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Here's what Bolo Indya's P2P e-commerce platform is all about

<ul><li>Bolo Indya has launched a Peer-to-Peer e-commerce platform called Bolo Meets. It is already gaining popularity amongst the creators as its engagement rate has increased by over 89%. </li><li>It is also hoping that its creators would earn around 1 lakh per month by the end of this fiscal year. </li><li>We speak to Bolo Indya's Founder, <keyword id="1278463" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Varun-Saxena">Varun Saxena</keyword>, to understand the idea behind the platform, its revenue model, and larger goals for the on-going quarter.</li></ul>Launched in May 2019, homegrown short-form video app Bolo Indya has been on an exponential growth trajectory. It currently has over 65 lakh Monthly Active Users across Android and IOS and 33 lakh Daily Active Users. It sees over 15 lakh videos being created on a daily basis. It has also completed the Pre-series A1 funding of $500K and is working closely with over 70 brands. Bolo Indya was seeing a steady 25% M-o-M growth even when TikTok was around and eating the bigger chunk of the pie. However, TikTok did not offer its users an option to create content in their regional language and since the beginning, Bolo Indya embarked upon a mission to offer monetary benefits to its creators and take them beyond social gratifications and brand partnerships, which has helped it create a niche in the highly cluttered space. As a result, after June when TikTok was out of the picture, it started growing by 80% M-o-M. The pandemic-induced lockdown pushed the entire country to move to digital platforms for their primary source of entertainment, which also opened up an opportunity for OTT players and UGC apps to rise to the situation and offer their users a reason to spend more time on their platforms as they were quarantined 24*7. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Bolo Indya launched an engagement-led Peer2Peer e-commerce service called Bolo Meets. Bolo Meets is already gaining popularity amongst the creators with an increased engagement rate of over 89%. Its top 250 creators are earning in the range of Rs 50,000-60,000 per month using P2P services available on the platform. Sharing the idea behind Bolo Meets, Varun Saxena, Founder, Bolo Indya, said, “We realised that our creators have a lot of expertise they can offer on the basis of the social capital they build. Short videos in local languages are expected to see a demand of over 80 million users by 2022, just 4th to Youtube, Payments and E-Commerce. This is where Bolo Indya wants to bring in the amalgamation of user-generated content, influencer impact and structured discoverability to build a product which adds contextual value to the time spent on internet by regional language users. So that’s how we arrived at the concept of Bolo Meets.” Explaining how the service will work, Saxena said, “Creators on the platform will now have an added feature to create and deliver their specialized skills-based services to their follower base. Sessions can be facilitated either through one-to-one private video chat room, or a group video session with a maximum of 10 people in one session. These video sessions can be availed by the users through micropayments to book the slots for their favourite creators’ sessions. We had launched this feature in May 2020 for a limited set of audience, even before TikTok was banned. 257 creators used the service between May to September and were earning in the range of 50,000-60,000. There is no upper cap on how much they can earn.” Bolo Meets has categories like Astrology, Fitness, Music, Dance, Instruments, Comedy, Personal Finance, Relationships, and Mental wellness. Average ticket size for the sessions start from as low as Rs 100 for a personalised astrology service, and goes up to Rs 5000 for someone willing to learn a language or dance set. 22-year-old Ishban Yadav, one of the younger creators on Bolo Indya with over 5.5 lakh followers, has seen his income triple after Bolo Meets launch. “From 257 creators on Bolo Meets, we expect to close December with 25,000+ creators using this service. Our transactions are also increasing month-on-month. Today, creators who are earning in the range of 50,000-60,000, with the scale which we are going to achieve in next few months, we expect this earning to reach around 1 lakh per month for the top 50% of our creators by the time we will end this financial year,” shared Saxena. The platform currently has over 28 lakh creators, spread across 14 languages. With its unique service offering, Bolo Indya now expects its creator base to grow by 300% by March 2021. Talking about the strategy behind increasing its creators base, Saxena said, “We expect that our overall creator base will increase by 4X in the next 3-6 months, which will help us increase our user base as well because we will have high quality creators. We don't need to pay a hefty amount to the creators, unlike our peers, to come create content on our platform that happens organically. This brings down our content acquisition cost and our consumers are pulled because of quality content. Through organic content, you also see a surge in distribution. Today, almost 10 million pieces are shared on WhatsApp and Telegram every month. This network will only become stronger with the launch of Bolo Meets.” Vision for the app Saxena told us that he envisions the app to cross 10 crore active users by the end of 2021 and continue spending an average of 60 minutes on the app. With the