On the morning of June 29, 2020, India woke as much as an absence it didn’t but know tips on how to title. For 200 million customers, TikTok was gone.
With the ban, livelihoods constructed on creativity and connection evaporated in a single day. Creators scrambled to make sense of the void.
And now, because the USA flirts with the thought of probably banning TikTok, it’s unimaginable not to attract parallels.
The story of TikTok in India was certainly one of unlikely stardom. It wasn’t the polished, aspirational India of Instagram influencers or Bollywood elites that took to the platform.
It was the loud, messy, wonderful India that hardly ever obtained its highlight. Rural and working-class creators, typically neglected and underestimated, immediately found they could possibly be greater than the punchline to a joke.
They could possibly be the storytellers, the protagonists, the celebrities.
With its easy interface and hyper-local content material, TikTok democratized fame in a means that no platform had earlier than. Even mid-tier creators may rake in $200 to $1200 a month by way of model offers and shoutouts—an earnings leap that was nothing wanting life-changing.
For context, the common every day wage for a laborer in rural India on the time was round ₹300 ($4), or roughly $120 monthly.
The identical questions that haunted India’s TikTok creators then, now loom over their American counterparts:
What occurs while you take a cultural phenomenon and make it unlawful? What occurs to the tens of millions of lives that rely upon its ecosystem? And what occurs when, for as soon as, the final in line obtained their shot—solely to see the stage dismantled beneath their ft?
Earlier than we dive deeper into what this might imply, let’s take a better take a look at the TikTok phenomenon.
How TikTok managed to democratize fame
TikTok’s genius is in its accessibility. The app is a light-weight powerhouse that may run easily on the most affordable of smartphones—a necessity in nations like India, the place most individuals can’t afford high-end units.
Its interface is intuitive, designed so even first-time web customers can create, edit, and submit a video in minutes.
On the coronary heart of TikTok’s success is its revolutionary algorithm, which made fame achievable for anybody.
TikTok vs different algorithms
Not like platforms like Instagram, the place follower counts dictate visibility, TikTok’s For You Web page (FYP) served up content material purely primarily based on person engagement. This meant {that a} creator with zero followers may go viral if their content material resonated with the viewers.
The algorithm tracked how lengthy customers watched a video, whether or not they favored or shared it, and even how shortly they scrolled previous. This behavioral information allowed TikTok to fine-tune its suggestions, delivering an infinite stream of content material completely tailor-made to particular person tastes.
In distinction, Instagram rewards creators with polished visuals and a pre-existing community of followers. YouTube calls for long-form content material and optimized manufacturing to push movies into its algorithm. TikTok stripped away these boundaries. With simply creativity and a smartphone, anybody may attain tens of millions.
The tales TikTok made potential
In India, TikTok grew to become the digital village sq.. Its short-form movies, typically in regional languages, mirrored the on a regular basis lives of its creators.
Yuvraj Singh, identified to his tens of millions of followers as Baba Jackson, was a kind of stars. Yuvraj grew up because the son of a building employee who labored lengthy, grueling hours to offer for the household. They lived in a modest home with uneven flooring, the place Yuvraj practiced his moonwalks, mimicking movies he watched on-line.
However TikTok noticed what nobody else had—his expertise, uncooked and electrifying—and despatched it to screens throughout the globe. Celebrities observed. Tv producers referred to as. And immediately, the boy who danced for his neighbors was performing for a nation.
TikTok didn’t discriminate. Jaydeep Gohil, a swimmer from Gujarat, found that his underwater dancing—an uncommon mixture of grace and athleticism—may captivate an viewers. Generally known as Hydroman, he used the app to showcase his aquatic artistry, turning an invisible area of interest right into a celebrated expertise.
Then there was Moni Kundu, a homemaker who posted comedic sketches along with her son. She didn’t want a studio or skilled lighting; the humor in her movies was sufficient. TikTok grew to become her platform to inform tales and earn cash, a small however transformative addition to her family earnings.
In the US too, TikTok has performed the same function.
Taylor Cassidy, a teen from Missouri, used TikTok to show “Quick Black Historical past” in one-minute bursts. She shared tales of Black figures that textbooks neglected. Lance Tsosie, a Navajo creator generally known as @modern_warrior__, turned the app right into a platform for his individuals. He shared Indigenous traditions and addressed systemic injustices.
In each nations, TikTok has not been about who you might be however about what you possibly can create, what you possibly can say. For tens of millions, TikTok has been a possibility – one which rewrote the principles of visibility and fame.
So, what occurred to India’s creators after TikTok?
When TikTok was banned in India on June 29, 2020, it was as if a complete ecosystem had been shut off with the flick of a change. In a single day, 200 million customers and numerous creators misplaced entry to the platform.
Many tried migrating to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, however these platforms demanded one thing TikTok by no means did: polish, sources, and a pre-existing viewers.
“TikTok made me sturdy and assured. I began sporting Western garments, dancing on the streets … I’m disenchanted,” Geetha Sridhar, an Indian TikTok creator, informed AlJazeera. The 54-year-old homemaker by no means entered her kitchen with out her smartphone.
On TikTok, she posted dozens of quick movies every day, largely showcasing her conventional recipes. With a million followers, Geetha earned a mean of fifty,000 rupees (practically $662) a month from the social media platform.
Comedians, dancers, and influencers who had as soon as constructed audiences of tens of millions discovered themselves again in native jobs or small companies, unable to copy their success elsewhere. With out TikTok’s distinctive capacity to highlight creators no matter their place to begin, many noticed their earnings dwindle to nothing.
The financial fallout rippled throughout. Mid-tier influencers who had been incomes $200 to $1200 monthly immediately misplaced their main supply of earnings. A research by RedSeer Consulting estimated that India’s creator economic system shrank by over 15% following the ban, with no clear roadmap for restoration.
