According to a report published by Reuters Beijing Bytedance Technology Co – the developer of the Chinese video app TikTok, claimed in a court filing that it is facing “financial losses” of up to $500,000 a day and potential loss of 250 jobs because of India banning the popular app.
TikTok, one of the most popular apps in the world, helps users to create and share short videos that have special effects in them. According to analytics firm Sensor Tower, so far in India, almost 300 million users have downloaded the app out of a total of more than 1 billion downloads globally.
An order by an Indian state court was passed earlier this month directing the federal government to downloading of the ban the app because it claimed that the app encourages pornography. TikTok from their India app stores were removed last week by Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google following an instruction from the IT ministry of India after the court order.
The growth plans of Bytedance in India have been dashed by the development. The company has the financial support of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp as well as private equity. According to the Reuters report, Bytedance is contemplating getting itself listed in Hong Kong this year and is considered to be amongst the most valuable startups of the world with a potential valuation of about $75 billion.
This development has also raised concerns among the social media companies and industry in India over potential future troubles from such court orders trying to regulate content on the social media platforms.
An application to quash the ban and the issuance of a direction to the IT ministry of India for directing companies such as Google and Apple to once again allow the app to be made downloadable from their play stores was sought by Bytedance in a filing made by it at the Supreme Court of India last weekend.
According to Reuters, the company claimed that it was facing destruction in the value of its investments and loss of commercial revenue, among other financial losses that was amounting to about $500,000 each day in the court filing. Bytedance also said that the reputation and goodwill of the company would be significantly impacted both among advertisers and investors.
“Banning has had adverse impact on the user base of this app, losing close to 1 million new users per day ... It is estimated that approximately six million requests for downloads could not be effected since the ban came into effect,” the company said in the filing.
Here were no comments available from the TikTok maker nor the federal IT ministry.
No interim relief was provided in the plea filed by Bytedance in the Supreme Court. The case has instead been referred back to the southern Indian state of the Tamil Nadu where the case would be heard.
The company said in the filing that just a “very minuscule” part of videos made on TikTok were considered inappropriate or obscene. “The constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights of free speech and expression ... of numerous Indian citizens have been severely impacted,” the company said in its latest filing.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
TikTok, one of the most popular apps in the world, helps users to create and share short videos that have special effects in them. According to analytics firm Sensor Tower, so far in India, almost 300 million users have downloaded the app out of a total of more than 1 billion downloads globally.
An order by an Indian state court was passed earlier this month directing the federal government to downloading of the ban the app because it claimed that the app encourages pornography. TikTok from their India app stores were removed last week by Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google following an instruction from the IT ministry of India after the court order.
The growth plans of Bytedance in India have been dashed by the development. The company has the financial support of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp as well as private equity. According to the Reuters report, Bytedance is contemplating getting itself listed in Hong Kong this year and is considered to be amongst the most valuable startups of the world with a potential valuation of about $75 billion.
This development has also raised concerns among the social media companies and industry in India over potential future troubles from such court orders trying to regulate content on the social media platforms.
An application to quash the ban and the issuance of a direction to the IT ministry of India for directing companies such as Google and Apple to once again allow the app to be made downloadable from their play stores was sought by Bytedance in a filing made by it at the Supreme Court of India last weekend.
According to Reuters, the company claimed that it was facing destruction in the value of its investments and loss of commercial revenue, among other financial losses that was amounting to about $500,000 each day in the court filing. Bytedance also said that the reputation and goodwill of the company would be significantly impacted both among advertisers and investors.
“Banning has had adverse impact on the user base of this app, losing close to 1 million new users per day ... It is estimated that approximately six million requests for downloads could not be effected since the ban came into effect,” the company said in the filing.
Here were no comments available from the TikTok maker nor the federal IT ministry.
No interim relief was provided in the plea filed by Bytedance in the Supreme Court. The case has instead been referred back to the southern Indian state of the Tamil Nadu where the case would be heard.
The company said in the filing that just a “very minuscule” part of videos made on TikTok were considered inappropriate or obscene. “The constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights of free speech and expression ... of numerous Indian citizens have been severely impacted,” the company said in its latest filing.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
