How Chinese Social Networking Apps Are Targeting India's Regional Audience

Social networking apps from China are targeting India’s regional audience and gaining traction.

- Devika Singh

China and India have been at loggerheads for years, but this time, the Asian superpowers could be fighting a pitched battle over social media platforms. Take, for instance, what is happening at Share Chat, India’s fastest-growing social networking app that is available in local languages and targets Tier II and Tier III cities and beyond. A couple of months ago, the homegrown app dragged Chinese app Helo’s parent company ByteDance to court for copying its product design and using ‘Share Chat’ as an ad-word on Google. It seems ByteDance wants to go all out to capture the regional audience in the country.

The tech company, which owns several popular apps in China such as Toutiao, TikTok and Xigua Video, also bought California-based social networking platform Musical.ly earlier in the year and merged it with TikTok. Now, the company has its eyes on India and has launched several platforms in the country which have gained huge popularity.