However, what about different social media platforms?
After TikTok vanished from India, a scramble started—not only for creators making an attempt to avoid wasting their livelihoods, however for platforms racing to exchange the app that had rewritten the principles of fame.
Moj, Chingari, Josh—names that meant little earlier than June 2020—emerged virtually in a single day because the nation’s homegrown solutions to the TikTok-shaped gap. They promised familiarity. They promised alternative. And for a second, it appeared like they may succeed.
Moj, developed by ShareChat, shortly grew to become the poster baby for India’s TikTok alternate options, boasting over 50 million downloads inside weeks.
Chingari branded itself as a “native different,” catering to regional audiences with reside streaming and vernacular language choices.
Josh, backed by the media big Dailyhunt, leveraged partnerships with high influencers to construct momentum. However behind the fanfare and obtain numbers, cracks started to point out.
Why these platforms fell quick
1. Algorithmic Weak point – TikTok’s algorithm was a masterpiece, curating personalised content material that felt intuitive and interesting. Moj and Chingari’s suggestions typically felt generic, resulting in decrease person engagement and creator frustration.
2. Viewers Fragmentation – TikTok unified creators and audiences throughout India, breaking boundaries between areas and languages. Native alternate options cut up customers throughout a number of apps, diluting creator attain and content material visibility.
3. International Drawback: TikTok provided Indian creators a worldwide stage, connecting them with audiences and alternatives worldwide. Moj and Chingari remained centered on home markets, limiting creators’ development and worldwide publicity.
The shift to worldwide platforms
Many creators deserted native alternate options for Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, drawn by:
> Bigger Consumer Bases: These platforms provided international attain that Indian alternate options couldn’t match.
> Higher Monetization Alternatives: Model collaborations and advert income streams had been extra profitable on these platforms.
Nevertheless it didn’t all the time work out.
Challenges with the Transition:
> Excessive Manufacturing Requirements: Reels and Shorts demanded polished, skilled content material, which alienated creators who thrived on TikTok’s uncooked authenticity.
> Algorithmic Bias: Instagram favored established creators with massive followings, leaving smaller creators—as soon as TikTok’s champions—struggling to regain visibility.
> Fewer monetization alternatives: Not like Instagram, the place creators rely solely on model offers for earnings, TikTok provided a number of methods to monetize content material immediately. By way of the Creator Fund, live-streaming items, and different in-app monetization instruments, TikTok had turned creativity right into a tangible earnings stream.
Even smaller creators may earn between $200 and $1200 a month, an quantity that made a major distinction, particularly in rural areas.
Classes for the USA from India’s TikTok Ban
TikTok is the good equalizer of the digital age—a spot the place a Black teenager in Atlanta can begin a viral dance pattern, a small enterprise in Kansas can promote out in hours, and Indigenous creators can flip a highlight on centuries-old traditions.
It’s exactly this fragile ecosystem that’s in danger as the US toys with the thought of banning TikTok, and India’s personal ban in 2020 supplies a sobering preview of what would possibly come.
India’s TikTok ban swept away a group of 200 million customers in a single evening. Within the U.S., the potential fallout seems to be eerily comparable however with stakes magnified by TikTok’s deeply entrenched function in American tradition and commerce.
TikTok is dwelling to 170 million U.S. customers, a majority of them younger. Over 62% of its viewers is aged 10 to 29—a technology that has by no means identified a world with out social media.
Ought to the U.s.a. go forward with the ban, it should do effectively to recollect these classes from India:
1) Marginalized voices will wrestle to be heard
In India, TikTok’s ban silenced rural comedians, small-town dancers, and regional voices, leaving them to compete on platforms the place city elites dominated. The U.S. dangers the same destiny.
Black creators, who drive viral traits, and Indigenous voices, who use TikTok to share resilience and tradition, may lose their most accessible platform. With out TikTok, these communities will navigate algorithms that prioritize polished content material and company narratives, leaving their tales unheard.
2) Small companies will lose their secret weapon
India’s small companies misplaced a low-cost advertising instrument when TikTok disappeared. Within the U.S., minority-owned small companies and younger entrepreneurs depend on TikTok’s precision to succeed in area of interest audiences. With out it, the handcrafted cleaning soap or classic sweatshirt finds no purchaser, and small-town companies are pushed towards pricier platforms that demand extra sources, erasing their capacity to compete.
3) No platform can exchange TikTok’s magic
India’s Moj and Chingari tried to exchange TikTok however failed to copy its algorithmic magic. Within the U.S., there aren’t any equivalents—simply Instagram and YouTube, the place the principles are completely different. Their algorithms reward sources and standing, not uncooked creativity. The small-town dancer or single mom sharing cooking tutorials might be eclipsed by the polished and privileged, their allure not sufficient.
4) Communities will fracture, by no means to be the identical
TikTok unified creators and audiences in a single shared house. In India, its ban fractured this group, scattering customers throughout platforms and breaking the connection between creators and their followers. Within the U.S., TikTok’s subcultures—area of interest fandoms, comedy accounts, and grassroots actions—exist as ecosystems that can not be rebuilt elsewhere. As soon as they’re gone, they’re unlikely to return.
A stark alternative
India’s expertise ought to function a cautionary story for the U.S., a reminder that banning TikTok is not only a choice about nationwide safety however a alternative that would dismantle cultural actions, devastate small companies, and silence tens of millions of voices which have simply begun to be heard. The higher answer lies not in erasure however in regulation, in making a framework that addresses information issues whereas preserving the app’s capacity to attach, amplify, and democratize.
As a result of the lesson of India’s ban is that this: TikTok was a promise—one which was damaged in a single day.
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