok|
|100. VPN For TikTok|
|101. penguin E-Sports Live Assistant|
|102. Buy cars- Offer Everything You Need, Special Offers And Low prices|
|103. iPick|
|104. Beauty Camera Plus- sweet Camera & Face Selfie|
|105. Parallel Space Lite- Dual App|
|106. Chief Almighty: First Thunder BC|
|107. MARVEL Super War NetEase Games|
|108. AFK Arena|
|109. Creative Destruction NetEase Games|
|110. Crusaders Of Light NetEase Games|
|111. Mafia City Yotta Games|
|112. Onmyojio NetEase Games|
|113. RideOut Heroes NetEase Games|
|114. Yimeng Jianghu-chu Liuxiang has been fully updated|
|115. Legend: Rising Empire NetEase Games|
|116. Arena Of Valor:5v5 Arena Games|
|117. Soul Hunnters|
|118. Rules Of Survival|
Chinese Apps banned in India
Most Popular Chinese Apps among the Top 100 in India
Social content platforms: Helo and SHARE it
Entertainment and short video apps: TikTok, LIKE, and Kwai
Web browser apps: UCBrowser and UCBrowserMini
Video and live streaming apps: LiveMe, Bigo Live, and VigoVideo
Utility applications: BeautyPlus, Xender and Cam Scanner
Gaming apps and software: PUBG, Clash of Kings, Mobile Legends
E-commerce applications: ClubFactory, Shein, and Romwe
Wednesday’s announcements comes amid renewed tensions between India and China owing to the stand-off on the disputed boundary in Ladakh that has beeen on since May 2020. In a statement, the government said this move would safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and Internet usera and teh decision was a targeted move to ensure safety, security and sovereignty of Indian Cyberspace.
By this, it’s crystal clear that China’s sole motive is to raise Beijing’s profile as a leading power of humanitarian assistance throughout the globe. China’s bilionaire diplomacy aims to achieve three immediate objectives:
shift the focus away from talking about the origin of corona virus in Wuhan
establish makeover
expanding their market in every possible way
become the biggest economy all over the world.
Chinese Banned Apps
For India, the pandemic presents an opportunity to demonstrate its willingness and capacity to shoulder more responsibility. It’s been a backlash that China is being criticised for their cheap winning tricks to conquer the world. It should be known that political impact of corona virus pandemic is yet to crystallize.
Since , the COVID-19 has been a great leveller across the world and we know that it’s effects stand to be devastating. Both countries , India and China , have sent their troops towards LAC (Line of Actual Control). The aggression seems to rise in it’s various form.
The Ministry said it had received many complaints about the misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers that have locations outside India. “The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of our country, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures,” it stated.
Additionally, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs, has sent an exhaustive recommendation for blocking these “malicious apps” and similar bipartisan concerns have been flagged by various public representatives, both outside and inside Indian Parliament.
Sonam Wangchuk Went #BOYCOTT-ing!
Sonam Wangchuk, whose works inspired “3 Idiots” , posted a video on You tube. It said that Indians should boycott everything which is from China to avenge the tensions between the two biggest economies.
Wangchuk believes that the only way to defeat China is by using “wallet power”. We all know that the Chinese products and goods that we buy have been funding their army since a very long time ago.It’s high time and we should boycott them and stop them there itself.
India Banned 118 Chinese Apps
Soon after Wangchuk’s video went viral, #BoycottChina, #BoycottMadeinChina, #BoycottChineseApps and #BoycottTiktok began trending on social media. Bollywood actor MilindSoman also joined the bandwagon and decided to uninstall Chinese app Tiktok from his phone.
Not just celebrities, but many Indians have taken the hatred all over the internet since the beginning of the pandemic. Several even wanted to take revenge against China for the same. In fact, many Indians have been searching on Google– “how to delete or remove Chinese apps” from their phones.
It’s funny how every hatred towards anyone is actually thrown away very casually by using a simple terminology boycott.We are left with only one solution. To boycott it. Boycott movies. Boycott apps. Why, even boycott human beings!
Every time, when something against national interest happens, we witness such outrages against some app and services.
The only reasons of bans and protests are:
origin
privacy concerns
Since 2018, TikTok happens to be one of the most popular apps in India even today, even after countless calls for bans. As a matter of fact, TikTok is a legit source of income for several Indians. I don’t know how embarrassing it is, but the employment sector of India is made fun of because so called ‘Youth of India‘ is busy making TikTok. We have taken a mere fight all over the internet which was TikTok vs. YouTube. Can anyone believe this !
If you were to scour through and delete all Chinese apps, your phone (assuming it isn’t made in China) would probably be left with only a handful of apps. but that’s how we can work more, and this can also genrate a source of income for youngsters who hav keen interest in this field. PM Modi asked out all the youngsters to create gaming applications in his recent ‘Mann Ki Baat’. Who would know that this was for banning majority of gaming Applications in the country.
Based on information collected by Indian intelligence agencies, the Indian government fears Following security risks and cyber espionage attempts. Chinese spies could collect critical information through malware and spyware in Android and iOS apps. The information is then sent to servers in China and could be used to get details on army location. Army troops, especially, border troops from the Indian Armed Force and Central Armed Police Personnel (CAPF) are asked to urgently uninstall them from their smart phones.
