After the Indian government banned 59 apps of Chinese origin, citing data security and national sovereignty concerns including popular apps such as TikTok, ShareIt, UC Browser, CamScanner, Helo, Weibo, WeChat, and Club Factory, it gave birth to a new wave of Indian apps as alternatives.
There were millions of downloads of the banned applications in India. Already Installed apps may continue to exist on mobile devices. But now that the latest versions of the apps have been removed from both Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store, users will not be able to access updated versions soon.
If even a slight notice goes out to internet service providers asking that data flow from these apps be halted, that could impact the functioning of existing installed apps. Among the banned apps, the Helo app was a favorite all, and with its ban came several other competitors of Indian origin to take its place. Here we listed a couple of them.
New things keep on replacing the old objects. With the application of ban, there were many alternatives selected by the people to replace popular applications such as TikTok, Helo, ShareIt. Each application was replaced with the number of homegrown indian alternative applications. Below is the list of best alternative applications for Helo App.
Global Names
Indian Alternatives
TikTok
Roposo
Zoom
Say Namaste
Helo
ShareChat
BeuatyPlus
LightX Photo Editor
Shareit
Jio Switch
1. ShareChat
Founded: 2015
Play Store Download: 100M+
Ratings: 4.2
The ShareChat Application on Google Play Store
ShareChat is a well-known name as the alternative to Helo App. ShareChat is a made-in-India product considered the best option to replace Helo. Even though ShareChat was introduced to the world earlier than the ban, it was only after the announcement of the government, that ShareChat found its part of acknowledgment.
With the introduction of the ban, there was a great spike recorded in the number of downloads on an hourly basis for ShareChat. As for current times, the active user count for the ShareChat app is around 160 Million users per month in 2022.
“We are confident that this sets up the foundation of another success for ShareChat,” ShareChat COO and Co-founder, Farid Ahsan.
ShareChat enjoys 5 lakh downloads per hour, especially after the introduction of the ban. The shareChat app allows its users to make and share videos, watch funny videos, and share WhatsApp statuses and also enables them with the feature of creating and using a chatroom for communication with others.
2. Roposo
Founded: 2014
Play Store Download: 100M+
Ratings: 4.3
The Roposo Application on Google Play Store
Another great alternative for the Helo app is Roposo. Roposo is a short video platform developed in India. Roposo also found its ladder to success just after the announcement of banning Chinese applications for security purposes. There was an instant spike noted in the number of downloads recorded over the period of an hour for the Roposo application.
The Roposo app now claims it has around 65 million users in India with a monthly active user count to be around 25 million in the year 2022. The Roposo App is one of the strong competitors of ShareChat whose growth is comparatively slower than that of other Indian rivals. The InMobi-owned video-sharing platform had said that it gained 10 million new users in as little as 12 hours after the ban.
3. Chingari
Founded: 2018
Play Store Download: 50M+
Ratings: 4.9
The Chingari App in Google Play Store
Chingari is an Indian video-sharing app that has emerged as one of the top alternatives to the Helo app and has crossed over 50 million downloads on the Play Store. After the ban of Chinese apps in India, Chingari was reportingly having 3 lakh users every hour. For the current scenario, Chinagri enjoys an active user base of around 32 Million users per month in 2022.
Chingari is highly acknowledged for its visual effects introduction in making videos. Chingari allows its users to view, create and share videos by its means. It is also known to enable the service of viewing news and playing games through its application for its customers.
4. Mitron
Founded: 2020
Play Store Download: 10M+
Ratings: 4.3
The Mitron App in Google Play Store
Even though Mitron is considered a clone of Tiktok, it is still a social media platform and can be seen as an alternative to Helo. Just after the apps were banned and Tiktok became unavailable for download, Mitron swept in and got a whooping 5 Million downloads within a month, and currently, it enjoys an 18 Million active user base per month in 2022.
Mitron is a short video platform that enables the facilities like creating a short video mainly used for status along with the option of recording a live video. It enables easy creation of video with shorter time-length but of different purposes.
Impact on Market Share in India After the Ban
The announcement of banning Chinese applications came on 29th June 2020. Even though the ban was imposed for security purpose, the effect of banning the products was indirectly going to affect the market share of similar Indian products.
With the unavailability of the same service, many users diverted their path to Indian products offering the same services. Given below is the data showing the comparison between the downloads of each individual application before and after the announcement.
Apps
June 19-28(2020) Before the Announcement of Prohibition
June 29 to July 8(2020) After the Announcement of Ban
Total % Change Incurred in the Number of Downloads
Roposo
49,00,000
89,00,000
89%
ShareChat
14,00,000
50,00,000
257%
Mitron
36,00,000
43,00,000
19%
Chingari
35,00,000
54,00,000
54%
The user base of the Helo Application was diverted to more than one Indian-made application. Users went out to use and try different platforms as per their requirements. The top four alternatives giving competition to each other were Mitron, Roposo, Chingari, and ShareChat.
Monthly Active user base of Helo App alternatives in 2022
Experts say that the ban, coupled with anti-China sentiments in the country, does create an opportunity for Indian brands, but whether these new users will stick to these platforms remains to be seen.
Naveen Mishra, senior research director at Gartner, said with the ban on Chinese apps, 200 million Indian consumers are evaluating alternates.
“This ban creates immediate opportunities for Indian developers to create a similar platform. There are a bunch of early-stage similar Indian products, which will be religiously tested by Indian consumers now. Accelerated product evolution based on local customer feedback is key to being successful in this new scenario,” he said.
With the effect seen and noticed by the experts, it is believed that the ban imposed by the government on Chinese products will eventually pave a way for Indian products to create their own existence in the market.
With the decision of banning a number of Chinese apps, it can also be assumed that the decision ordered by the government will also create a way for the developers to create their own path to success.
The Indian market consists of a large number of audiences looking out for different methods and products to work with. The Chinese applications were suddenly banned by the Indian government leading to the ultimate solution of finding Indian Alternatives for each application.
