The Bytedance Report 2019 by TechNode

WHO IS BYTEDANCE SUING?
Downloads do not necessarily reflect ongoing
use of the app; in December, ShareChat
reported 40 million monthly active users
compared to Helo’s 25 million. However, it
seems clear that Helo is ahead in the race to
acquire new users, not least because of
significant spending on promotion.
While falling far short of its Chinese version,
Douyin, in terms of overall adoption, TikTok’s rate
of growth in India (60%) surpassed even Douyin’s
spurt of popularity in the last months of 2018
(25%).
DAU growth for Douyin and TikTok (millions)
That could be a cause of concern for authorities.
Last November, a Hindustan Times report
pointed out prominent and potentially
inflammatory fake news reports on both Helo
and ShareChat.
As hundreds of millions of Indians proceed to
cast their votes for the 2019 general elections,
Facebook has already come under scrutiny for
not doing enough to stop false reports and hate
speech, in part because its moderation system
targets mainly English content. In 2018,
according to the tracker of the Indian nonprofit
Software Law and Freedom Center, the country
saw 134 internet shutdowns, some of which
included temporary regional bans on Facebook
and other online services. Many were imposed
in order to “curb violence and unrest in conflictridden
areas,” according to official explanations.
While Helo seeks to gain users and edge out
competitors like ShareChat, it’s unclear whether
the company is spending equal effort on
monitoring its multilingual content.
That leads us back to TikTok, whose fate is
currently being considered in court (see below
for details).
In addition to harboring potential problems,
TikTok’s rapidly growing profile makes it a prime
target for a crackdown. As of the end of last year,
it reported 20 million daily active users (DAU),
significant growth from October, when the
company claimed 12.5 million daily active users.
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