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Chinese takeover of Indian app ecosystem

The battle lines are clearly drawn, but only time will determine the winner.

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The year 2018 was plenty eventful, so one of the developments that has slipped through the technology cracks is China's slow dominance of the Indian app ecosystem. Consider some of the apps that have come into the Indian public conscience over the last year: TikTok as a replacement of YouTube or Instagram depending on who you talk to; Helo, which is giving ShareChat a run for its money; or the growing presence of apparel sites like Shein, ClubFactory or Romwe.

Cut to 2019 and not only are they a rage, but have inspired a dozen other platforms with a clear message: Dominate India, dominate the globe. You don't have to look too far to see the change in landscape as the top 10 mobile apps on Google Playstore in 2018 have China written all over it. Five out of the top 10 mobile apps in India are Chinese — versus two at the end of 2017.

Additionally, as opposed to 2017, when the top 100 across various categories had only 18 apps, the number in 2018 has burgeoned to 44. Outside of that, even new entrants like Rozbuzz, a social entertainment content platform, and YouStar, a video chat room platform, enjoy more than one million downloads in India.

Industry observers find that the target group of most of these platforms include the new Internet users in India, specifically from smaller cities and towns, the discovery and exploition of which can incidentally be credited to the homegrown Bengaluru-based ShareChat. It now has 50 million downloads. But Helo is catching up and already has 10 million users. The battle lines are clearly drawn, but only time will determine the winner.

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