ROUNDUP: India's TikTok Ban Benefits YouTube
Plus all the Apple news, the Twitter stuff that really isn't news, and the most popular new social app
There's a common belief that big companies like regulation because they're big enough to survive it and it tends to crowd out smaller competitors before they get big. RestofWorld.org describes just such a situation playing out in India.
While the US has made a lot of noise about banning TikTok, India went and did it on June 29, 2020. At that time, folks hoped that TikTok's 200 million monthly active Indian users would move to homegrown apps like Moj, Josh, Chingari, and Roposo.
The demand is there. RestofWorld notes that analysts estimate the short video space in India will be worth more than $19 billion by 2030. That sounds like good news for local apps. But most marketers told RestOfworld that they believe it will end up benefiting YouTube and Instagram instead. It's not that the local apps don't have users. It's just that the bigger foreign apps have more of them. Like, at least twice as many. RestofWorld says Moj and Josh combined, have 300 million monthly active users India. YouTube on its own passes that with more than 325 million and Instagram is expected to top 400 million in India this year.
The companies that run Moj and Josh are paying creators and racking up losses. YouTube and Instagram are also paying creators and racking up losses but they both have plenty of cash to burn and can outlast the other competitors. And plenty of creators come to YouTube and Instagram without being paid, because of the perceived prestige and size of the user base. Not to mention that brands seem more comfortable working on YouTube and Instagram. Part of that is familiarity and part of that is simple things like tracking that are more developed on the older bigger platforms.
Here are several other things I covered this week
Apple restores two Russian apps and release new iPads.
Apple Will Get a New Head of Industrial Deisgn. We Don’t Know Who Yet.
A lot of people said things off the record about Twitter. We don't really know anything yet
People in China Use Airdrop to Avoid Censorship
Sony DualSense Edge PS5 Controller Coming January 26th
The Most Popular New Social App is for High Schoolers and It’s Called Gas
German News Sites Make You Choose to Pay or Set Cookies, to Read Articles.
Netflix Launches Profile Transfer Feature
Tech and Retail Companies Really Want Live-streamed Shopping to Catch on in the US.
Paid subscribers can scroll down to read my complete takes on these.
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