Share This Article
A tsunami of anti-Chinese wave has swept India since last week after a border skirmish with China led to the martyrdom of 20 Indian soldiers. This is the bloodiest and most violent clash between two Asian giants after the infamous 1962 war and the one that is likely to have an adversarial impact on the economic relations. In fact, ‘boycott Chinese goods’ has already started trending on India’s social media landscape and this online traction is also strongly resonating with the ground level.
Now the question is how this patriotic urge with strong anti-Chinese underpinning will impact TikTok, the one Chinese brand that has swept the Indian masses like no other over the years. TikTok’s massive popularity can be gauged from the fact that today India is its biggest overseas market and its parent company Bytedance has already pledged millions of investment to consolidate its presence in its biggest international market.
But TikTok’s iron hold over the Indian market is now facing increasing threat from the local Indian rivals. Buoyed by the patriotic zeal, these local apps are trying to put TikTok on a vulnerable spot. However, will the patriotic fervor be enough to help these rivals in weakening the domination of the Chinese app.
Only time will tell in which way the wind will blow for Indian apps until then let us take a brief look and find out what does TiKTok’s Indian rivals have to offer.
Mitron: Over the last few months, Mitron app has emerged as a strong 
contender in challenging TikTok’s ruthless domination. With already over 5 Million downloads, Mitron app seems to have caught the fancy of the Indian netizens.
The app offers almost all the same features that the Chinese app offers, so much so that even the UI of the app is almost similar to TikTok. But the app seems to be facing the recurring problem of bugs and even most of the negative reviews on the Google play store have cited the bug problem as the major drawback. Another apparent drawback of this app is that it is not available for the IOS user. The app currently enjoys 4.4 ratings on the play store.
Mitron app was founded by Shivank Agarwal and Anish Khandelwal.
Roposo: With over 50 Mn downloads, probably no other app 
stands the chance of halting the Chinese juggernaut like Ropso does. Backed by powerful investors like Tiger Global and Bertelsmann, this app has better financial muscle than any other Indian competitor. Users and reviewers claim that, unlike Mitron, it isn’t a rip off of TikTok and has apparently few distinctive features. The app is also winning lot of praises for its simple and neat UI design.
Roposo is the only prominent Indian video-sharing app that is available on both Android and IOS, while all other apps are available only on Android.
Roposo app is the brainchild of the three IIT Delhi alumni Mayank Bhangadia, Avinash Saxena and Kaushal Shubhank.
Bolo Indya: Bolo Indya is another local TikTok alternative app 
that has managed to create quite a bit of flutter in the Indian market. What goes in the favor of this app is that unlike other TikTok desi clones, it isn’t largely relying on the entertainment quotient.
Rather it is cashing on the infotainment quotient, videos that combine knowledge and entertainment together. Founder Varun Saxena told Indian express that unlike TikTok where any video content can go viral, he wants only quality content to go viral on their app.
Available in 10 Indian languages, Bolo Indya allow users to create and share short videos on a wide range of topics including life, relationship, sports, motivation, finance and career.
