Its blacklisting seemingly offered both domestic and foreign players the perfect opportunity to capitalise, but no platform has yet successfully filled the void.

Influencers with no influence

Geet, another of India’s rising TikTok stars, lost many of her 11 million followers when access to the app was cut, leaving her searching for other places to share her videos covering English tuition, women’s rights and disability awareness.

“They asked me: ‘Where will we learn English now? Where will we be motivated now?’ I did direct people to follow me on other social media platforms, but many of them said they don’t use these … only a few thousand actually followed.”

Geet, who is also a social worker, said she was hopeful that TikTok might be reinstated in India while she searches, fruitlessly so far, for an alternative.

TikTok’s sudden absence hit those who depended on it for their incomes especially hard. According to industry estimates, about 200,000 or so of these influencers – who earn revenue through brand deals, sponsored videos, and virtual “gifts” from fans that can be traded in for cash – were operating on TikTok in India at the time of the ban.

For 24-year-old Jesus Mehta, who lives in a rural part of Gujarat, the 60,000 rupees (US$820) he earned each month beatboxing on TikTok was enough to pay all his bills – until the money abruptly stopped.

“It affected me both financially and emotionally,” said Mehta, who is now trying to make up for lost income by teaching children beatboxing. “I had a great active audience with whom I used to interact in live sessions. I felt very close to them. There was even an option for the followers to give gift points which we can monetise. That’s also gone now.”

A bleak future

Although the Indian government is officially considering reversing some of its bans on Chinese apps on a case-by-case basis, a senior official from the Ministry of Information Technology, speaking on condition of anonymity, told This Week In Asia that TikTok was highly unlikely to be included.

“We know where to hurt them [Chinese],” the official said. “Not sure whether these things will be fully sorted even when the border issues are resolved.”

Meanwhile, some of the 2,000 or so locally employed staff working for ByteDance have already started finding work elsewhere, according to Praanesh Bhuvaneswar, CEO of Indian influencer marketing firm Qoruz.

“Most of the middle management people of TikTok … have already moved out and switched jobs. Even the top-notch guys who were sticking around until now have started hunting other jobs,” he said.

ByteDance declined to comment for this article.

A host of other apps are now lining up in the hope of stealing TikTok’s India crown, from home-grown digital clones such as Chingari, Mitron and Roposo, to YouTube’s Shorts and Instagram’s Reels.

But Ashutosh Harbola, co-founder and CEO of influencer marketing firm Buzzoka, said no clear leader had yet emerged in the three months since the ban came into effect – and he thinks it’s all down to the name.

TikTok, Douyin continue to pull in money despite geopolitical headwinds

“The name of the app itself is extremely important. I doubt whether any of the existing apps could scale up the levels of TikTok,” he said.

“To start with, TikTok was a very simple name. Consider the competitors. No one in southern India would know or understand what Chingari is. Who will understand Roposo? … Even Mitron, a word which became popular after the prime minister’s speeches, would struggle to resonate with people.

“On the contrary, TikTok was a pan-India unifier through its name. If you ask me whether anyone can replicate TikTok’s success, [I say] absolutely not.”