US-based TikTok rival Triller is currently ranked as the No.1 photo & video app on the App Store store in India. And it achieved the feat, claims the company’s CEO Mike Lu, “without spending a dime on marketing”.
Writing in a post on LinkedIn on Saturday (July 4), Lu said: “Triller surpassed YouTube and Instagram in the IOS App Store [in India] in a single week. This is a historic moment for our team as we’ve been working around the clock.”
This will be music to the ears of the major record companies, who all own minority stakes in Triller, which has raised over $30m to date.
Triller’s surge in popularity over the past week on the App Store comes just one week after one of its biggest rivals, TikTok, was blocked by the Indian Government alongside 58 other Chinese-owned apps.
Those apps were subsequently removed from both the App Store and Google Play.
The ban could cost ByteDance $6 billion in lost revenue, according to a report on Wednesday (July 1), by Chinese news publication Global Times.
Global Times also reports that the potential $6bn “figure would exceed the potential losses of all the other apps combined”.
“This is just the beginning for Triller in India.”
Mike Lu, Triller (pictured)
That same report, citing a source close to ByteDance, claims that TikTok has invested $1bn in the market.
As reported in April, on a country by country basis, having generated 611m lifetime downloads as of April 30, India was the No.1 market for TikTok downloads.
In the wake of TikTok’s disappearance from the market, other video apps are reporting to be seeing significant growth, including locally-developed apps such as Roposo.
Founder Mayank Bhangadia told Reuters that the platform saw 22m new users in just two days following the ban.
Meanwhile, according to Business Insider, Facebook-owned Instagram is now reportedly testing its own short form video sharing app, Reels in India.
Back in December, just two months after raising a $28 million funding round led by Proxima Media, Triller revealed a heavyweight roster of investors and strategic partners including Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd, Marshmello, Lil Wayne, YoungThug, Kendrick Lamar, Baron Davis, Tyga, TI, Jake Paul and Troy Cartner.
Other Triller investors include mega-music managers Gee Roberson (Co-CEO of The Blueprint Group), Moe Shalizi (founder of The Shalizi Group), Wassim Sal Slaiby (CEO of XO Records), Amir Cash Esmailian of XO, and Ash Pournouri (former manager for Avicii);.
The addition of these backers is understood to have raised a further $10m-plus for Triller.
The firm’s Series B raise in October gave Triller a potential valuation of $130 million.
Writing in a post on LinkedIn, Triller CEO Mike Lu, said: “Triller = number 1 video/photo app in India with $0 marketing.
“Triller has hit number 1 in the iOS App Store without spending a dime on marketing. We surpassed youtube and instagram in the IOS App Store in a single week.
“This is a historic moment for our team as we’ve been working around the clock. I can’t be more proud of the triller fam. This is just the beginning for Triller in India.”
According to recent estimates published by analytics firm Sensor Tower, in the first half of 2020, TikTok generated 626 million installs across the App Store and Google Play, ranking as the top non-game app by downloads
In terms of revenues, according to Sensor Tower, TikTok ranked No. 3 in the first of half of the year, generating $421 million on the App Store and Google Play.Music Business Worldwide