One of the most popular applications faced with the same destiny was Helo App. The text above contains the best Indian alternatives for Helo App along with their market share effects.
FAQs
Which Chinese apps were banned in India?
Among the 59 apps that were banned, the most loved ones were TikTok, Shareit, UC Browser, Shein, CamScanner, Helo, Weibo, WeChat, Club Factory, and more.
Why were the Chinese apps banned in India?
The apps were banned due to the security risks that they posed. It was alleged that the apps were being used to track and monitor the citizens of India.
Will the ban on Chinese apps be lifted?
The ban was temporary with the Indian government wanting proper proof of the security concerns. However, no proper response has been given yet and the bans are likely to become permanent.
All over the world, the clothing industry is worth thousands of billions of dollars. You go to your nearest market and you will find that clothes are the items that are evergreen in nature. Always present and omnipresent. Every business-minded person when thinking of a business idea, his/her first choice is to choose clothes. This is true most of the time. There are huge players and then there are normal players in the clothing segment. However, The demand is such that every brand has enough to fill its pockets.
China is the most populous country in the world. Everything that The world needs, is needed more in china. It is safe to say that China is a value magnifier or a demand manufacturer. One of the clothing brands in China is called Shein. It is a famous brand and is founded by a very amazing personality. The founder of Shein is Chris Xu. This article talks about the company Shein and the founder who is often regarded as the torchbearer for this mysterious clothing brand. Let us have a closer look.
There is a reason why we began talking about the founder before we start talking about what he has actually found. Chris Xu is the founder of Shein, he is a popular entrepreneur in the world and specifically in China. He is the torchbearer for the brand from the initial stages. He built the brand so mysteriously that he is respected for the vision and works that he had pulled off.
He has achieved so much significance in the fashion industry that he becomes no less than a pioneer in this industry. Chris has been an entrepreneur who has been able to start from zero and scratch and then make a name for himself. Interestingly, the person behind Shein is an mysterious man. He has a name and the work that he has done, that speaks for itself and nothing else.
By the term, nothing else, we mean that the man does not even have a Wikipedia page. This is super mysterious and intriguing at the same time. He is super hideous on the internet. As the world becomes smaller and smaller with each passing day with uprising technology, he remains in his mystery palace. According to us, all this blackout about his information and interviews have been intentional.
All the information that is related to Chris is hidden intentionally all over the internet. The reason behind this agenda can be the security and integrity of the person’s name in public. However, there can be multiple more reasons for doing that.
Let us have a glance at his career. This is by the way rare information. Chris Xu was born in 1984 in the city of Shandong. He graduated from the University of Qingdao in the field of science and technology. He graduated in 2007. Soon after graduation, he moved to Nanjing to work in an integrated marketing consulting company.
Nanjing Aodao Information Technology Co, in 2008, where he specialised in SEO. This is also a fact about Chris Xs that he is an expert in SEO or search engine optimisation. While working in Nanjing integrated marketing consulting company he learnt everything possible about SEO. He did get a fair bit of exposure in the organisation of selling and commercial activities.
After learning the nuances of commercial selling of Chinese goods to the international world, he thought of an opportunity. He left the company following that vision or the opportunity. At the inception, he started building this dream with two other entrepreneurs who were now the co-founders. The idea was to ship cheap items online to every person. Basically an online retail store of the first kind.
In choosing the items to sell, Chris found out the huge demand that wedding dresses operate with. He discovered that these were one of the most highly sought products that were demanded by international markets. These dresses could become the first segment of products that the company will offer. However, there were some issues too in the first place.
Foreign customers were not buying these dresses and the reason was conversion rates. Customers were not able to convert money to buy their desired products. That was the issue that he thought to solve and started to shift all his focus in finding solutions to that. With the money earned from selling wedding dresses in the country, he began building SheInside, which is now famously known as Shein.
According to QQ news, once Xu realised that the only thing stopping international customers from buying products was currency conversion, he ‘vanished’ with his entire SEO team.
Let us now focus on the brand that this mysterious man has built for the world. The fast-fashion retailer ‘Shein’ is here with its journey that is full of controversies.
A Small Brief About Shein
‘SheInside’ was the primary name of this organisation and gradually the name became Shein to the world. Even though the first sort of dresses that Chris picked were wedding dresses, they diversified into a lot more domains afterwards.
They diversified into summer wear like bikinis and swimwear which was designed for the summers. They were low price and that was a huge differentiating factor for customers. It became the first thought of girls when they thought of summer wear and as summers approached every year.
The journey was not easy though, there were many ups and downs in the way. They caused several controversies at the beginning pointing to the cheapness of the products. There were allegations of child labour, environmentalism and the quality of the clothes. There is a mystery of the process with which the company operates. Despite all the problems, the company has been able to maintain itself as a trustable brand with its audience.
Inception of Shein
The story of Shein begins when Chris Xu thought of starting out his own venture. Before starting out with Shein, Chris owned a successful wedding dress company and gave it up all, to begin with, a new venture. It was in the initial stages when the name “SheInside” was chosen.
It was later in 2015 when the name was changed to Shein as the efforts of branding grew and as the brand emerged as a favourite destination for clothing. The United States was the place where the company was widely successful and still is the place where most of the revenues come from.
The story really started when an American born graduate gave up his business of wedding clothes in search of building a sustainable clothing brand. They acquired the domain name called sheinside.com and primarily focussed on women’s clothing. In 2015 the name was changed and renamed to Shein. It now focussed on the overseas markets and began riding its way into the fashion industry. Which proved to be fruitful in the future.
Through all the ups and downs, it has managed to become a brand in the clothing world. The United States has always been a really good market for these guys. The United States still is Shein’s biggest market. It ships to almost the whole world. It has revenue streams from 220 countries with websites built for Europe, the middle east, Australia and the United States has been ignited by a series of funding rounds. That was the series E funding for the company that happened in the pandemic year 2020. With this funding in hand, the company got a decent valuation that exceeds the 15 billion dollars mark.