launch of Bolo Meets, the platform’s aim was to increase engagement on its platform and now, it would focus on polishing its creators skillset and increase its visibility among a larger consumer base. “We had one thing in mind this time. Whatever we create, it has to be a daily use case and high-frequency case. We don’t see Bolo Indya as a typical short video platform. We see it translating into a larger consumer internet company in the next few years, where it comes at the top of the funnel for a creator and user. We offer videos to get users hooked to spend more and more time on the app, gradually discover social services and avail them and creators are able to turn their social capital into financial independence. We don’t want to create a story of user growth, we want to write a story of user retention and impact that we have on the lives of social creators,” said Saxena. Bolo Indya has also built a strong team after TikTok’s ban. It is now a team of 28 employees, with people from ShareChat, Byte Dance, BharatPe, PhonePe, Ola Money, and Times Internet and is only expanding. It is also planning to expand its services to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Sharing the app's larger vision, Saxena said, “We are on the mission to leverage the power of short videos, peer-to-peer commerce and network effect to empower every content creator of Bharat to go viral in the shortest span of time and be able to monetize by leveraging the social capital. We are working towards building a daily use case for local language short videos consumption and see ourselves to be on at least one smartphone of every Indian household with a non-English user within the span of next 18 months." Bolo Indya doesn’t measure its success rate on the number of app installs. Saxena told us that the platform will always measure its growth story by how much its creators are earning and by December 2021, Bolo Indya wants to see its top 50% of the creators earning at least 1.5 lakh per month. Saxena further shared with us its marketing strategy and focus area for the on-going quarter. Watch the interview below to know more: <div type="Video" msid="79249230" hostid="261" title="Here's what Bolo Indya's P2P e-commerce platform is all about" dataSource="BUSINESSINSIDER" thumbUrl="https://denmark.timesinternet.in/cmslite/api/app/images.jpg?msid=79249230"></div>

Bolo Indya expects its creator base to grow by 300% by March 2021 after adding a P2P e-commerce service

<ul><li>The ban on TikTok gave homegrown app <keyword id="9295153" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="bolo-indya">Bolo Indya</keyword> a huge boost. </li><li>Within 24 hours of the ban, Bolo Indya saw 62 minute+ daily time spent by active users, at par with time spent on TikTok, more than 5 times of time spent on other homegrown applications. </li><li>We spoke to <keyword id="1278463" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Varun-Saxena">Varun Saxena</keyword>, Co-Founder, Bolo Indya to understand how he envisions to take its 26 lakh MAU to 10 crore by end of 2021, what helps it stand out in the clutter and monetisation plan. </li></ul> TikTok has left a new playing field for the homegrown video platforms. Bolo Indya, a User Generated Content video app, saw a spike in its user count with 25 lakh users connecting with it in the same week the ban on 59 Chinese apps was announced by the Government of India. Today, Bolo Indya’s MAU stands at 36 lakh and DAU at 22 lakh, with users spending close to 62 min per day and creating over 15 lakh on the platform. Launched in May 2019, the platform was seeing a steady 22% M-o-M growth, even when TikTok was around and eating the bigger chunk of the pie. However, TikTok did not offer its users an option to create content in their regional language. Bolo Indya recognised this gap and decided to focus on localisation, empowering its talented users by making sure they earn at least Rs 30,000 a month through <keyword id="987108" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="content-marketing">content marketing</keyword> and on its video chatting feature. Bolo Indya was quick to realise its strengths and started building on it by monetising its application towards the end of 2019. Then came the pandemic-induced lockdown which pushed the entire country to move to digital platforms for their primary source of entertainment, which also opened up an opportunity for OTT players and UGC apps to rise to the situation and offer their users a reason to spend more time on their platforms as they were quarantined 24*7. As a result, three months into 2020, Bolo Indya surpassed its 2019 revenue. Explaining the revenue model, Varun Saxena, Co-Founder, Bolo Indya, said, “Our revenue model at scale will see platform fee out of video commerce for services as a major contributor to revenue. Currently, a major part of revenue is coming from Content Marketing where we have clients from both India and the US.” Sustaining the growth While there are quite a few other homegrown platforms that are doing well as a direct result of TikTok's ban, Saxena says Bolo Indya was around even before the movement to boycott Chinese products started rising in the country. He is confident that even if TikTok comes back, Bolo Indya will continue to achieve its goals. On what differentiates the app to stand out in the clutter, Saxena said, “We had always been building towards giving a better alternative than TikTok. We allow content creators to leverage passion economy through short videos in regional languages and become financially independent. Thus, we never