India's Influencers Still Struggle Years After TikTok Ban

Rohtak, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Apr, 2024) Choreographer Sahil Kumar found fame showcasing folk dances on TikTok, but his profile has been dormant since the video he posted four years ago supporting India's decision to ban the platform.

The world's most populous country offers a glimpse of what the social media landscape could look like in the United States next year, should a move to block local access to the Chinese-owned short video app goes ahead.

Several local copycats tried to fill the void left by TikTok's departure -- prompted by a wave of nationalist fervour that followed a border clash between Chinese and Indian troops -- but the biggest beneficiaries of the decision were YouTube and Instagram.

Kumar and many other content creators eventually flocked to those US-owned platforms, but few were able to replicate their earlier followings.

"It is difficult to recreate the success elsewhere, because I haven't got the same engagement on any other platform," Kumar, 30, told AFP from his studio in Rohtak, a short drive south of the capital New Delhi.

"It takes years to grow an audience on Instagram and especially on YouTube," he added.

Kumar was an engineer by training but ditched white collar work when he found an audience for his dance routines on TikTok, eventually garnering more than 1.5 million followers.

His newfound celebrity netted him paid opportunities to choreograph dance numbers for other influencers on the platform and music videos featuring Indian celebrities.

But his career was derailed in June 2020 after a deadly clash far from his home on the Himalayan frontier dividing India from China.