TikTok stars migrate to other platforms

TikTok stars migrate to other platforms

John Sarkar & Pankaj Doval TNN

New Delhi: 01.07.2020

Within minutes of the order blocking TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps, SaltNPepper, a wannabe actor in his early forties, reached out to his near-one million followers, advising them to follow him on his new personal website as well as Instagram and YouTube channel. He was not alone, with many Indian TikTok influencers, whose accounts were inaccessible on Tuesday, doing the same.

Some even went to the extent of praising the government’s action and exhorted their followers to back them up by following them on other social-media channels.

The most popular social media channels due to the ban of TikTok include Instagram and YouTube, which hitherto had been losing the race in bagging new subscribers to the Chinese app.

However, many of the Tik-Tok influencers are worried that their popularity may not be matched so aggressively on the other American platforms which have “more sophisticated users and followers”.

TikTok and ByteDance’s other app, Helo, had a bigger appeal in the hinterland and rural and semi-urban India where they are widely followed. Instagram and You-Tube are more of a metro phenomenon, and are popular with upmarket advertisers.

Surbhi Sikri, a 22-year-old Tiktoker known as Revolver-Rani on the Chinese platform, had over 6 million followers. “My parents are a bit worried as I had taken this as my career. There are some financial problems in my family and this will impact my earnings by at least 50%,” he told TOI.

On an average, a reasonably successful TikTok influencer makes around Rs 2 lakh a month.

Apps must adhere to country’s data sovereignty: kant

New Delhi:

All apps released in the country must adhere to India’s data integrity, privacy, sovereignty and transparency, a top policymaker said on Tuesday, a day after the Centre banned 59 Chinese apps. “They must be transparent in origin & final destination of data. India has to be a data sovereign country. This is critical. Apps against whom action has been taken are lifestyle apps,” NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Twitter. AGENCIES