revolve around just ad based-model unlike all other short video apps which are just the pixel to pixel replica of TikTok, be it content flavor or business model. This means that in the middle term when and if TikTok returns, just its xerox apps would find it challenging to sustain, while Bolo Indya would continue to grow, just like we were when Tiktok was there.” Currently, content creators as well as consumers are exploring all the possible options available in the market to find a permanent home. For Bolo Indya, the challenge is not to attract new users but to retain what it has already acquired. “This storm will settle down till Diwali 2020 and that's when we will have a clearer picture of which platform among Indian apps is emerging as a winner. For example, we have over 82% retention of the users who have come to us over the last 10 days, while some of the other apps have less than 20% as their social media posts,” said Saxena. He also anticipates that TikTok will come back and is preparing his team to be ready when it does. He has also on-boarded an experienced Partnerships Head in his team to strengthen its monetisation plan. “We are preparing majorly for the situation when the TikTok ban is lifted because we expect it to happen in a few months. Thus, our core differentiation for creators shall continue to be the reason for them to stick to us, and use Tiktok simultaneously, while other apps may find it a lot more challenging to retain the users as so far they have not offered anything different than TikTok to content creators or consumers,” he shared. Vision for the app Saxena told us that he envisions the app to cross 10 crore active users by the end of 2021 and continue spending an average of 60 minutes on the app. “We have a vision where we foresee Bolo Indya being on at least one smartphone in every Indian household. At the same time, we want to take India's regional users' talent, experiences, opinions and skills to a global stage in sync with the Vocal for Local campaign of Prime minister, and have our creators leverage the global stage for both popularity and earning,” said Saxena.

Bolo Indya’s founder wants to offer every consumer and content creator an opportunity to earn through content marketing

<ul><li>With Reels, users can post 15 second videos along with audio, effects and new creative tools. </li><li>A third of posts on Instagram in India are videos and short-form videos are 45%, which pushed the launch for Reels.</li><li>India is the fourth country to start testing Reels after Brazil, France and Germany. </li></ul><keyword id="6354576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword> has finally officially announced the launch of <keyword id="8322765" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="instagram-reels">Instagram Reels</keyword> in India – the social media giant’s alternative for TikTok. In a conference call with reporters in India today, Facebook said that Instagram Reels continues to be under testing in India and will soon be rolled out to all users. Business Insider India had earlier <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/instagram-reels-is-being-quietly-tested-in-india-just-days-after-the-tiktok-ban/articleshow/76768337.cms">reported</a> about Instagram Reels being quietly tested in India. With Reels, users can post 15 second videos along with audio, effects and new creative tools. Once they have created a video, users can choose to either share it with their followers only, but the default setting would be to share it on the public ‘Explore’ section. During the call, Ajit Mohan, VP, Facebook India said that this was a feedback received from users who have been testing Reels – that they would want their videos to reach out to an audience beyond their own followers. So, the ‘Explore’ section works much like TikTok’s ‘For You’ section, where users can scroll through the videos. <keyword id="7319188" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="TikTok-ban">TikTok ban</keyword> and its impact on the launch of Reels India is the fourth country to start testing Reels after Brazil, France and Germany. And the product which is eerily similar to TikTok, has begun testing here just days after the ban on Chinese apps in India, including TikTok. Mohan said that a third of posts on Instagram in India are videos and short-form videos are 45%, which pushed the launch for Reels. However, he said that the launch of Reels had nothing to do with the recent ban of TikTok in India. “This has been in the making for a while. We have seen interest in short form videos for a while now. Fairly intense growth of Instagram in India over the last few years including the last few months in the context of the virus. We are also cognizant of the fact that this is a country with a very vibrant diverse cultural context with a very young population who is looking for new creative tools and formats to express themselves. Facebook has been particularly focussing in India,” he said during the call. The ban on TikTok had also seen many other apps like Chingari, Roposo, Mitron, Bolo Indya, Trell see thousands of users flock to their platform. But Facebook isn’t worried about competition. “We expect the competitive intensity will remain in India. The tech space in India has been characterized by competition – this will continue especially in a thriving enterprising country like India and we welcome that. Our focus will continue to be what we have been doing at Instagram and shape the future of entertainment. This is the beginning of the foundation where we really have the opportunity to light up an entirely new generation of creators in India,” said Mohan. However, TikTok in India had also seen a lot of backlash for communally sensitive content, questioning the safety of content on the platform. “One of the investment areas for Facebook as a company is in safety and integrity. We have invested billions of dollars over the years to ensure these systems are state of the art. The advantage is that all these existing systems will be used by Reels from day one. This is an ever evolving space, tech content in videos is improving with machine learning and artificial intelligence,” said Vishal Shah, Vice President of product, Facebook. