iWorld
TikTok ban forces influencers to shift to homegrown short-form video apps
New Delhi: On Monday, thousands had a career in making videos and overnight they are jobless, adding to the existing recession in the country. TikTok was not just a source of entertainment for many but also a way to earn their daily bread and butter. Right after the ban, the app became unavailable for download on Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store in India.
TikTok, which has amassed more than 200 million users in India, identifies Asia’s third-largest economy as its biggest overseas market. Over the years, the platform has become a favourite amongst brands for influencer marketing.
Mirum India director of business development- Srikant Subramanian said that the budgets on influencer marketing will continue to remain. The marketers realise that influencers are the ones who are creating meaningful relationships for their brands with consumers and using those influencers would be key for their endeavours.
“The next few months will be critical from an analytics POV. We will start to see the movement of audiences and behaviour of content consumption on existing large channels. Basis that, the brands will need to change strategies when that happens. In the short term, depending on the channel, brands will continue to do what they are doing now,” Subramanian adds.
Zirca Digital Solutions CEO and director Neena Dasgupta is of the opinion that the platform’s rise has been phenomenal and what is interesting is that not only did people adapt to its format rather quickly but people stuck to the platform.
“In its absence, this huge number of users will migrate to other platforms and everything from digital marketing budgets to consumer engagement strategies will need to be rejigged. The marketing spends – particularly on influencers – were on the rise and the ban will lead to the reallocation of these budgets. So, the influencer marketing system is in for a change. For new platforms similar to TikTok it is going to be an opportunity to acquire and for existing platforms, it could be an opportunity to adapt as well as acquire."
TikTok, which was blocked in India for a week last year but was accessible to users who had already installed the app on their smartphones, said last year in a court filing that it was losing more than $500,000 a day. According to reports, ByteDance had planned to invest $1 billion in India to expand the reach of TikTok, a plan that now appears to have been derailed.
As per the Indian government’s statements, the ban of TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps is in response to the alleged possibility of data theft and security breach of Indian nationals, due to the ongoing geopolitical Indo-China tension.
According to Dasgupta, Data security has been a long-pending agenda for the government. “I would not be surprised if this is accompanied by further bans irrespective of the source of the apps. The need of the hour are policies that can safeguard internet users and their privacy and we are yet to see these policies and how they are implemented.”
Marcom Avenue director Divanshi Gupta says that India is working on undertaking various campaigns and projects that will make the country self-reliant regarding Chinese companies in power and mobile technology. “The country is home to multiple brands working on a three-pronged strategy (restart, restore and resurgence) to boost in-house technology and innovation while uplifting manufacturing in the national state,” she says.
However, Gupta says that the decision to ban Chinese apps may not be directly classified as an "economic sanction" as China is a massive investor in the Indian business diaspora. It is more because of the national security threat and data theft.
Content creator Ankush Bahuguna, who makes several videos on social media platforms including TikTok, says that due to the ban on the app, he will have one less platform to expand his universe and to engage with the audience.
"I think it is going to have a huge impact on creators who were making content exclusively on TikTok. The shift to a new platform means starting from scratch and I can't imagine how difficult it must be for so many people. I think it will be nice if other content creators could step in and help out TikTokers build themselves back on other platforms because I've seen a lot of TikTokers create very entertaining content and they deserve to stay relevant regardless of what happens to one app," he says.
RJ Sukriti Chaturvedi, popular content creator on Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube who is known for her quirky and funny videos on social media platform says that if a breach of privacy has been conducted on the app, then it’s best that users shift to some other platform which ensures security. “It’s a piece of sad news for content creators who rose to fame through TikTok but there are other platforms too like Instagram or Youtube which can also add value for content creators.”
The short-form video app also became advertisers’ new darling, mainly due to the access it gives to advertisers to creators and consumers.
“TikTok will suffer but Bytedance is a trooper,” Subramanian mentions. “They will find a way to make revenue. A lot depends on the regulation bit. Overall advertisers will be fine, they will split the audience and hence mostly split the revenue in the long term. It all depends on how long the void remains. I suspect many new apps will launch, and some existing ones like Hike could take advantage and then add some new features – especially since the markets are the same.”