Also, devices made in China, such as Huawei and ZTE have already been banned from use by international border troops in the LAC region (Line of Actual Control). Its been noted that the ban does not apply in whole country due to obvious reasons.
Many Indian developers have been working to compete with the Chinese market of apps. App developers One Touch AppLabs launched an application – ‘Remove China Apps’ on May 17. As the name suggests, it’s work is same. When you download the app, you can run a scan through your phone. It will detect the Chinese apps on your phone and give you an option to delete them. If you click on the red bin icon next to the concerned app, it will uninstall the app from your phone. Several people have also shared screenshots on social media to show that they’ve used the app.
The app was at the top spot of Google Play’s top free apps list and it has been downloaded by over 5 million Indian users since its launch. This development came at a time when anti-China sentiment is high in the country, sparked by the novel corona virus pandemic, India-China border dispute, and more. But later the app was taken down from Google Play store a few weeks ago.
Another app playing on similar sentiments – Mitron – has also gained traction over the last several days and is being touted as an alternate to TikTok.
Since there is no immediate replacement of certain Chinese apps, one of the top leading industries of India, JIO has offered a wide range of apps too. Even if there are many alternatives , then also we are left with the only one to reply such aggression in a polite way.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted about the new ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge’. The challenge which was launched through the PM’s tweet challenges Indian Startups and companies to develop ‘Made in India’ applications that will facilitate not only the people of India but the whole world. In his tweet, PM urged all the tech and startup community to come forward and develop world-class mobile applications under the challenge.
Today there is immense enthusiasm among the tech & start-up community to create world class Made in India Apps. To facilitate their ideas and products @GoI_MeitY and @AIMtoInnovate are launching the Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge. https://t.co/h0xqjEwPko
PM Narendra Modi Launches The ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge’ Through Twitter
The challenge was launched under the Digital India mission by the collaboration of The Ministry of Electronics And IT with The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) which is an endeavor of Niti Aayog.
In a second tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged everyone with such a working product or the ideas and vision to create one to come forward and take part in the challenge. He also gave a tagline for this challenge:
Let us Code for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat!
This challenge is for you if you have such a working product or if you feel you have the vision and expertise to create such products. I urge all my friends in the tech community to participate.
PM urged Technology Startups and Enthusiasts To Participate
It has been only a few days since the Government of India banned 59 Chinese mobile applications such as TikTok, ShareIt, Xender, etc. from the Indian market. And the Government of India has already started to make India Aatmanirbhar in terms of world-class mobile applications.
“Today, when the entire nation is working towards creating an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, it is a good opportunity to give direction to their efforts, momentum to their hard-work and mentorship to their talent to evolve Apps which can satisfy our market as well as compete with the world.”, wrote PM Narendra Modi on his LinkedIn post.
Why Is This Important?
China had huge control over the Indian market until the ban of the 59 Chinese applications a few days ago. These 59 applications contained some applications which were very popular in the Indian market. Some of such popular apps were TikTok, Xender, UC Browser, Shein, Club Factory, and more. While the Indian alternatives of these applications are available to download, they are much behind in terms of quality. Therefore, it was an important decision to launch the challenge. The challenge will motivate Indian Startups and techies to create such world-class applications that will find top spots in the world market. One more reason is that although Chinese apps have been banned in India, we still have many foreign-based applications that are very popular in India. These include popular social media apps WhatsApp and Instagram, Google apps, and more. Therefore, this decision was made not only for developing Indian alternatives for the 59 Chinese apps that were banned but also to develop apps that can conquer the World market and leave other apps behind.
Although the Chinese apps have been banned by the Government from the Indian market, there are still many apps that Indians use which are not India-based. Therefore, this challenge will prove out to be a good step towards the Aatmanirbhar Bharat movement and the revenue generated by Indian apps will stay in India itself, helping a little to the Economy of India. PM Narendra Modi informed on his LinkedIn account that the challenge will be run on 2 different tracks. First – To promote existing Indian applications. And Second – To help people and startups to develop new applications in terms of financial and ideation support.
The innovation challenge is being launched in 8 different categories:
Office Productivity and Work From Home
Social Networking
News
Games
E-Learning
Health and Wellness
Entertainment
Business (including Agritech and Fintech)
The last date for submission of work has been set to 18th July and the work will be judged based on its ease of use, Security Features, Scalability, and Robustness. Along with the motivation to work, the challenge also offers money prizes to the top 3 contestants in each category along with the top 3 candidates of sub-categories decided by the Jury. The prizes will be as follows:
Position Attained (in each category)
Prize
First
20 Lakhs
Second
15 Lakhs
Third
10 Lakhs
Position Attained (in each sub-category)
Prize
First
5 Lakhs
Second
3 Lakhs
Third
2 Lakhs
Along with the prize money, the apps will be given a place on the top leader-boards.
Conclusion
This challenge will motivate many individuals and companies to come forward and use their brains for the benefit of India. It is true that India has brains but lacks the motivation to create such world-class applications. This challenge will give them support as well as the motivation required by them to use their skills towards the betterment of India.
Yash Gupta
