Government's Chinese app ban boon to home-grown apps

Indigenous apps get an edge by tapping the existing user base of banned Chinese platforms.
For representational purpose.
For representational purpose.

BENGALURU: Concerned over security and privacy, the Indian government has been banning several Chinese apps since 2020, and this in turn is boosting many home-grown apps to expand their reach and also to attract more users. Recently, India blocked 54 Chinese apps including those with Chinese links, and these apps range from gaming, video chat to dating and volume & bass booster.

When PUBG Mobile and TikTok, among others, were banned in India in 2020, it paved the way for home-grown gaming apps and short video platforms to expand their base and reach across the country.
Of the 54 apps banned, Garena Free Fire Illuminate is a popular gaming app in India.

A report by BCG and Sequoia Capital says the gaming industry in India is generating close to $1.5 billion revenue, and it is expected to triple in size to over a $5 billion market by 2025. And, this is on the back of the mobile-first phenomenon.

It says that 33% of all funding for gaming in India came in the first quarter of 2021. Prior to its ban PUBG Mobile had 50 million monthly active users in India. Short video platforms such as Moj, Josh and Roposo too accelerated their growth after the ban of TikTok.“The user connect, the PUBG ban, and the lockdown have accelerated the gaming enterprise in India,” says Amit Kushwaha, Head - Brand Strategy, Gameskraft. Launched in 2017, its gaming platforms are Rummy Culture and Gamezy. Rummy Culture alone has over 1 crore users.

Gaming ecosystem in India has seen tremendous tailwinds, both from a user base growth perspective and increased investment interest, says Ishaan Khosla, Founding Partner, Huddle, which is the accelerator and fund for early-stage companies. Consistent with larger data consumption patterns and increased awareness, gaming companies are now gathering larger investment interest pegged at a 5x higher investments as compared to investment flow over the past 5 years, he adds.

Equalizer Bass Booster & Volume EQ & Virtualizer, Music Player- Music.Mp3 Player and Volume Booster Loud Speaker & Sound Booster and Music Player MP3 Player are among the 54 Chinese apps that have been banned in India.

Homegrown Global Delight operates in the audio, video and photography space. Its sound booster and equalizer apps like Boom 3D are quite popular.“We have already observed slight growth in downloads from India after the recent ban of Chinese apps such as Equalizer Pro Volume Booster & Bass Booster,” says Vipin Mishra, Head-Marketing, Global Delight.

Boom is witnessing 30% downloads from India on Android Play Store. “We have already started working on our marketing activities to create awareness about Boom among Indian users. This ban opens a huge market for Boom in India,” Mishra adds.

Surge in dating apps

Apart from gaming apps, Chinese dating apps such as Chinese Social, Date in Asia and WeDate, among others, were banned in 2020. The pandemic also accelerated the dating trend in India.

Indian dating apps such as TrulyMadly and Aisle are also witnessing a surge in terms of number of users. According to Statista, revenue in the online dating segment in India is projected to reach $559 million in 2022, and in the online dating segment, the number of users is expected to amount to 66.6 million users by 2026.

“Digital-first platforms, on the whole, have been on the rise in India. With added drivers similar to this ban, adoption of home-grown apps rises along with increased recall value. The fact that the investment towards market creation has taken place by some of these Chinese apps, gives Indian players an added advantage to capitalize on a ready market and screen time,” says Ishaan Khosla.He adds, “We’ve seen this at the ground level with one of our portfolio companies, StepSetGo seeing consistent growth curves and adoption amongst a new set of Indian users.”

The ban list also includes CamCard for SalesForce Ent. Zoho is offering to help users transition from the banned app to its product. Zoho Card Scanner app was launched in 2014, and the app has been receiving great traction.“This new ban by the government is also in order to safeguard Indian users’ data and protect the country against potential threats,” says Praval Singh, VP Marketing & Customer Experience, Zoho Corp.When ComScanner was banned in 2020, Zoho saw a surge in its home-grown applications and Zoho Doc Scanner saw over 50x downloads in the following week.

Screening mobile apps

  • In June 2020, govt banned 58 Chinese apps including WeChat and TikTok
  • In Sept 2020, as many as 118 apps were banned including PUBG, CamCard for Business
  • Prior to its ban, PUBG Mobile had 50 million monthly active users in India
  • In Nov 2020, 43 apps were banned including video streaming app Lucky Live and Chinese dating app TrulyChinese
  • On Feb 14, 2020, govt banned 54 apps including gaming app Garena Free Fire Illuminate

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