India Shook China: Banned 59 Major Chinese Mobile Applications
In a recent decision taken by the Indian government, 59 Chinese mobile applications will be banned, in India. The list of 59 applications included some major, names from the market. TikTok, which had a higher share of its business in the Indian market, is included in this list.
It would be interesting to know that in 2019, when TikTok was briefly banned, in India, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok reportedly lost more than $500,000 daily. The User share of TikTok has increased tremendously since then in the Indian market. Therefore, the news must have come as a disaster for the company.
The Indian government took this decision after the Indian intelligence informed the government about the potential risk of security from these applications.
Since the brutal face-off between the Chinese and Indian army in the “Galwan Ghati“, a place in Ladakh, the air is stiff between both the countries.
In a press release following statement was issued by the government stating, “The Ministry of Information Technology, invoking its power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 and in view of the emergent nature of threats has decided to block 59 apps since in view of the information available they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order”.
The press release further mentioned, “The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) has also received many representations from citizens regarding the security of data and breach of privacy impacting upon public order issues,”
It clearly stated that this move is to “safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users”.
Since the tension in Ladakh, the anger against TikTok and other Chinese application/equipment was seen, in the Indian market.
The rating of the application started falling continuously on the platform after the incident took place. On Apple store, the Chinese app used to rank in the top-5 free applications which later dropped down to 10th place in the ranking.
Similarly, TikTok saw a fall in ranking on the Google Play store and slipped from third to the fifth position in India, still managed to stay in the top 10 free applications.
It is not just the country of India, which banned the Chinese application!
Taiwan also banned a few Chinese applications due to security concern. However, in Germany, Zoom was restricted for the usage, Including other apps.
Robert O’Brian, the US national security advisor, has clearly stated that the Chinese applications are used as a weapon by the Communist Party of China(CPC) to spread its ideology across the globe.
The younger generation grew highly fond of this Chinese application. The application has this younger fan base not only in India but also in countries like the US and China.
TikTok, the highest downloaded app, had more than 2-billion users. India turned out to be the largest contributor in this success, contributing 611 million user downloads.
Image credit – Sensor report.
According to the report by sensor tower, the Chinese application grew in popularity during the lockdown phase in this epidemic.
The list of 59 Chinese mobile apps included:
- TikTok
- Shareit
- Kwai
- UC Browser
- Baidu map
- Shein
- Clash of Kings
- DU battery saver
- Helo
- Likee
- YouCam makeup
- Mi Community
- CM Browers
- Virus Cleaner
- APUS Browser
- ROMWE
- Club Factory
- Newsdog
- Beauty Plus
- UC News
- QQ Mail
- Xender
- QQ Music
- QQ Newsfeed
- Bigo Live
- SelfieCity
- Mail Master
- Parallel Space
- Mi Video Call Xiaomi
- WeSync
- ES File Explorer
- Viva Video QU Video Inc
- Meitu
- Vigo Video
- New Video Status
- DU Recorder
- Vault- Hide
- Cache Cleaner DU App studio
- DU Cleaner
- DU Browser
- Hago Play With New Friends
- Cam Scanner
- Clean Master Cheetah Mobile
- QQ Security Center
- Wonder Camera
- Photo Wonder
- QQ Player
- We Meet
- Sweet Selfie
- Baidu Translate
- QQ International
- Vmate
- QQ Launcher
- U Video
- V fly Status Video
- Mobile Legends
- DU Privacy
Snapchat’s New Feature ‘Snap Minis’ Will Be the Next Hot Thing in the Market
Snap introduced an array of new products and partnerships for Snapchat including original shows, Minis, new lenses, new navigation bars, and games at the 2020 Snap Partner Summit.
The highlight of the event was Minis – a suite of miniature apps developed by third parties that will run inside Snapchat. This will be integrated into the Snapchat chat window that would allow users to buy movie tickets, shop with friends or meditate.
In an interview with The Verge, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said,
“Let’s say you’re getting ready with your friends, or your school dance is two weeks from now — you can actually shop together with your friends, which I think could be a really fun experience.”
Image Credit: Snap
What Snap Announced:
-Minis are web-based apps built on HTML-5 for Android and iOS.
-Minis will start rolling out next month on Snapchat with the first seven minis.
-A mini-app by Coachella to coordinate and plan a festival line up with the friends.
-A mini version of Headspace to meditate and send encouraging messages to friends.
-A mini-app by Tembo to create flashcards for studying,
-A mini-app by Atom to buy movie tickets, pick seats, and choose timings.
Why They Matter:
– The inclusion of mini-apps will increase Snapchat’s functionality and potentially making it a one-stop app like WeChat for GenZ.
– The main purpose behind creating minis is creating eCommerce avenues as its main competitor WhatsApp has already ventured into digital payments and shopping.
– The company’s growth is stable in the messaging space but is not big enough to compete with the likes of Facebook and Google for ad revenues in the long term.
– As a result, it plans to build an ecosystem that revolves around its camera technology to unlock new revenue generation options.
What’s New For Brands:
– Brands especially looking to target the younger audience should consider developing a Snap Mini to provide services and ensure easy accessibility to Snapchat users.