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/tiktok-app-pro-scam-what-is-it-and-how-to-protect-yourself-from-it/articleshow/76849148.cms">TikTok Pro scam – What is it and how to protect yourself from it</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/elyments-dips-to-3-5-stars-on-google-play-store-heres-what-analysts-believe-indias-new-social-network-needs-in-order-to-be-successful/articleshow/76845819.cms">Elyments dips to 3.5 stars on Google Play Store — Here's what analysts believe India's new social network needs in order to be successful</a>

It’s official – Instagram Reels sets out to capture the TikTok market in India

<ul><li>The Indian founders had earlier called the ban on Chinese apps as the atmanirbhar moment for India’s entrepreneurs.</li><li>To handle the surge in users and traffic, the startups are now also aggressively hiring to better their offerings. </li><li>Here are all the openings in short-form video apps in India.</li></ul>On June 29, TikTok got banned in India along with 58 other Chinese apps. And since that very moment, India’s rival apps of the Chinese giant have seen their user base jump up by millions. The Indian founders even called this the atmanirbhar moment for India’s entrepreneurs."This is the digital atmanirbhar moment that most Indians have been rooting for,” said Naveen Tewari, founder and CEO of InMobi Group which owns Roposo. Indian entrepreneurs believe with this, ‘Made in India’ apps will get a boost as they won’t be fighting with Chinese companies, who have the cash to spend and build a userbase. “The move can be hugely beneficial for Indian companies considering the potential Indian startups have in terms of creating our own TikTok, We Chat, Baidu. Many others are all poised to make it big with the scale our country provides and absence of Chinese competitors with deep pockets,” Sandeep Singh, founder and president, Khabri. But to handle the surge in users and traffic, the startups are now also aggressively hiring to better their offerings. Here are all the openings in short-form video apps in India Chingari Chingari has got over 16million users in just 25 days and was trending in the top apps on the Google Playstore. The team needs 10-15 people right away to help with the surge in traffic – UI/UX designers, engineers and more. <div type="twitter" handle="adityakothari" handlename="Aditya Kothari" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1181273690819817472/ylFghAkJ_normal.jpg" favoritecount="109" retweetcount="37" status="Looking for a docker/kubernetes/backend architect for @Chingari_IN . If you're looking to build a backend infra, an… https://t.co/BBQtJ4Rl8C" createdat="1594502330000" id="1282061813891227649"></div> Bolo Indya Bolo Indya – which works as an infotainment app, was another to build on success after TikTok’s ban. “There was a huge jump in user increase in first 24 hours of the ban, and we saw over 2.5 lakh installs, with 87% of these signing up and creating videos and 1.27 crore videos were created in June,” said Varun Saxena, Co-Founder, Bolo Indya. The company said that it has continued its hiring activities even during lockdown and 3 new members have joined during lockdown phase while 2 more will be joining next month. Simultaneously, the company has aggressive hiring plans in technology teams across Android, AI and ML roles with remote interactions. “We took lockdown and its consequences as an opportunity to interact with some extraordinary talents and explore the synergies to join us on our mission to enable Bharat to transform social capital to financial independence through short videos in regional languages. We did not do a single lay off, and continue to strengthen the team with the right fits who share the same passion, ambition and motivation,” said Saxena. The company currently has 15-20 vacancies. <div type="javascript" title="Custom" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[]]></cdata></div> Interested candidates can apply by writing to hr@boloindya.com Mitron TV The app which shot to fame even before TikTok was banned, is also aggressively hiring. The app’s co-founder Anish Khandelwal took to LinkedIn to share that the company is currently looking for android developers and backend developers with over two years experience. <div type="javascript" title="Custom" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[]]></cdata></div> Interested candidates can apply by writing to career@mitron.tv Khabri Khabri helps users create podcasts and also caters to the Hindi-speaking market in India. The company said that it already had 40,000 influencers on the platform, and with the ban on TikTok it got 5000 new influencers in two days. The company is currently <a href="https://angel.co/company/khabriapp/jobs/671317-product-manager-growth">hiring </a>a product manager among other roles. Trell Another TikTok rival app in India – Trell has now crossed 45 million downloads with 5 million daily active users, claims the company. “We are very excited to see the regular developments on the platform and the increasing interest from users and content creators. With this opportunity, the Indian Internet startups can grow faster and build a superior experience for the consumers in the long run which was being capped by the established players earlier,” said Pulkit Agarwal, Co-Founder, Trell. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/therapy-and-mental-health-is-important-for-startup-founders-to-survive-the-near-death-moments-in-business/articleshow/76931948.cms">This Indian entrepreneur started going to therapy and recommends it to startup founders to survive the ‘near death’ moments in business</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/zomato-journey-from-a-weekend-project-to-a-3-billion-company/articleshow/76901180.cms">Zomato turns 12 – from a weekend project to a $3 billion company, here’s the startup’s journey over the years</a>

From Chingari to Mitron TV – TikTok clone apps in India are now aggressively hiring to handle the user surge

<ul><li><keyword id="8322765" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="instagram-reels">Instagram Reels</keyword> is currently being tested in India. </li><li><keyword id="6354576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword> had recently shut down its TikTok clone app Lasso and was concentrating on ‘Reels’ to capture markets.</li><li><keyword id="819905" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Instagram">Instagram</keyword> Reels lets users record 15-second videos with music and audio clips.</li></ul>Just days after the <keyword id="7319188" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="TikTok-ban">TikTok ban</keyword> and speculation over the possible launch of Instagram Reels in India to take on the opportunity – it has happened. Instagram Reels is currently being tested in India, sources told Business Insider. Instagram Reels lets users record 15-second videos with music and audio clips and add them to their stories. The feature seems eerily similar to TikTok, although more details on Reels is awaited. Interestingly, Facebook and Instagram had recently partnered with Indian music label Saregama to give users access to Saregama’s library for Instagram music. Sources confirmed that certain users have started receiving the update from Instagram which includes Reels. "We're planning to start testing an updated version of Reels in more countries. Reels is a fun, creative way for people to both express themselves and be entertained. We're excited to bring this new version to more of our global community. No further plans to share on launch date or countries for now,” a Facebook spokesperson told Business Insider. Facebook had recently shut down its TikTok clone app Lasso and was concentrating on ‘Reels’ to capture markets. Reels had earlier launched in France and Germany and was reportedly being tested in Brazil as well. The Indian government had recently banned TikTok along with 58 other Chinese apps. The ban on TikTok left a huge market opportunity for Indian apps to fill up the space for the thousands of content creators. Indian apps like Chingari, Roposo, Khabri, Bolo Indya have taken over the space and are witnessing a huge surge in traffic. The launch of Instagram Reels to the already existing millions of users of Instagram in India could be a threat to the rising users of the Indian apps. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/chingari-app-is-in-talks-with-a-global-vc-firm-after-the-tiktok-rival-gets-lit-with-over-10-million-downloads/articleshow/76749594.cms">EXCLUSIVE: Chingari app is in talks with a global VC firm after the TikTok rival gets lit with over 10 million downloads⁠</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/facebooks-tiktok-clone-lasso-is-shutting-down-as-zuckerberg-gears-up-to-launch-instagram-reels/articleshow/76745585.cms">Facebook’s TikTok-clone Lasso is shutting down as Zuckerberg gears up to launch Instagram Reels</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/reliance-jio-gets-investment-from-intel-capital/articleshow/76761995.cms">Reliance Jio gets ₹1894.5 crore from Intel Capital – the 12th investment in 11 weeks</a>

EXCLUSIVE: Instagram Reels is being quietly tested in India just days after the TikTok ban

<ul><li>YouTuber <keyword id="8714903" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="technical-guruji">Technical Guruji</keyword> told Business Insider that the ban on TikTok was “long overdue,” after the Indian government announced the full list of 59 Chinese apps that will no longer be allowed to operate in the country.</li><li>TikTok influencers <keyword id="3206714" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Paras-Tomar">Paras Tomar</keyword> and <keyword id="1317515" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aadil-Khan">Aadil Khan</keyword> believe that even though TikTok is banned, brands will follow the influencer wherever they may go.</li><li>This isn’t the first time that TikTok has been banned in India and Tomar holds out hope that it will make a return after clearing things up with the government.