Speaking of the nice valuation, it is also noted that the revenues are not made public. The revenues are in some excess of 10 billion dollars. Which is a really pretty number and proves satisfactory growth.
Taking in mind that this number estimate was coming in the pandemic year which was the most difficult for companies. Not many people were buying new clothes to go out. It was all lockdowns and virus precautions. These amazing numbers really attract Asian investors and international venture capitalists and private equity houses among its capital structure supporters.
The Core of Shein – Fashion Predictions
For most of the time, Shein is identified with clothes and as fashion retail, its core is just identification and predictions. It is often mentioned and said that Shein as a company is deeply obsessed with identifying hot fashion and trends. The company is often seen to predict the type of clothes, fabrics and style statements that will mostly go viral in the coming dates. It has even been reported that it has a faster fashion cycle than the Zara. It has a good social media activeness index and markets heavily on Instagram and manages to continue that trend across social media platforms. It tries to make an impression of a Weibo friendly image for attainable and accessible fashion clothing across all the social media.
As mentioned before, the brand has seen ups and downs in the same proportions of magnitude. The success of this brand does not come easy. It has had many incidents that have shaken the base of the company. For instance, the company was condemned to list a pendant that was shaped like a swastika. The problem and the error was later apologised profusely.
The products are all over social media and they have managed to create a brand image for themselves. Shein uses celebrities as well as fashion influencers to elevate the vision and create an image for the clothing line. Most of the operations are online and they do have offline stores too.
The branding from this company has elevated the low quality and low-cost reputation that was allegedly established in the beginning. They have managed things well even during the pandemic. They had an event hosted called SHEINTogether which was streamed globally in May 2020. Artists like Katy Perry, Rita Ora were roped in for the show.
They still manage the repute that they have built over the years. The cloth brand that started in China went from being homegrown to becoming a key player in the clothing segment in the world. Before 2014, Shein didn’t even have its own supply chain. This is mysterious in all senses but it is also true that it is sheer hard work and consistency from the brand’s side. Let us catch a glimpse of the marvellous emergence in the world today. First, let us see the potholes in their way of work.
Controversies Faced by Shein
One of the biggest controversies that the clothing brand started was child labour and abuse. The claim comes after customers begin questioning the cheap products that the company was able to produce. There were allegations of child abuse and child labour to be involved in the matter. Even though, The website of Shein and in all the legal announcements of Shein, the company has maintained to announce that they are strictly against any sort of child labour.
One other concern which concerned consumers all over was carbon emissions. A report mentioned that they keep all their emissions in check and that the magnitudes are within limits. Fast fashion is a subject line that can have a lot of pain points. The fact that it is fact, also makes it full of residuals. These residuals are mostly harmful to nature. If a brand is able to manufacture quality with less price, they face allegations of child labour, which happened with the clothing brand Shein.
“Shein is one of the only large retailers that orders 100 pieces or less for new products to help eliminate dead stock – which makes up 10% of the carbon emissions across the entire supply chain for the apparel industry. Shein is fully committed to upholding high labour standards across the entire supply chain and to improving the lives of workers in the global supply chain by supporting national and international efforts to end forced labour.” A company’s spokesperson explained
The other thing which was pointed out by consumers and critics was that the brand is super secretive. Following the products which it goes by, Shein is a fast-fashion retailer, it maintains all the secrecy in the world. Even the information about the founder of the company is rarely found on the internet. Social media and websites are maintained properly but there are no guest and news appearances. This opaqueness by a brand raises many eyebrows.
Overall, Shein (previously She Inside) is a complete mystery. No phone number, no email and certainly no press contact was to be found online. Even the name of its founder remains a total enigma, as El Mundo reports. This seemingly opaque company relies mostly on digital marketing and bloggers to get you hooked on their products, rather than divulging anything about their supply chain transparently. – Euronews reported.
Emergence of Shein
It is amazing to notice that the brand didn’t have its own supply chain up until 2014. They used to buy their clothes directly from Guangzhou’s Shisanhang Garment Market. It is a wholesale market in China that is famous for the clothing segment. Soon when the company began running operations, it was hit with strong demand. Watching the demand trend, they soon realised that they will have to become self-reliant in everything. From getting their own supply chain to managing shipment and everything else.
Realising this, preparations were made to go more independent. Chris created a team, or we should say assembled a design team. It was an in-house department that works within the specified locale. Within the first two years, the team expanded and there were now 800 people in the design team. This move was not only focused to improve designs but also to save time. The design team made the designs and prototyping efficient and thus rapid. This ensures that time is saved and it lies with the company’s goal of fast fashion. This has also generated a good demand for its new launches.
Adding to the above, the company has also initiated timely payments of the products that it offers to china. Getting payment in time was a rarity in China but Shein doesn’t go with it. With this effect, Shein moved its operations and supply chain from Guangzhou to Panyu in 2015. Taking forward this effect, all the factories that operate under the brand have to relocate their factories for cost control measures.
The year of relocation of factories was also the year in which the brand entered the Middle East market. The sales were big even in the initial stages. The revenues for fiscal 2016, Shein earned 617 million dollars in revenue. In 2017 those revenues soared 1.5 billion dollars.
Market share data from Earnest shows that Shein began 2021 with 13% of total Fast Fashion sales, trailing traditional leader H&M. Since January, Shein continued to gain share and now leads with 28% of the Fast Fashion market, with Zara the only other brand growing share during that period. – Earnest
The future plans for this venture are even more optimistic. They want to include mobile payments into their operations and they want to get more into the supply chain finance division. In the modern world today, they are also hoping to do more advertising to market products. Nonetheless, they are also looking forward to adding more brick and mortar business centres out there. As retail stores also add a lot of magnitude to the revenues. All this growth and emergence from nowhere is not magical, even though it is mysterious but it also acts as proof of work.
