TikTok is an international version of Douyin, which is actually released in the Chinese market in September 2016. Later, TikTok got launched in 2017 for iOS and Android systems in most of the markets outside of mainland China. However, it only became available worldwide after merging with another Chinese social media service, named Musical.ly, on the 2nd of August 2018.
More About The App
TikTok and Douyin mostly have the same user interface. But none can access each other’s content. Their servers are each based in the markets where the respective app is available. The two products are similar, but their features are not completely identical. Douyin includes an in-video search feature that can also search by people’s face for more videos of them and other features such as buying, booking hotels, and also doing geo-tagged reviews which TikTok can not do. Since its launch in the year 2016, TikTok or Douyin has speedily gained popularity in East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the United States, Turkey, Russia, and other parts of the world. As of October 2020, TikTok surpassed more than 2 billion mobile downloads worldwide. Vanessa Pappas is currently the CEO of TikTok and has assumed this position following the resignation of Kevin A. Mayer on the 27th of August 2020. On 3rd August 2020, US President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok in the United States. On the 6th of August, Trump signed two executive orders banning US “transactions” with TikTok and WeChat to its respective parent companies that are, ByteDance and Tencent. This was set to take effect forty-five days after the signing. A planned ban of the app on the 20th of September 2020 was postponed by a week and later was also blocked by a federal judge. The government of India has banned this app as of June 2020. And along with it, 223 other Chinese apps are also banned in response to a border clash with China. Pakistan also banned TikTok from finding immoral and indecent videos on the 9th of October 2020. But later reversed its ban ten days later, on the 19th of October 2020.
Is TikTok Shutting Down In 2021?
There were various attempts in different countries to ban this app. USA, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and India have all had some of the other reasons to ban this app. Some countries have a partial ban on the same, whereas the other ones have already set a full ban on the app’s use. The reason for doing so is different for different countries. India has banned this app as a result of the border issue with China. So the news of TikTok shutting down is not completely false also. Along with the app, India has also banned 228 other Chinese apps. The ban was initially temporary in nature but became permanent in January 2021. Atleast the company has shut down in India and has also withdrawn all its bases in India. The company has also started cutting on expenses, and due to this, they have cut more than 2000 jobs in the country. The company apologized to all its staff in India. And they do plan on returning back to India, but they have no idea how soon it will be possible now. The company has also issued a farewell letter and stated that the apps Vigo and Vigo Lite would also be discontinued. And that users can take all the data in these apps on TikTok. According to a report by Tech Crunch, there were almost 4 million monthly active users of the Vigo app, and Vigo Lite had more than 1.5 million monthly active users.
