On the morning of 30 June, Mahesh Kapse awoke coldly. A lively dream that TikTok had shaken him from sleep, to lose its one million people. It got outside of the bed, opened the TikTok app, and unplugged its phone. He was greeted by a user notification: “Dear users, we are complying with Indian Government order to block 59 applications …”
“I felt as if my god was separated from me as I saw a Tik Tok tweet,” said Kapse, living in a village next to Maharashtra Lonar Vidarbha district.
TikTok was never just another Chinese import for Kapse, like millions of others. It was a famous staircase that kept people working for months and is the only income in the lockdown.
Kapse, 23, downloaded the application in February to just see the trick. He soon began to post videos of his art and draw portraits of people on request. He had accumulated 1,25 million followers between March and June, worked together with celebrities like David Warner and Riteish Deshmukh, and earned around €60,000 every month by posting portraits created by TikTok. It was this income that kept the three members of his family going during the lockdown when its farming parents were out of business.
“I never thought that making videos would make that much money. People have begun noticing me in my village. Less alive, I thought. Everything is gone now, “he says.
TikTok had over 200 million supporters throughout the country, but it was special in its relationship with people in the Tier II and Tier III cities. People in remote towns and villages had to wait for the outsider to discover their talent with their smartphone and mobile data. With no other social media sites, including Instagram, or Facebook, TikTok has given them authority to share their talents and earn money.
The daily wager from Pune, Hrushikesh Tikona, won Rs30,000-35,000 per month in TikTok. He won 1,4 million followers over three months of the lockdown, and he was featured in a Song of Bhojpuri. “It has been grave work for TikTok. It was my vision to build an album of music that would have thousands of viewpoints, so I created my profile with so much effort. Everything’s wasted right now,’ Tikona said, 20.
The end of an era
In the digital world, excellence and understanding of pivot is essential, particularly as the wild web age is transformed into a more regulated environment. Nothing could be shared, produced, and removed as China and India tighten their digital limits and President Donald Trump’s Twitter messages follow.
That’s why Ashutosh Harbola, founder of Buzzoka, is glad TikTok isn’t available anymore in India. “So much dumb material was present. The biggest losers, I suppose, are the viewers of TikTok. “TikTok ‘s creators would have to change their plan of play in order to survive.” You have to deliver more than 15 seconds of fun.
The actor Luke Kenny, who was one of the first two decades ago to introduce the concept of content creation, agreed. “The main elements are still sports, news, and movies. All else is just a technical tool, “Kenny states:” The idea of the content started in the early days of satellite TV. But as visual preferences started to develop, programming began to shift and concentrated on “target markets,” followed by game shows and cooking shows.
The smartphone’s scope is so wide that it’s no longer far from the physical world. This is why, Sunil Nair, who is responsible for the Indian operation of Firework, believes that the prohibition of Chinese apps will be controlled. “The prohibition was India ‘s black swan moment. The material of social media falls into a rut. It’s time for things to shake.