Clothing is one of the most favourite items in the world. People love to dress up and that is the basic thought that works behind the scenes of the fashion industry. Fast fashion is the new trend that companies try to capitalise on. They are trends that come and go. This might seem easy but it is a lot of work that goes into fast fashion. Zara is a fast-fashion retailer and Shein also comes on the list. A lot of companies are built from the fashion industry. In fact, Fashion is really a big strong word.
We discussed a lot about Shien and its emergence as one of the leaders in the market today. The brain behind the brand is Chris’s and he is as mysterious as a Hollywood movie spy. The zeal that the company shows is indefinitely inherited from Chris Xu’s vision in the mission. He is one of the most hard-working and well sought after entrepreneurs in the land of China.
With almost no fingerprints whatsoever on the internet. He has been a learner for most of his life and he definitely thinks with first principles. Let alone the business accomplishments, he has practical knowledge and a way of looking at things. It is not a fast skill to learn but is built over time.
FAQs
Who is Chris Xu?
Chris Xu is an SEO expert and the founder and CEO of mysterious fashion e-commerce website, Shein.
Who is the CEO of Shein?
Chris Xu is the founder and CEO of Shein.
How did Chris Xu start Shein?
Chris Xu used to sell wedding dresses, after looking at the popularity he thought of starting his own fashion retail company. He started SheInside with his team and later changed the name to Shein.
Chinese companies have acquired a huge part of the Indian market. The recent ban of some of the major Chinese companies has pushed them out of the limelight. These companies dealt in the field of fashion, gaming, and entertainment. It includes big names such as Shein, Club Factory, PUBG, WeChat, Halo, etc. But still, some companies bag huge profits from India and dominate the Indian market.
Xiaomi is one of the top Chinese mobile brands in India. It is popular for many reasons. MI makes mobiles and electronic accessories suitable for almost all kinds of customers. The price ranges from affordable to high with varying features. Xiaomi first entered the Indian market on July 13, 2014, in partnership with Flipkart to sell its MI 3 for 13,999 INR. Today, it has become the most sold mobile brand in India and is leading the electronic market among other chief brands.
Oppo
Oppo – Chinese company in India
Oppo is a popular Chinese company that entered India in 2014 to woo Indian customers with its fancy camera phone. It launched a huge marketing campaign that covered Indian ‘bazaars’ is Oppo banners. With Deepika Padukone as the brand ambassador, Oppo got into the minds of young Indians.
All its marketing strategy revolved around the camera and it still does. Oppo also partnered with PUBG gaming to draw in customers to play the cult favorite game in high graphics. It has its fingers on the pulse of youth and continues to make great sales in the market.
Vivo
Vivo – Chinese company in India
Vivo entered India with Oppo only with the similar concept of selling its camera phone. It applied the same marketing strategy and captured a huge portion of the Indian market. Banners and hoardings of Vivo were seen alongside Oppo and they painted the market green. Vivo also sponsored many gaming events to promote its performance and dominated the Indian mobile sales.
One Plus
Oneplus – Chinese company in India
One plus was also launched in 2014 and it was more on the costly side. Unlike Oppo and Vivo, One Plus mobiles are not available at cheaper rates. It begins with 27,999 INR which is expensive for an average mobile user in India. It was marketed as a high-performance mobile with an astonishing camera.
Huawei is also a competitor among many Chinese mobile companies in India. Huawei sell mobiles, tablets, watches, and speakers. Their most popular mobile was ‘honor’ that did extremely well in the Indian market. Later, it faced issues due to technical problems and India’s relationship with China but now it’s back on track.
Motorola
Motorola – Chinese company in India
Motorola is another Chinese company that makes smartphones, accessories, and smart home devices. They also sell baby monitors and smart nurseries. Motorola is not as popular as other Chinese mobile brands but it has significance in earlier times. But, Motorola has also increased its shipment and is planning to make a comeback in the market with its new gadgets.
Coolpad is another smartphone company of China. It is headquartered at Shenzhen, China. It is not much popular as compared to other Chinese brands but recently Chinese investors put in $500 million into Coolpad and have set eyes on 5G shares. It has head offices in Karnataka, Haryana and Tamilnadu.
Lenovo
Lenovo – Chinese company in India
Lenovo is a Chinese electronics manufacturing company whose laptops are especially popular in India. It also makes other gadgets like smartphones, wearables, and television. Lenovo laptops are trusted by Indian buyers for their durability and reasonable price. It is the choice for students other than HP or Dell.
Haier
Haier – Chinese company in India
Haier is another electronics brand that has been in India for nearly 12 years. It manufactures refrigerators, microwaves, AC, TVs, and water heaters. Haier is popular among the masses for the well-built products that last long. It also makes appliances that are required in factories such as commercial freezers and air conditioners. Indian, is the highest contributing market to Haier’s net worth. It aimed to become a billion-dollar company by 2020 but Covid got in the way.
TCL
TCL – Chinese company in India
TCL is another electronics company that majorly deals in TV and home theatre. They also make home audio and air treatment devices. The company also focused on making AI-induced appliances and launching them in the domestic market. It aims to join the list of the top three smart TV brands in India. TCL’s revenue in India has reached 4 million dollars in recent years.
Realme
Realme – Chinese company in India
Realme is also a mobile brand from China that has formed quite a grip in the Indian market. Its new models sell fast and the company has registered immense profit in the past few years. As the young customers reach for the newest model, the demand for such mobile brands increases. With a wide price range, it has managed to double its shipment in the year 2020.
WISCO
WISCO – Chinese company in India
WISCO stands for Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation. WISCO entered India on 8 Aug 2008 and registered itself at Registrar of Companies, Mumbai. It deals in manufacturing materials of different kinds and produces bronze for all construction purposes.
Conclusion
This was the list of top Chinese companies operating in the Indian Market. A large percentage of the Indian population buys Chinese smartphones as other alternatives are costly. These companies have acquired the market through a smart strategy of a wide price range and it’s apparent that they’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
FAQs
How many Chinese companies are in India?
