Why don’t India-developed apps go viral like TikTok? Here’s why

NEW DELHI: China’s ByteDance developed short video app TikTok, and in nine months from its September 2018 launch it attracted more than 200 million users in India, with a monthly active user base of around 120 million. ByteDance’s Helo and Vigo apps have 25-30 million users here. Globally, ByteDance has an user base of around one billion.

The closest an user-generated, content-based Indian app has come is ShareChat, with a daily active user base of around 40 million as of January 2019, as per company estimates.