Despite local push, apps may need more investments to grow

The last six months have been an exciting journey for Chingari co-founder Sumit Ghosh with the short video sharing app gaining in popularity following the government’s decision on 29 June to ban 59 Chinese apps over security concerns. Small Indian startups moved in fast to fill the void following the ban on ByteDance-owned TikTok, which became a rage in India.

“The growth has been tremendous. Before the ban, we had 3.5 million users, now we have 40 million. Before the ban, we grew by 2 million users a month, but a day after a ban, we grew by 8 million, and the following day by another 7 million,” he said.

Soon after, 23 applications, including Chingari, won the Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge that was launched to promote domestic app makers and make them self-reliant.