TikTok ban in India has already forced its users to look for alternatives. TikTok creators are requesting their fans to follow them on other social media platforms including Instagram and YouTube. Many influencers are also welcoming the latest move by the government. Whether it is Mitron, Chingari or Bolo Indya, the Indian rivals of the Chinese video-sharing app are hoping to grow their presence in the country and expand their user base by attracting several TikTokers to their platforms.
“This would help Indian UGC platforms to garner content creators at a much higher pace and organically. Cost of creator acquisition will tend to reduce drastically due to this. This shall also enable a lower cost of consumer acquisition as many creators would be bringing in their follower base (to some extent) on to the Indian UGCs which they finally opt for creating videos going forward. For example, we have seen over one lakh new content creators join Bolo indya in last 24 hours at zero cost, and more than five lakh videos being created by them in last 24 hours, enabling them to go viral on Bolo Indya in least possible team, much quicker than other Indian UGCs,” shares Bolo Indya founder Varun Saxena.
Saxena adds that since Monday, the platform has witnessed 10x surge in traction. “However, this has increased to 30x and we have hardly seen any downtime (apart from little speed issues for a few minutes) as compared to some of the other Indian UGCs which went down for hours today. We have taken requisite measures both on application server and database server sides and we are now ready to handle 80x surge in traffic from here.”
Gaming
MTG gaming chief Benninghoff joins NODWIN board as esports firm primes for IPO
The Gurugram-based esports firm is pursuing a public listing, has returned to profitability and is growing revenues by 42 per cent
GURUGRAM: NODWIN Gaming is moving fast. The Gurugram-based gaming and esports company has launched a pre-IPO fundraising round, appointed UBS as lead adviser for both the round and a subsequent public listing, and landed a heavyweight board director, all in one go.
The new board member is Arnd Benninghoff, executive vice president of gaming at Stockholm-listed Modern Times Group (MTG), who has overseen the group’s strategic investments and portfolio growth since 2014. He is no stranger to building things: Benninghoff has founded and built fifteen companies, served as chief digital officer at ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, managing director of SevenVentures, and chief executive of Holtzbrinck eLAB. He began his career as a journalist at Deutsche Presse Agentur and various TV networks, holds a Diplom-Kaufmann in business and administration from the University of Münster, and previously sat on the board of Edgeware AB.
The numbers back the ambition
NODWIN is not pitching a story without substance. The company has returned to EBITDA profitability and posted a 42 per cent year-on-year revenue surge, reaching $58.5m in the first nine months of FY2026. The pre-IPO round will combine a primary issuance to fund global expansion through organic growth and acquisitions, alongside a secondary sale to give existing shareholders some liquidity.
Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, said Benninghoff understands “the entire lifecycle of the gaming and media ecosystem, from the boots-on-the-ground reality of building startups to the strategic complexity of managing multi-billion dollar global portfolios.”
Benninghoff, for his part, said the company “sits at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and technology, making it one of the most exciting players in the global gaming landscape today.”
A portfolio built for the global south
Founded in 2014 by Rathee and Gautam Virk, NODWIN has quietly assembled one of the more compelling esports portfolios outside the Western hemisphere. Its properties include DreamHack India and Comic Con India, and it recently acquired StarLadder, the Ukraine-based tournament organiser behind premier events in CS:GO and Dota 2. The company also serves as a long-term strategic marketing partner for the Evolution Championship Series (EVO), the world’s most prominent fighting game tournament, helping push it into new geographies.
Its geographic focus spans South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Backers include Nazara Technologies, KRAFTON, Sony Group Corporation, JetSynthesys, and the founders’ investment vehicle Good Game Investments.
What comes next
With UBS running the books, a board freshly reinforced with European media and gaming expertise, and revenue heading in the right direction, NODWIN is laying the groundwork deliberately. The esports industry has burned investors before with big promises and thin margins. NODWIN’s return to profitability, combined with a real portfolio of owned intellectual properties across gaming, music and youth culture, gives it a more credible runway than most. The IPO clock is now ticking.
