The Madras High Court had been petitioning for a ban of TikTok as they believed that the app helped circulate inappropriate content. Like its predecessors, Facebook and Instagram, TikTok had responded to this claim by saying that they are not responsible for the content created by their myriad of users. This resulted in a short ban of the app, which has now been lifted. The app has now become available for download again in the app store as of April 30. Now, this may not be the surprising part, but what the real head turner in this story is the fact that downloads have surged by an extreme amount.
It has only taken this Chinese app 2 days to surge to the top of the download list when it comes to apps that are seeing high levels of downloads. On April 30, when users could see the app in the Play Store again, it had the position of the 90th most downloaded apps in India. Moreover, it ranked as number 13 within the category of social apps on the Play Store. By May 1st, the numbers changed drastically. It is now the 15th most downloaded apps in India! In the category of social apps, this app has risen to 4th position. This shows a huge surge in just two days.
Experts believe that this is happening as the company that owns the TikTok app, Bytedance, is offering Indians great cash incentives to download their app. Makers have promised that if users download the app, they stand a chance to win ₹ 1,00,000. Not a small amount for any of the app’s users for sure!
If you’re wondering why Bytedance is bothering to do this, considering that the app is already very popular in India, the answer is simple. The app had been facing estimated losses of $ 500,000 every single day that it was off the market. Their ban had lasted for a week, and this spelled huge losses for the company. By offering these cash incentives, the app is trying to make up for the losses that it had been incurring. Going by the way people have begun downloading the app, it seems as though these marketing tactics are working very well!
In order to prevent any such mishap again in India, TikTok is trying to build an image that says that it’s an app that cares about its users. To do so, they are introducing two new security features. There will be a new notification control system to keep users safe. There will also be a new device management tool that will help users control any odd logins or hacking attempts. This will be great news for those who pride themselves on being TikTok Stars as their accounts are responsible for their earnings.
Furthermore, the app is also planning to bring in-app quizzes to the fore, in order to teach their young users about important things like data phishing, password safety, and even scan websites. One can see that they are trying to prevent any other roadblocks in the future that will take this app away from one of the largest consumer markets in the world!
