TikTok looks at an uncertain future in India after downloads fall by 51% in the last two months

• A large number of people in India have called for a ban on TikTok as they believe it promotes violence, crime and pornography.
  
• Between March and May, downloads of the ByteDance-owned app fell from 35.7 million to 17 million.
  
• Two of the primary reasons behind the decline is anti-China sentiments in the country followed by arguments to ban the app on the Google Play store.

TikTok, which is among the most popular apps in India, is looking at tough times ahead.

The ByteDance-owned short video app saw a steep fall of 51% in new users in April and March across iOS and Android, according to an Economic Times report citing data shared by Sensor Tower.

Between March and May, downloads of the Byte-dance owned app fell from 35.7 million to 17 million on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store. Two of the primary reasons behind the decline is anti-China sentiments in the country followed by morality arguments to ban the app on the Google Play store.

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Source: Sensor Tower

India is one of the key markets for TikTok is India — which contributed to 41.6% of the app’s new users in February 2019. Every four in 10 people in India who have smartphones use TikTok.

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However, TikTok has been under the fire ever since Youtube removed Carry Minati video roasting Amir Siddiqui for his content on the short-video platform. The controversy on Faisal Siddiqui’s acid attack video made the situation even worse.

Faisal Siddiqui — Prince of Team Nawab who had 13.5 million followers — was accused of encouraging acid attacks on women in his latest video. TikTok suspended Siddiqui’s account for violating “multiple community terms.”

A week later, TikTok account of Amir Siddiqui was also suspended for “violating multiple community guidelines.” A large number of people have called for a ban on the app as they believe it promotes violence, crime and pornography.

Millions of people in India are bombarding the app with a 1-star rating along with negative comments on the Google Play Store so much so that the overall rating was down to 1.2 stars from 4.5 stars within the span of a few days.

TikTok received as many as 4 million new comments on Google Play Store — with most of them being negative. The ratings, however, improved to 1.4 after an estimated 7 million reviews disappeared from the Play Store.

Experts told Business Insider that the app won’t be removed from the Play Store because of its rating — but this will have a severe impact on its future downloads.Previously, TikTok was briefly banned in India last year by the Madras High Court after it was accused of letting users post obscene content that encouraged ‘pornography’.


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