Two months after TikTok: influencers busy rebuilding fan base as homegrown apps enjoy ‘gold rush’

More than two months after Tik Tok was banned, the story of short video apps in India is moving on two tracks – influencers are struggling to rebuild their fan base and compensate for the dip in their incomes while similar homegrown apps are enjoying the spike in the number of users.

So, 24-year-old beatboxer Jesus Mehta is trying to find a new home for his talents but Indian short video companies look at the absence of Tiktok as an opportunity to grow.

On June 29, the government banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok, leaving over 200 million users of the short video app feeling a little bereft and those like Mehta with significantly reduced earnings.

A month before joining a job that would have paid him a little under ₹10,000, Mehta last January decided to make TikTok videos showcasing his beatboxing talent instead. A year later, he had a following of over two million. And what had so far been a hobby paid him at least ₹60,000 a month.