There are a total of 105 Chinese companies registered in India.
How many Chinese apps are banned in India?
The Indian government has banned around 224 Chinese apps.
Which are the Chinese mobile companies in India?
Some of the top Chinese mobile companies in India are:
Xiaomi
Oppo
Realme
Oneplus
Vivo
iQOO
Which Indian companies are in China?
Top 5 Indian companies which have a good market in China are:
In India, it is almost impossible to find a person who does not have any idea about video creating app TikTok. On its website, TikTok describes itself as “a destination for short-form mobile videos.”
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, which has been around since 2012 and is valued at $425 billion, as of July 2021. According to the latest news dated September 28, 2021, TikTok is currently used by around 1 billion users every month. In fact, it’s generating so much attention that TikTok parent, ByteDance was recently crowned the world’s most valuable startup.
History
TikTok (formerly known as musical.ly) is a free social media platform that lets you watch, create, and share, discover short music videos — often to a soundtrack of the top hits in music, usually of 15 seconds. The app musical.ly was used by young people as a platform to express themselves and showcase their talents through singing, dancing, comedy, lip-syncing, and other activities.
Though TikTok was originally available as musical.ly in the U.S. but was rebranded when Musical.ly merged with TikTok on 2 August 2018, to create a ‘bigger and better short-video community’ when the two apps merged in August 2018. The app is now called TikTok, complete with a new logo. The app has all of the same features as musical.ly and allows users to create videos recorded in 15 seconds or less and share them across a community.
TikTok incorporates the most popular elements of both apps with a feed that highlights the users’ community. In addition to this, a “For You” feed uniquely recommends the relevant videos based on the users’ interest and viewing preferences. The video clips on the platform may only be 15 seconds long but they are having a big impact on the audience.
With more than 1 billion users, TikTok is incredibly popular, owing in part to its slick mashup of features from other kid favorites. As with the lip-synching app Dubsmash, users can watch and record videos of themselves lip-syncing to popular music and soundtracks. And just like YouTube, TikTok is an interactive world of videos that lets you connect with friends and admirers through likes, comments, and even duets.
About CEO of TikTok
ByteDance’s CEO and founder is Zhang Yiming, a 35-year-old entrepreneur. Information about Zhang is scarce as he doesn’t give many interviews but he has even created a real estate search engine. He has studied at Nankai University.
Zhang Yiming – CEO of TikTok | CEO & Founder of ByteDance
In a 2015 speech at his alma mater, Zhang revealed a few other details about himself. He is a big fan of biographies and spent a lot of time in college reading. He said he is socially awkward, precisely a “science man” who introduces himself at school reunions with “Hi, I installed your computer.” During college, he used to build websites and did tech troubleshooting for extra money. As an added bonus, it helped him meet his wife.
ByteDance is the Chinese version of Facebook. It was launched in 2012 in Beijing. It has chat apps and news apps. After acquiring an AI company, it jumped onto the video-sharing bandwagon. In 2015, it launched a Chinese video app called ‘Douyin’, which was a great hit.
In 2017, the concept of Douyin was taken further in the form of TikTok, when there was already a lot of competition from Musical.ly, a video sharing app, which was already there at that time in the market. However, ByteDance soon acquired it and merged Musical,ly’s userbase with TikTok. In December 2017, the deal was closed at $1 billion dollars.
In 2018, Softbank had invested $3 billion dollars, which raised TikTok’s worth to $75 billion dollars. There’s something special about TikTok, looking at the firms that are placing such trust in it!
TikTok has offices in many countries, including India. Surprisingly (or not), TikTok has several million users in India.
TikTok uses AI at its core. The algorithm it adopts is rumoured to be more powerful than the ones used in other social media platforms. It uses your video viewing history to populate relevant videos feed in “For You”. In this app, personalization is at its peak. If you watch these 15-sec videos completely, then its AI feature will serve you with more associated content.
The more you converse with it, the more it gets trained to provide your personalized feed. It is different from other platforms because it just shows you recommended videos or posts based on your recent activity. What’s interesting is that ByteDance has a different version of TikTok for Chinese users whereas a different version for the rest of the world, Douyin. It generates revenue in a pattern similar to that of other social media apps.
According to some reports, an average user spends nearly 52 minutes on TikTok. With over a billion users and reportedly available in 150 countries and counting, the platform for short-form mobile videos has left other social media platforms way behind. It has 1.5 billion registered users with the maximum users lying in the 15-25 age group.
The gigantic userbase has an almost equal sex ratio. 54 % of TikTok users are males and 46% are female. The visionary Softbank fund has always invested in startups that have worn the crown of most valuable entrepreneurial ventures.
TikTok is used by many Asian countries like Cambodia, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, etc. TikTok strongly influences the lower and middle classes of China and India. TikTok has recorded that around 43% of the new users of the app are from India. The app amassed a whopping 200 million+ users from India before being banned. Besides, it has also been seen that the Indian users spent over 5.5 billion hours on TikTok in 2019, according to the available data. A major credit surely goes to Jio internet services, which gave Indians instant access to these 15-sec videos with the ability to upload similar videos. The growing segment of influencers grew has a lot to do with TikTok.
How does TikTok Make Money?
ByteDance does a lot more than just run TikTok. It also owns Toutiao, a massively popular news platform with 240 million downloads, as well as products like Xigua Video, TopBuzz, and BuzzVideo.
TikTok is available in 155 countries. It’s also available in 75 languages, which helps to attract these many users. TikTok is the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store, with 33 million downloads in a single quarter of 2019. The app strongly beats out all other social media giants like YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, which round out the top five. These numbers of downloads help earn the revenue.
TikTok offers in-app purchases of coins, starting from 100 for $0.99 and leveling up to 10,000 for $99.99. Users can give coins to their favorite creators, who can in turn exchange them for digital gifts. Mobile intelligence firm Sensor Tower reported that TikTok users worldwide spent $3.5 million on in-app purchases during the month of October 2018, which is nearly four times what they did in October 2017.