</li></ul>The ByteDance-owned short video streaming app TikTok took India by storm when it launched in 2018 and it’s no stranger to being banned. Last year, the Madras High Court had the app banned for ‘encouraging pornography’ yet TikTok made its way back. “We saw it coming,” Paras Tomar, a TikTok influencer with over 3 million followers, told Business Insider. He says the anti-China sentiment was already visible with fans questioning why he was still creating videos on TikTok despite it being a Chinese app. This time around TikTok has gotten caught in political crossfire as tensions between India and China continue to escalate along the border. While 30% of users and 15% of its revenue may come from India, its the influencers on the platform that have a bigger burden to bear. To Tiktok or not to TikTok Love it or hate it, there’s no denying TikTok’s popularity. Bridging the digital divide was the prime driver of TikTok’s success in India. From January 2018 to August 2019, it was able to capture 30% of India’s smartphone users, according to data provided by Delhi-based market intelligence firm KalaGato. “Well, I think this was long overdue, I feel happy that finally, the Government took the right step in this direction,” said YouTuber Technical Guruji. However, not everyone is as amped about the change. “For actors, this just one thing we do. A lot of others actually left their jobs and stuff to do this. This is their income,” empathised Tomar. Being an influencer is a full-time job, from creating content to networking — investing time in a platform like TikTok does have an opportunity cost. But provided you have made a name for yourself on the platform and have the talent to back it up — India’s youth won’t find it difficult to move to another platform and generate employment, according to Aadil Khan, TikToker and choreographer with 2.8 million followers. ‘Made-in-India’ alternatives Following the ban of TikTok, Indian app alternatives saw a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/tiktok-ban-in-india-is-a-boon-for-rival-apps-chingari-bolo-indya-roposo-khabri-and-mitron/articleshow/76706001.cms">surge in the number of downloads</a>. <keyword id="40682" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chingari">Chingari</keyword>, for instance, told Business Insider that the app was getting 100,000 downloads per hour. Others like Bolo, Indya, Khabri, and Roposo have also welcomed the ban in favour of an atmanirbhar — self-reliant — India. “Made in India apps will definitely gain momentum now, people are now addicted to the short term format. Wherever they find it, they are going to go on it,” said Khan. The catch is that, in comparison to TikTok, these Indian alternatives are still in their nascent stages. “Chingari is this new app so I tried to get a hold of it but the UI was so bad that it didn’t even let me create a username,” quipped Tomar after trying out the new platform. Khan believes it might be better with the government joins the bandwagon to create its own short-video format app where it can control the fact that no cringe content and “anything that goes against the country's peace and unity” isn’t uploaded. At the end of the day, it may not even be about shifting from one platform to the next. “I think we’ll all coexist on multiple platforms like we always have,” Tomar said. Will the brands follow? Brands need influencers just as much as influencers need brands. So wherever influencers may go next, brands are sure to follow. “Brands will move with them to other social media platforms. As long as you have created yourself an audience a genuine one, you will have them follow and love your content irrespective of the platform,” said Khan. However, what may take a hit is how much moolah an influencer can earn. “With two platforms, my cumulative reach becomes so much — that’s why we were charging a certain amount of money. Now the moment when you take one out of the two — and the bigger one of the two — it is going to take a hit,” explained Tomar. While Instagram and other social media platforms still exist, TikTok was — by far — the most active. “TikTok was very userfriendly, and for creators especially. Making content was easy, brands also approached you — they also pushed you. So, it was a very well-oiled machine so that everyone was happy with their roles,” said Tomar. He holds out hope that TikTok will make a comeback after it <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/chinese-app-tiktok-says-it-will-meet-with-government-to-submit-clarifycations/articleshow/76703707.cms">talks to the Indian government</a>. The Chinese app said that it will be meeting with all the stakeholders to clarify any misnomers about data sharing abroad. “Until this is resolved, I’m not going to be on TikTok. Whether or not TikTok allows videos to be uploaded is secondary,” asserted Tomar. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/hacks-to-avoid-tiktok-ban-and-pubg-may-be-banned-in-india-soon/articleshow/76705632.cms">There are ways around the TikTok ban⁠⁠— while PUBG may be banned via another list from the Indian government</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/tiktok-has-been-removed-from-the-google-play-store-and-the-apple-app-store/articleshow/76702533.cms">TikTok disappears from Play Store and App Store soon after India banned 59 Chinese apps</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/tiktok-ban-in-india-is-a-boon-for-rival-apps-chingari-bolo-indya-roposo-khabri-and-mitron/articleshow/76706001.cms">Tiktok has many rivals in India and the government ban is a blessing for them</a>

From Paras Tomar to Technical Guruji to Aadil Khan — here’s what social media influencers have to say about the TikTok ban

