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Chinese web giant ByteDance has introduced plans to discontinue two of its apps in India, its largest abroad market, and urged customers to maneuver to TikTok.
Vigo Video and Vigo Lite, two apps that permit customers to create and share short-form sketches and lip-syncing to Bollywood songs, posted a message early Monday (native time) to announce that they might be discontinued from late October this yr.
In its post, titled “a farewell letter,” ByteDance mentioned it was saddened to close down the apps however didn’t provide an explanation for the aforementioned event.
Unlike TikTok, ByteDance’s hottest app, Vigo Video, and Vigo Lite have struggled to make inroads on the planet’s second-largest web market. While TikTok has more than 200 million customers in India, Vigo Video had about four million month-to-month energetic customers final month and Vigo Lite might solely amass 1.5 million customers. While Vigo Video gained fewer than 1 million customers in a yr, Vigo Lite shredded simply as many in the identical interval.
Both the apps counted India as their largest market, however, they have been out there in a number of different markets, together with neighboring nations Bangladesh, as an illustration. It’s unclear whether or not ByteDance is discontinuing the apps in each market. The firm didn’t instantly reply to a request for a remark.
The transfer, regardless of the apps’ poor reception in India, comes as a shock. Recruitment posts submitted by ByteDance as late as the last month described Vigo as one of the firm’s largest companies in India.
ByteDance additionally operates the Helo app, which permits customers to share their ideas with mates, and Lark, a productiveness suite much like Google Drive. The firm not too long ago stopped charging Lark clients in India for the foreseeable future in response to the coronavirus crises.
Other current job recruitment posts reveal that the corporate is seeking to rent executives to aggressively discover methods to monetize its companies within the nation.
ByteDance’s TikTok app has been scrutinized in India in current weeks for failing to actively take away movies that promoted violence, animal cruelty, racism, youngster abuse, and objectification of ladies.
In its message to users on Vigo apps at present, ByteDance mentioned it’ll assist them to migrate their videos to TikTok.
On TikTok, “you will be able to show your talent to a larger group of friends. We are eager to see you [there]!” the message reads.
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