Video Editor: Deepthi Ramdas
#YouTubeVsTikTok is trending on social media. The row is all about gaining dominance in the 'world of videos'. Let us take a look at the chronology of the YouTube versus TikTok battle in India.
- YouTuber Elvish Yadav 'roasted' TikTok content creators
- TikTok influencer Amir Siddiqui then claimed that YouTubers copy TikTok content
- YouTuber CarryMinati responded to Siddiqui's claim
- Minati's video trended on Twitter
- YouTube took the video down after it hit 70 million views
Recently, #BanTikTok started trending on Twitter. TikTok is fast gaining popularity as a content platform. According to recent reports, YouTube and Google are now planning to introduce a platform of their own, which would be similar to TikTok.
The Chinese company had recently appointed Kevin Mayer, of Disney, as CEO .
How Did India Become the Battleground for These Apps?
In this competition between YouTube and TikTok, the number of users in the month of March 2020 were compared. While YouTube had 360 million users, TikTok managed to attract 136 million users.
If we compare the number of download of both these apps on Google Play Store, 48.9 million YouTube downloads took place of which 19 million were in India. While 2 Billion people have downloaded TikTok, 30 percent of which are from India.
Why is TikTok So Popular?
The Chinese app has a very strong artificial intelligence and is super user-friendly. So much so that it has featured in family chat groups, news, and even a Bollywood film – remember Yami Gautam as a TikToker in Bala?
Agastee Khante, The Quint’s product & marketing head explains the app’s success:
It's rather clear that Bytedance and its app TikTok has done a much better job of generating curated feeds individualised for each user. This advantage is clear in its increasing retention and time spent on these apps. In 2016, they perfected the art of automated articles, dishing out Olympics articles in 2 seconds to become the first in the market, beating Reuters and AFP – the traditional giants. All Bytedance apps use AI to power the feeds and the early success of *douyin* gave them the test case to invest more in AI.
But, in this multi-horse race between social media platforms, where does TikTok lack?
Many have raised questions on TikTok content, for it is considered to be 'cringe worthy'. But then again, don’t all social media platforms have 'cringe worthy' content? However, TikTok does need to moderate its content given the recent spate of controversies.
The app also faces massive flak as it is from China. Applications like YouTube and other Indian platforms may have an advantage there.
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