<ul><li>Facebook shut down its TikTok-clone Lasso worldwide to be able to concentrate on its alternative ‘<keyword id="8322765" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="instagram-reels">Instagram Reels</keyword>.’ </li><li>We speak to digital experts to find out if Facebook’s Instagram Reels has what it takes to fill up the void and crop up as a perfect alternative for the talent on TikTok in India? </li></ul>With the recent border row between China and India, the Government of India ordered a ban on 59 Chinese apps that included TikTok, Likee, Bigo Live. This has left Indian content creators from Tier II and Tier III in the lurch as TikTok opened up an opportunity for these budding stars to become influencers, earn money through brand endorsements and some of them even left their old jobs to pursue TikTok full-time. This ban on video apps has left a void in the life of TikTok stars, who are now looking for a new home to showcase their talent. To take on this opportunity, Facebook is quietly testing <keyword id="9520477" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="instagram-reels-in-india">Instagram Reels in India</keyword>. Similar to TikTok, it will allow its users to create and share 15-seconds videos, with camera effects, basic editing tools and music. There is also a handy timer and option to adjust the video’s speed. It can be shared on a user's story, sent to friends directly or added to a new Reels tab on their profile (displayed below). Instagram Reels is already active in Brazil, France and Germany and Facebook is looking at expanding its presence in other countries. While there are many Indian alternatives for TikTok like Mitron, Chingari, Roposo, Bolo Indya -- Instagram’s Reels can have an upper hand as it will be added as a feature -- housed inside the app, eliminating any additional hassle. While Facebook’s Lasso, a TikTok-clone launched in November 2018, failed to take off, Reels could have a higher chance of success for its prime positioning inside the Instagram app. Most <keyword id="8637178" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="tiktokers">TikTokers</keyword> are already relying on Instagram to create content and stay in touch with their fans. With Reels, they can now explore and revert to their favourite format without downloading another app and starting from scratch. It could be strategic in attracting Instagram’s loyal user base of more than <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/578364/countries-with-most-instagram-users/">88 million in India,</a> which is among the second top market for the app according to Statista.com, much of whom are millenials and Generation Z which was TikTok’s primary target audience. We spoke to digital experts to further understand if Reels has what it takes to replace TikTok and how Facebook should learn from its erstwhile mistakes with Lasso and go about marketing Reels this time. Here is what they said: Sowmya Iyer, Founder &amp; CEO, DViO Digital: <div type="image" title="Sowmya Iyer" msid="76799000" hostid="261"></div> "Tik Tok has forever changed the behavior of social media users. The ban on the platform has created a void in the lives of content creators who would quickly jump onto any platform that gives them the space to express themselves. And this is not just true for Instagram Reels but also for a host of Indian applications, which offer a similar experience. If the ban on Tik Tok still persists, leveraging the large base of Instagram users in India, the adoption of Reels among users should be easier without much friction or resistance. Geopolitical tensions are creating some level of impact on large global players. Secondly, we as humanity are going through a change and there is a collective rise in consciousness. There has also been a shift with many brands moving towards Purpose rather than just Profits. And consumers are choosing brands that are understanding to their needs. Advertisers choosing not to advertise on Facebook is a result of these dynamics in play. Large businesses like Facebook need to pivot with where and how humanity is going and should align themselves with the collective larger cause as ultimately the content creators and consumers of these platforms are the general populace. So people will begin to boycott platforms that they don't philosophically identify with. But that's one part which is solvable if the right steps are taken. Therefore, these factors should be taken into account while launching the application in India. Not only Reels, but many such apps will also jump on board to fill the void and this would likely divide up the creator base left behind by Tik Tok. This is for the best because the monopoly of one particular platform is never good for brands or advertisers or even themselves from an innovation standpoint. But obviously the established user base of Instagram would work in its favor and serve as a jumpstart for its success. No matter the level of competition we would see in this space, it is required to keep the larger players on the right track." Vinayak Shrivastav, CEO - Toch: <div type="image" title="Toch founder" msid="76809486" hostid="261"></div> There couldn't have been a better time for Instagram reels to be introduced in India. With existing Instagram users available, positive growth can be a possibility by asking the users to test the feature before launching it in the market. The safest concept of promoting an influencer-oriented app is for the brand to announce live contests. Implementing the idea of an influencer badge or something similar would definitely get the creators curious for verified content to achieve more visibility. Running an influencer campaign could also help garner attention to Instagram Reels. We at Toch are also looking at having a B2C presence and testing the market which will allow influencers to earn