Digiday reported that agencies also may start advertising on TikTok going forward given its explosive popularity. According to the Nanjing Marketing Group, the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, offers splash ads that can cost about $150,000 for one day and newsfeed ads for about $4 per click. Thus, many celebrities, and brands like Pizza Hut pay to run such campaigns or the promotion and endorsements.
TikTok now enjoys a monopoly in the micro video-sharing market. It’s also expanding to the news industry. It recently bought a French news company and has a stake in US-based news agencies. The use of AI is extremely high in TikTok’s initiatives. It uses an AI tool that collects various news clips and prepares articles in a few seconds.
Challenges Faced by TikTok
Though TikTok has a monopoly, the journey to date hasn’t been smooth for TikTok. It had to pay $5.7 billion dollars for violating children’s privacy in the US. India also banned this app for a few days. Mark Zuckerberg spoke about TikTok and its dominancy in US and other countries. He expressed concerns about the privacy of users of TikTok.
Yet many reports credit Zuckerberg’s reaction to fears of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp losing their grip over social media to TikTok. Recent reports suggest TikTok has already positioned itself as the topmost social media app in the market. The US government has been critical of TikTok over concerns on the national security.
When it comes to value addition, the 15-sec videos on TikTok don’t do anything big. However, they provide entertainment and comical content, a stress buster for billions across the globe. Underneath all of this, ByteDance is building an empire using millennials and having greater influence over them.
Many feel that millennials are now morally and ethically more vulnerable than ever, with attraction towards silly content in the name of entertainment as one such reason. In February, the FTC in the U.S. fined TikTok $5.7 million for violating the children’s privacy law (COPPA) and required the app to implement an age gate.
Moreover, some Indian politicians and parents also believe that the app’s content is inappropriate, particularly with regard to its use by minors. Thus, the Tamil Nadu court ruled against TikTok and banned it, saying the app could expose children to sexual predators as well.
But after all these hurdles, TikTok managed to persuade the governments by implementing some policies by restricting the app for users above 13 years. Now, parents can help children manage their screen time by selecting how much time they would like their child to spend on TikTok like 40, 60, 90, and 120 minutes per day. This feature is password-protected; when users reach their limit they have to enter a password to continue. Parents can set the password to be in total control of the screen time.
Even after facing all these hurdles, TikTok has successfully circumvented them to become the World’s Most Valuable Startup beating all other social media giants. It has set an example of how by using the power of the youth, which is revered for possessing the highest potential, a startup can excel in the market by using appropriate strategies.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently come out and asked China to help him achieve the goal of Common Prosperity, a bill that can help narrow the growing wealth gap and focus on social value. Common Prosperity was first mentioned by Mao Zedong the former president of the People’s Republic of China in the 1950s but has come to existence again with the current President Xi Jinping.
Currently, people of the country are unclear on how this law may be implemented, but according to the speculations, the big tech companies of China are now under pressure from Beijing to donate towards the initiative. According to Xi Jinping, Common Prosperity is not only an Economic goal that the country has to reach, but is also the core of the Chinese Communist party’s governing foundation.
According to few studies, 20% of the China rich population earn ten times more than 20% of the poor population. This is a wider wealth gap than compared to countries like America, Germany and France.
The statistics of the country say that over 600 million people (which account for over half of the country population) live on an annual income of 12,000 yuan or $1,856 US dollars. While the rich sector of the country has only increased over the past few years, China has a total number of 1,058 billionaires as of 2021.
A Brief about the Common Prosperity Bill
As mentioned above Common Prosperity was initially coined by mentioned by Mao Zedong the former president of the People Republic of China in the 1950s. The law was also mentioned again by Deng Xiapong who was the former leader of the People Republic of China, the man who played a vital role in modernizing the Chinese economy after the Cultural Revolution.
Deng Xiapong version of Common Prosperity is different from president Xi Jinping idea because it centered on allowing certain people and regions to get rich first in order to speed up economic growth in the country.
This has long been the goal of the current President Xi Jinping, as he had mentioned the goal in his 2017 speech at the party congress to mark the start of his second term.
According to him, Common Prosperity aims in closing the wealth gap in the country and proving the legitimacy of Communist Party rule. Common Prosperity is often misunderstood as egalitarianism, but it does mean bringing down the rich in order to help the poor.
According to many Chinese analysts, the goal of common Prosperity should be about helping those who need it the most. This bill will however target the Successful MNCs of the country, Tech and Gaming companies, which has alarmed the investors.
There are possibilities the law will include policies ranging from Tax evasions and limits on how many hours tech companies employees can work among others. The taxes are said to be used to expand the proportion of the Middle class and boost the income of the poor in the country. The goal will also help adjust excessive income of the rich and possibly ban illegal ways of income.
The Chinese Government is now encouraging the country’s top MNCs and rich individuals to contribute to society through the means of charity and donations. Recently Alibaba announced that it will be investing over $15.5 billion to support the initiative of Common Prosperity. Other big tech companies like Tencent have also pledged over 100 billion Yuan or $15 billion towards numerous initiatives.
While founders of big companies like Pinduoduo, Meituan and Xiaomi have all promised billions of dollars toward social causes in order to support the goal of Common prosperity. These companies are said to invest money into the sectors of innovation of new technology, development of the country’s economy, creating high-quality jobs and supporting vulnerable groups.
Besides that, the Chinese Government has is already implementing laws for restricting gaming time for minors below the age of 18 years old to only three hours a week.
The Chinese government is also planning to ban tutoring companies from making a profit by teaching their students the syllabus on nights and even weekends. The Government also announced a reform plan to reduce healthcare costs, especially in public hospitals.
Many state agencies and tech companies have started to announce that they will invest huge amounts of money to help reach this goal, by doing this they are signaling their allegiance to this Communist Party and its upcoming schemes. If this bill is put in action it can help make housing more affordable especially in the main cities of China.