– It is easy to maintain a mini-app than a full-size app as brands can leverage the Snapchat’s user base to gain traction.
By The Numbers:
– These miniatures applications are compared to WeChat’s mini-programs that generated $113 billion for Tencent last year, according to The Verge.
– Snap execs revealed that it reached over 229 million daily active users on average in the first quarter of this year, with over 100 million in the U.S. alone. (That’s larger than TikTok or Twitter’s U.S. footprint.)
And, there’s lots more from the 2020 Snap Partner Summit:
1. Camera Kit: It allows developers to bring Snapchat’s AR capabilities and engagement into their own apps that enable apps like Squad to create a co-viewing experience while video chatting with friends.
2. Dynamic Lenses: It allows developers to bring real-time information from their app into Snapchat lenses.
3. Bitmoji For Games: A cross-platform avatar for gaming on mobile, PC, or console. This means it is easier for a user to maintain a uniform gaming identity online by using one avatar across all games.
4. Snap Games: An interactive way for friends to play the game on mobile which includes “Bitmoji Party.”
5. Lens Studio: A free and new desktop feature that allows developers to bring their machine learning models to power lenses. For the first SnapML creations, the company partnered with Prisma, Wannaby, and others.
6. Local Lenses: A new feature that allows users to create 3D worlds on top of their building and or decorate nearby buildings with colorful paints and have a new AR experience.
7. Scans: Snap expanded its scan platform and announced new partners for plants, dogs, and nutrition information. Plant Snap will help the user identify 90% of all known plants and trees. Dog Scanner to identify 400 breeds, Yuka will launch a nutrition scanner to provide ratings on the quality of ingredients in the packaged foods and Louis Vuitton will help users scan the monogram to be transported into the inspiration behind their latest collection.
8. Voice Scan: It allows users to issue voice commands to find lenses.
Is Zynn, A Clone Of TikTok, Set To Dominate The Market? Certainly Looks Like So!
From a period, TikTok market is suffering from a lot of negativity. After being criticized for its user data policies in the US, the TikTok market is facing a downfall in its active user database in India. Several of its accounts have been suspended, as complaints have been filed against them for posting unethical content. Now, TikTok is facing a challenge due to the #BycottChineseProduct revolution in the Indian market.
Even in its own country of origin, Its problem doesn’t seem to end. TikTok is facing tough competition within its country bounds. Recently, Zynn, which is a replica of TikTok is making its way on the top charts of Google Playstore and Apple store.
Zynn has been ranked as the number one application in the free app category on Apple store. Whereas, it is among the top 10 applications on Google play store.
Image credit – BusinesBlog
Zynn is a doppelganger of TikTok! Every aspect of Zynn is similar to that of TikTok, even they have a similar user interface. The only difference is, it pays its user to watch a video, refer to friends and even just to sign up.
This is also a USP which keeps Zynn ahead of its competitors.
Image credit – Techio
The only distinct feature of Zynn interface is the dollar sign, appearing on the screen. The “$” sign appears on the left-hand top corner, it also acts as a timer for the video.
The moment a user starts watching a video, the dollar sign gets filled with colour. Once the video is complete, and the sign is filled, it gets added into your credit points. The user can redeem these points, and convert them to gift cards or cash.
There is no personal proof of the redeeming of cash and gift card. Although, there are some YouTube videos which claim to have received the balance in their account. They show their bank statements, confirming the above statement.
Zynn didn’t appear from non-existence. Zynn is a byproduct of the competitive market of China. It is launched and promoted due to an ongoing rivalry of tech companies in China.
Kuaishou, a well-funded start-up running the biggest video apps, created Zynn. To promote Zynn, they used the same payment technique used by Douyin. Douyin is a Chinese version of TikTok.
Zynn supports in-app advertisement purchase. It is its only source of income. Currently, as per the reports they are not selling advertisement in the US.
Recently, Zynn received a hefty investment, amount of $2 billion. Tencent a Chinese tech giant invested this amount in Zynn. Tencent is also a creator of Wechat which is the most popular Instant messenger in China.
The report posted by The Information, in December stated that the investment was made to “contain the threat of ByteDance,” the creator of TikTok and Douyin.
Following are some of the reasons responsible for the quick growth of Zynn in the market:
- It pays its user an approx of ($0.12), to watch a few minutes video.
- Secondly, the application provides you with money for every referral.
- Big brand promotion can provide up to $110. If you make five people sign up, and they keep using the application continuously.
- The brand obtains its data from Kuaishou, hence, the application is pre-loaded with videos.
Image Credit – Three Pixel lab
A report states that most of the video uploaded on Zynn are from Kuaishou database. Zynn is slowly attracting people to leave TikTok and shift to its database.
After downloading, you can directly start watching the videos. Though, If you are willing to earn rewards you must sign up first.
Also, you must know that you can’t create a direct account with Zynn. It has to be either with Facebook, Gmail or Twitter. it will verify your phone number, and in case of failed verification, you won’t be able to sign up.
Image credit – Click Lancashire
It requests access to the device location. However, you can deny it. You also have to attach your Paypal account for the payments you will receive.
