TikTok parent company ByteDance could lose up to $6bn after India’s app ban

Chinese Internet giant ByteDance could lose up to $6 billion after India banned its TikTok, Helo and Vigo Video along with 56 other apps, Chinese state media Global Times reported citing sources. "That figure would exceed the potential losses of all the other apps combined," it said.

The Indian government’s decision of banning 59 Chinese applications could potentially cost ByteDance close to $6 billion. As per a report by Global Times, a Chinese news organisation, the Indian government’s decision of banning TikTokVigo Video and Helo apps could cost their parent company ByteDance a deadly blow.

“A source close to ByteDance said that in the past few years, the company had invested more than $1 billion in the Indian market, and the ban could virtually halt ByteDance’s business there, causing a loss as high as $6 billion. That figure would exceed the potential losses of all the other apps combined,” Global Times was quoted as saying.

The Global Times in its report had further said, “According to data from Sensor Tower, a mobile app analysis company, TikTok was downloaded 112 million times in May, with 20 per cent of that total in the Indian market, double that of the U.S. market.” 

The Indian government on June 29 issued orders whereby banning 59 apps in India. The government had claimed it had received complaints from various sources which had reported misuse by some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers outside India.

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“The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measure,” the Ministry of Electronics and IT had said in a statement.

The statement had further added, “This move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian Mobile and Internet users. This decision is a targeted move to ensure the safety and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace.”