Trump-approved Triller woos India’s TikTok fans by partnering with Reliance’s JioSaavn music app

US app Triller has emerged as one of the biggest TikTok competitors after the Chinese app was banned in India

Reliance’s Jio, whose chairman Mukesh Ambani is India’s richest man, recently received investments from Facebook and Google

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Triller has emerged as one of the major TikTok competitors after the Chinese app began facing headwinds in the US and India. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:01pm, 25 Aug 2020Updated: 5:00pm, 25 Aug 2020

A TikTok rival has scored a powerful partner in India just weeks after the Chinese app was banned in the country.

Triller, the US-based short video app, announced on Monday that it’s teaming up with JioSaavn. The Indian music streaming service is owned by Jio Platforms, which also owns the country’s biggest telecom provider with some 380 million subscribers – three times the population of Japan.

Under the partnership, users can create Triller videos directly on the JioSaavn app, according to the announcement. All they have to do is click “a prominent button” on the main screen.

Triller already has a bigger focus on music compared with some other TikTok competitors. When you make a Triller video, the first thing you’re asked to do is to pick the music. The app became the most downloaded free iOS app in the US on August 1. Even President Donald Trump’s campaign joined the app, although installs have since declined from their peak.

Triller’s video feed, discovery tab and profile page. Image: Triller

While climbing the download charts, Triller still lags behind the competition in India. Among video players and editors on the Google Play app store, Triller still ranked 18 spots behind Snack Video, a competing app from China’s Tencent-backed Kuaishou, on Monday, according to data from App Annie.

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