TikTok lost 40% market to local apps Josh, MX TakaTak, Roposo, others since Chinese apps ban: report

Chinese short video app TikTok, which had a share of 85-90 per cent of total monthly time spent by Indians on short-form content in June 2020 but was banned on June 29 along with other 58 Chinese apps, has lost around 40 per cent share to Indian short-form apps in October 2020. From 4-6 per cent share of around 165 billion minutes (275 hours) spent by Indians on short-form apps in June 2020, Indian apps such as Josh by Dailyhunt, MX TakaTak, Roposo, Moj Mitron, Trell, and Chingari expanded their share to around 67 per cent, roughly translating to 55 billion minutes (91 hours), in October, according to a recent RedSeer report. Importantly, overall time spent post-TikTok ban was reduced by more than 50 per cent from 165 billion minutes to around 80 billion minutes (133 hours) indicating many users are not willing to shift from TikTok to other short-form apps.

Lack of quality content, lesser number of posts, lesser tools for content creation were among the reasons for users to switch, as per the report launched earlier this month. TikTok’s monthly active users (MAU) grew nearly 2X from 85 million in June 2018 to 167 million in June 2020 while its daily active users were 75 million. The short-form content apps saw a decline in monthly time spent by users to just 37 billion minutes in July 2020. However, it has bottomed out since then and has scaled back to 95 billion minutes till early December. Among Indian apps, based on a survey of 8,071 respondents, Josh, MX TakaTak, and Roposo had over 25 per cent awareness among users, RedSeer added. Awareness included top of the mind recall, aided and unaided awareness.

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“As Indian players innovate to offer fresh quality content every day, short-form engagement is expected to resurge back to Jan and grow more than 4X in next 5 yrs. However, the questions still remain on the monetization front for the players and potential change in dynamics if the ban on TikTok is lifted,” said Anil Kumar, Founder and CEO, RedSeer.

The short-form content penetration currently is around 45 per cent of around 600 million internet users in India, translating into around 275 million users accessing short-form content on the back of shorter attention spans of millennials and GenZ, increased visibility for creators, need for entertainment, and vast vernacular libraries, according to the report. The current retention rate of the segment is around 65 per cent with around 180 million MAUs. The user base is likely to increase to 580 million users and around 430 million MAUs by FY25.