There are speculations that the bill might lead to the nationalization of private companies. The bill also will help the middle class and poorer sectors of Chinese populations in accessing education and healthcare. It also encourages the richer sector of the Chinese population to be more philanthropic and donate towards the growth of society.
The income of the rural areas can increase and they will also be able to avail public services easily. With this bill, China is aiming to increase domestic demand and self-reliance which has been propelled by the ongoing tensions between China and America.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently come out and asked China to help him achieve the goal of Common Prosperity, a bill that can help narrow the growing wealth gap and focus on social value.
Who first coined the term Common Prosperity?
Common Prosperity was first mentioned by Mao Zedong the former president of the People Republic of China in the 1950s.
Why is the Common Prosperity Bill being implemented?
The Common Prosperity Bill is being implemented in order to reduce the wealth gap in China’s population and help the country’s economy increase.
How many billionaires does China have?
China has a total number of 1,058 billionaires as of 2021.
For a long time there has been this general belief that there is no Android phone that can compete with the Apple Models based on quality, this is what OnePlus aimed to change ever since its formation. OnePlus Technology (Shenzen) Co., ltd simply referred to as OnePlus, is a Chinese smartphone and electronics manufacturer based in Shenzen, Guangdong, founded by Pete Lau (CEO) and Carl Pei (Drector) in December 2013.
As of February 2020, OnePlus is the top selling premium smartphone brand in India holding 33% of the total market share. Apart from smartphones, OnePlus also deals in other devices like earphones, chargers and Smart Television sets in over 340 countries. The story behind the formation and the motivation of the brand is a fascinating.
Here’s a thoroughly studied OnePlus Case Study that’s going to clear every doubt that you might have in your mind regarding OnePlus.
As mentioned OnePlus was co founded by Pete Lau and Carl Pei. At that time, Lau was the Vice President of OPPO and Pei was OPPO’s Global Marketing and E-Commerce Division Head.
OnePlus Founders
While they were visiting a Café with their colleagues from OPPO, they noticed that all of them were using Apple smartphones, the reason behind this was the common belief that Android phones were concerned with market share more than the quality of their products. They put forward the concept that based on product quality, there was no “second best” to Apple.
This is where OnePlus’s motto “Never Settle” originates from as it provides better options for the android users instead for settling for something lesser.
Having determined the need of a premium android smartphone line, the company then had to decide what features were to be implemented in their product lines. Their primary focus throughout the manufacturing process was on quality.
As Lau said “we will never be different just for the sake of being different.”
So the OnePlus production does not focuses on a ‘brand new concept that has never been seen before’ instead it gives more emphasis on improving the actual user experience in day to day life.
The first product of OnePlus was the highly awaited OnePlus One which was unveiled just 4 months after the company started on 22 April 2014. The model received a positive reception from the general audience.
Despite being about half the price of the other competitors, it performed on the same level and even higher. Although there were some technical faults and lower camera quality due to the low cost, it performed very well despite having a lesser availability than its closest competitor in the Nexus series.
It surpassed the expected limits and set a staple for the company upon which the further models were improvised. The later models of the smartphone included improvements on the previous models and received positive reception.
The company also introduced the T series starting from OnePlus 3 until 7 and the Pro Series starting from OnePlus 7 to 8. These models were limited edition variants to the core series designed for luxury users.
By 2020, OnePlus became the top selling smartphone brand in India. Some of the features that appealed to the masses were unique and handy build, continuous improvement in camera quality with every new model and an affordable price.
The company also announced its intention to venture into the Smart Television market in September 2018 starting with OnePlus Tv Q1 and the OnePlus TV U series.
Wireless chargers were introduced along with OnePlus 8 series and the wireless earphones, OnePlus bullets with the OnePlus 6 series.
In every product line, OnePlus puts product quality and affordability first all the while appealing to the different sections of the audience.
The pricing strategy of OnePlus focuses on the customers seeking high quality features in smartphones and other devices without spending too much into it.
Therefore, the company focuses on high quality manufacturing and a relatively low margin of profit, opting to utilize its savings in order to make the products available and affordable to more people around the world.
However, different countries have different prices depending upon various factors.
OnePlus Business Strategy In India
Over the years of its operation, OnePlus has used many innovative models and campaigns for the promotion of its products. The following are some of the popular promotional strategies and campaigns implemented by OnePlus,
Invite Only System
In order to manage the huge demand in the initial stages of its operation, OnePlus used an Invitation System, where the customers had to sign up for the purchase of OnePlus One at irregular intervals, they ended the Invitation System with the launch of OnePlus 3 which went on sale on an interactive VR (Virtual Reality) platform. OnePlus dubbed the event as world’s first ever VR Shopping Experience.
OnePlus started the Smash the Past campaign on 23 April 2014. As the name suggests, it invited a selected group of customers to smash their old phone in an effort to purchase the OnePlus One for just $1. However, this campaign didn’t work as planned because uninvited customers also started to smash their phones in videos that surfaced online and threatened the reputation of the company. As a result of this, OnePlus revised the rules thereby allowing the invited users to donate their old phones instead of smashing them. There were 140000 users and 100 were selected.
Ladies First Campaign
On August 13 2014, OnePlus started the controversial Ladies first Campaign, it involved handing the elusive invites to the female forum members first. The selection will be based upon the likes on their pictures with the logo of the OnePlus brand, however this received major backlash from the community and was pulled within hours of its launch.
Brand Ambassadors
OnePlus hired Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan as a Brand Ambassador for their promotion in India. And in May 2019 they hired Robert Downey Jr. for the said role.
Slowly but surely, OnePlus is becoming a household name in the smartphone market along with established brands like OPPO and Samsung especially in India.
However, due to the recent events that have strained the relationship between India and China that resulted in banning of various Chinese apps and products in India, the brand of OnePlus may be unaffected but the employment in its Indian stores may dwindle in the near future.
