Advertising experts said brands may be wary of using the ByteDance-owned Chinese app to market and promote their products in the short run despite its popularity
The recent border skirmishes with China and subsequent calls by many Indians to boycott Chinese goods may have immediate repercussions for video sharing app TikTok in India.
Advertising experts said brands may be wary of using the ByteDance-owned Chinese app to market and promote their products in the short run despite its popularity.
Launched in India in 2017, TikTok has been bullish on India with more than 600 million lifetime downloads so far. The platform has brands such as Pepsi, Puma, Dettol, Clean and Clear, Flipkart and Myntra advertising on it.
Sanjay Vasudeva, founder of influencer marketing firm BuzzOne, said both Chinese apps and products may bear the brunt of people’s ire in the near term.
“Brands like to work in a safe environment. Even a modicum of discomfort or the fear of being trolled will keep them away from TikTok. While they may not abandon the platform, they could be inactive in the immediate future," he said. He cited the example of his client —a Chinese mobile brand—whose campaign was trolled on Instagram a month ago and had to be dropped.
Samit Sinha, brand expert and managing partner, Alchemist Brand Consulting, also said that some brands may relocate from TikTok to other platforms.
Queries emailed to TikTok remained unanswered.
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