Popular short video app TikTok was faced with a temporary block in India over the past month for serving inappropriate content to users. But, the Supreme Court has reversed said ban, saying it’s not the right solution and on the condition that TikTok would block pornographic uploads. However, even the short duration of the ban has hugely affected TikTok’s booming growth.
According to a report from popular analytics firm Sensor Tower, the ban has resulted in TikTok missing out on the addition of 15 million new users to its platform over the month of April. The number of new users added the previous month would have been 3 times as many as added in all of April 2018.
The app was said to be on track to have its best month in India, besting even its biggest addition back in December 2018, with more than 33 million new users flocking in. But, it seems like the ban was a major blow to TikTok’s growth plans and Sensor Tower has now estimated worldwide installs for April 2019 to come around 33% lower than March’s total installs of nearly 60 million.
Well, if you haven’t been keeping up with the buzz around TikTok’s ban, then I would also like to bring to your notice another really astonishing figure. Bytedance, the company who owns TikTok revealed at the court hearing last month that it lost over $500,000 in revenue each day during the block placed on the app by Google and Apple.
Putting all that aside, the worst days are most likely over for Bytedance and the company can continue to function normally – serving comedy and dance videos to users in India. If Sensor Tower’s founder Oliver Yeh is to be believed, the report says, “Despite the brakes having been put on its growth in India, we expect TikTok to rebound quickly from this situation given its popularity and user base there.”
Since its return to Apple App Store and Google Play Store, TikTok has again managed to bounce back to the number 1 spot in the top free apps chart on both the stores. So, the netizens of India seem to be elated with the app’s return.
