Ban on Chinese Apps: How are Indian Alternatives Rising to Bridge the Gap
The Indian government recently took an unprecedented step of banning 59 Chinese apps in the country, which are claimed to transfer user data via China. While the ban covers a wide range of apps across categories, TikTok, ShareIt, UC Browser, CamScanner, Shein, and Club Factory are some of the most-used apps. This marks India’s largest moves against Chinese technology companies. According to India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, these apps were “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India”.
With over 600 million downloads, India accounts for about 30% of TikTok’s 2 Billion downloads. This makes India the top market of ByteDance’s app. However, TikTok India responded to this by saying that they are in compliance with Indian laws and do not share any information with their Chinese counterparts. These apps are now being asked to submit clarifications, adding that they adhere to all the data security and privacy laws.
While these apps have already been removed from the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, there are millions of Indians whose daily lives depend on these apps and are now looking for alternatives with similar functionalities. Given the high buzz around the ban, many Indian companies have tried to capitalize on the moment in order to fill the void caused by their competitors’ sudden disappearance.
Bridging the Gap with Alternatives
Social Media
TikTok has undoubtedly become the sensation among the Indian youth by providing easy to use features, attracting a large audience, and offering a plethora of content. Roposo, an Indian video-sharing social media platform, is one of the faster-growing alternatives to TikTok with around 55 Million downloads and 25 Million monthly active users. Other Indian alternatives also include Mitron and Chingari. Large television networks are also looking to get in on the action, with Zee5 launching a short-video creation platform within its app, called HiPi. The past few days have seen a sudden surge in the usage of these locally made apps.
File Sharing
ShareIt, the popular file-sharing app has over 400 Million downloads in India, out of 1.2 billion across the world. The app has 1.5 Million daily active users from India. The best Indian alternate is a lesser-known app offered from Jio called JioSwitch. JioSwitch is an easy to use data transfer application which even supports cross-platform transfers (transfers data between iOs and Android).
E-Commerce
Popular e-commerce apps like Shein and Club Factory are also included in the list of banned apps. Both Shein and Club Factory are very popular as they offer their products at quite cheap prices which attracts the young user base in the country. There are a lot of Indian alternatives to these platforms like Myntra, AJIO, Flipkart, and Snapdeal. Myntra and AJIO mostly deal with clothing and accessories. While Myntra sells products of companies from across the world, AJIO, a Reliance Retail owned brand, sells its in-house products that are made in India. Flipkart and Snapdeal offer products from various categories including electronics, clothing, home and furniture, etc.
Web Browsers
UC Browser comes pre-installed with many Chinese smartphones. It is one of the most used browsers because of its download gimmicks. According to the official list of banned apps, this browser along with CM Browser, APUS Browser, and DC Browser, made it to the list of banned apps. The best Indian alternative for this can be the JioBrowser, an app developed by Jio which provides us with good accessibility to the internet. Similar to the UC Browser, JioBrowser comes with news and entertainment feeds to attract Indian users. There are other non-Indian browsers that you could consider as well, such as Mozilla’s Firefox, Microsoft’s Edge, if you want to get out of using Google Chrome.
Anti-Virus Apps
Various Chinese antivirus applications like Virus Cleaner, DU Cleaner, Clean Master, have been included in the banned list. JioSecurity is one of the best Indian alternatives for these apps. It helps protect your smartphone from ransomware and malware, secures your app with the app lock feature, helps declutter your phone, and can even help find lost/stolen devices.
News Apps
NewsDog and UC News are quite popular Chinese news apps among the Indian audience. The ban on them left the citizens looking for their Indian alternatives. Apps like JioNews and InShorts can easily bridge the gap. Inshorts offers a similar interface to that of NewsDog and UC News. It offers articles in only 60 words and is available in multiple regional languages. JioNews has a lot of features which lets the user be updated with the latest news through Live TV, magazines, and even video e-paper.
The ministry of IT in India banned these Chinese apps in response to many complaints received from various sources. These included reports about the misuse of several mobile apps by stealing the data of many users and transferring those to unauthorised servers which had locations outside of India. Many countries like the US, Japan, and the UK are also watching closely and may soon follow in the footsteps of India by banning Chinese apps to retaliate against allegations of espionage by China. These moves would also help to settle the uneven playing field in China, where global players are either not allowed entry or are crippled by government-backed competitors.
The ban has suddenly created a favourable situation for many Indian startups to hop on and gain traction in their quest to build in India for the world. These companies will have to do their level best to come up with strategies to be on top. By doing so, they will not only win the hearts and loyalty of the Indian customers but also make their presence felt in global markets.
Even if these apps are able to capture their fair share in the Indian markets, it will only make a small change towards bettering the Indian economy. The question still remains, is the government permanently putting a ban on all Chinese apps, if so, then what next? Or is this just a temporary move as a warning to show that India has the power to take down Chinese global giants? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