Frequently Asked Questions About OnePlus
How did OnePlus one start?
OnePlus Technology (Shenzen) Co., ltd simply referred to as OnePlus, is a Chinese smartphone and electronics manufacturer based in Shenzen, Guangdong, founded by Pete Lau (CEO) and Carl Pei (Drector) in December 2013.
While they were visiting a Café with their colleagues from OPPO, they noticed that all of them were using Apple smartphones, the reason behind this was the common belief that Android phones were concerned with market share more than the quality of their products. They put forward the concept that based on product quality, there was no “second best” to Apple.
This is where OnePlus’s motto “Never Settle” originates from as it provides better options for the android users instead for settling for something lesser.
Who invented OnePlus?
OnePlus Technology (Shenzen) Co., ltd simply referred to as OnePlus, is a Chinese smartphone and electronics manufacturer based in Shenzen, Guangdong, founded by Pete Lau (CEO) and Carl Pei (Director) in December 2013.
What is OnePlus’ Startup Story?
For a long time there has been this general belief that there is no Android phone that can compete with the Apple Models based on quality, this is what OnePlus aimed to change ever since its formation. OnePlus Technology (Shenzen) Co., ltd simply referred to as OnePlus, is a Chinese smartphone and electronics manufacturer based in Shenzen, Guangdong, founded by Pete Lau (CEO) and Carl Pei (Director) in December 2013.
What is Oneplus’ business strategy?
Over the years of its operation, OnePlus has used many innovative models and campaigns for the promotion of its products. The following are some of the popular promotional strategies and campaigns implemented by OnePlus,
Invite Only System
Smash The Past – OnePlus started the Smash the Past campaign on 23 April 2014. As the name suggests, it invited a selected group of customers to smash their old phone in an effort to purchase the OnePlus One for just $1.
Ladies First Campaign – On August 13 2014, OnePlus started the controversial Ladies first Campaign, it involved handing the elusive invites to the female forum members first.
Brand Ambassadors – OnePlus hired Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan as a Brand Ambassador for their promotion in India.
Latest Indo-china border face-off lifted the #boycottchineseproduct trend insanely. Thus it becoming a serious headache for all the Chinese funded Indian Companies. Hence, we have noticed a major change in Paytm’s shareholding Pattern on Wikipedia.
In March 2015, Alibaba took 40% stock in Paytm as a Part of the strategic agreement. As the pressure building up, Paytm changed the shareholding pattern in Wikipedia on yesterday by replacing “Alibaba” with “ANT Financials”. ANT Financials is formerly known as Alipay which is an affiliate group of Alibaba. As the Twitteratis claiming, Paytm did that to sound non-Chinese.
Paytm changes Shareholding pattern on Wikipedia
Twitteratis asking people to stop using Paytm, as they have more shares from Chinese. Some of them putting screenshots of uninstalling the Paytm app. Instead, they are asking to use BHIM and Other Indian UPI apps as an alternative to Paytm.
At the same time certain group of people still showing support towards Paytm as it is an Indian Company. According to them, there are other eCommerce giants in India who have large numbers of Chinese investments. They have stakes on Flipkart, Ola, Oyo, Swiggy, Snapdeal, Zomato and the list goes on. Hence, What are you gonna do with them as well?
Tweet in Support of Paytm
As a result of the increasing heat between India and China, it will be interesting to see how Chinese funded top Indian brands deal with this #boycottchineseproduct trend.
Due to the ongoing military standoff at the Indo-China border, Chinese funded startups may face challenges in raising capital for their businesses. Chinese investors have found Indian startups valuable and deeply invested in top startups like Paytm, Zomato, BigBasket, and many more but soon these startups may face challenges in capital investments for their businesses due to the ongoing military standoff between two countries.
The military standoff may affect the Chinese invested startups in India and Chinese funded businesses, as per the reports Chinese investors have funded over 18 out of 30 unicorns in India which is roughly around $3.9 billion of investments in 2019.
Chinese investments in India
Businesses that already have Chinese investors deeply invested cannot afford to back out at this moment and will not, but early growth stage startups in India which are looking out and rely on foreign investments may find it difficult to find foreign capital investments for their startups.A startup founder said “While investments from china have slowed down, other avenues have open up from countries like the United States, UK, and the middle east”.
Foreign investors find investing in India attractive because India has an attractive risk-return trade off and India remains the second-fastest growing economy in the world.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) through a Press Note No.3 of 2020, has announced that any of India’s neighboring countries will require the Indian Government approval in case of any FDI investments in India. Many have speculated that this move is aimed to restrain Chinese investments in India.
The companies that are going to be affected the most by the foreign direct investment (FDI) norms are Big basket, Ola and payments platform Paytm, these startups have so far received billions of dollars investments from Chinese companies.The FDI makes it compulsory for all the investors including Chinese direct and indirect investors to seek government approval before investing in Indian companies. This will create a hurdle for the Chinese investors such as Alibaba and Tencent who have invested billions in Indian startups.
“The new FDI guidelines essentially imply Chinese capital would require prior government approval. In effect, given the uncertainty around approval, startups will shy away from Chinese capital. In the immediate future, this could impact PhonePe and potentially Paytm at a later date,” said Ashneer Grover, CEO and co-founder, BharatPe.
lately Bigbasket was backed with a funding close to $50 million from Alibaba. The amount was funded to the company when it was struggling to meet the operations requirements due to restrictions imposed by the lockdown.
Top Chinese funded startups in India
According to the data gathered by Tracxn, C Chinese investors have backed unicorns like Byjus, Paytm, Ola, Oyo, Swiggy, Zomato, Dream11, and Udaan, while some investors have also invested in soonicorns (a term used for potential unicorns) such as Practo, ShareChat, Meesho, and CarDekho.
Top Chinese funded startups
The new FDI guidelines is going to affect the current investments as well as the investments by neighboring countries who are interested in investing in Indian startups.
Disha