money from their content, also enabling live commerce or branded content selling through the platform instantly. With the increase in the sentimental value of Indian Apps Promotion being high, an unforeseen barrier in traction might happen. With a lot of bans being implied on brands from advertising a decent amount of branded content could be witnessed. Facebook being the social media giant that it is, the initial scale could be good enough to test the market. Nakul Dutt, Strategy Director, FoxyMoron: <div type="image" title="Nakul Foxy" msid="76798987" hostid="261"></div> Launching Reels would be a no brainer move. In fact, Instagram has already started testing the ‘Reels’ feature with select customers of the platform. Driving adoption to the scale of TiKTok, on the other hand, is a whole different battle. For TikTok users Instagram was a secondary platform to enhance one’s reach and overall engagement. In the absence of TikTok, while Reels is the obvious answer (unless a new local players quickly jumps in at this point), if launched, transitioning the existing database of TikTok users and getting them acquainted and comfortable on Reels will be a mammoth task for reasons dealt with in the next question. Transitioning the database of TikTok users and getting them acquainted with Reels will be a mammoth task for the multitude of reasons mentioned: ● An Anomaly: Last year India contributed to around 44% of the 1.6 Bn downloads of TikTok worldwide. The key reason for the success of the App in India was the ‘Bottom Up’ adoption of the platform. In the last couple of years adoption of internet has increased in tier 2 &amp; 3 cities and TikTok was able to win the heart of this new user base &amp; become the no. 1 App in almost no time. This is contrary to the ‘Diffusion of Innovation’ theory where any new platform, feature or innovation is first adopted by early adopters and over a period of time snowballs to attain the attention of the masses. TikTok however, resonated with the masses first,while Instagram went through the conventional model of adoption. This created a fundamental difference in the profile of users of the platform with each cohort looking at the other from a different perspective. ● It's all in the Senses: To understand the ‘Why’ TikTok was as appealing as it was, it’s important to understand the Perceived Reason of Existence’ that each social media platform plays in a consumers' life. While Facebook is a platform of ‘Touch’ it lets you connect &amp; feel about people in your circle, Instagram is the platform for the ‘EYE’- aesthetics &amp; beauty, the showcase of the perfection you desire in your world.TikTok on the other hand is ‘Heart’ – showcase your passion, like the heart, which wants to do certain things without the filter. This gap is what needs to be bridged! ● The TikTok In-App features made Creators self-sufficient: Considering most of India does not have access to high end equipment to produce slick high quality content. TikTok became a one stop shop to shoot, edit and publish content using one’s mobile. At a cursory glance the editing features of Reels seems limited as compared to TikTok. ● Inclusivity Will Be Required: An editing feature alone might not solve the problem at hand. Comfort and inclusivity are the key terms here. TikTok was a social media app where social barriers were broken. We hadn’t seen this happen at the scale it did, with Facebook and Instagram. Inclusivity through a vernacular approach, both at an App and at a promotional campaign level will be required. ● Share vs Showcase: Instagram’s algorithm is built around the concept of share, where the content populated is likely from the people and pages you follow. On the other hand, one’s ‘For You’ page of TikTok was curated from the trending content within the ecosystem of TikTok. We will need to see how Reels can bridge this gap. ● Balance: While acquiring new users for the platform is key, retaining the existing will also become a key metric. Instagram is a visual medium and appeals to a certain segment of creators. Instagram should take all the measures to retain this appeal. While showcasing Reels as a fun light hearted platform for their users to showcase their passions. ● Enabling &amp; empowering: It would be a good strategic move, if Reels adds features which would help the transitioning customers to create content with least friction 3. How should Facebook go about promoting Reels once it is live in our country? In addition to several of my points mentioned above these will be the 2 additional points that they could consider in their promotions Facebook will need to address the elephant in the room. 75% consumers are comfortable adopting a brand which supports and believes in social causes. With more than 50 brands boycotting Facebook, it’s only a matter of time the same lens would be applied to Instagram considering the mother brand is the same. Reels is Feature for Everyone Raw, unfiltered and authentic were TikToks main strengths. This made TiKTok an inclusive platform. Considering one’s digital identity supersedes their real one, TiK Tok made all their users feel comfortable and gave them a platform to be their authentic self. It gave them a platform to showcase their talent. They didn’t need to bother with aesthetics, filters or a nice looking backdrop. Maybe Reels could consider having a backdrop filter, so people can perform against different aesthetically pleasing backgrounds. (It would be a great way for brand’s to plug in their content / product / logo too.)

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