CASE STUDY:TakaTak

The government’s decision to ban TikTok along with 58 other apps, on 29th June, had left everyone
in shock, with some in dismay and some in joy. The controversial point of this decision was TikTok,
an app by Chinese company ‘ByteDance’ that was launched in 2016 quickly rose to prominence with
the app having 323 million downloads in India in 2019. Right before the ban, TikTok was even in
close competition with YouTube as it was gaining eyes of various brands through its branding and
advertising opportunities and was a source of income for thousands of influencers in the country.

The ban by the Indian Government has become one of the sore points in the growing
frictions between India and China and has a left a giant social-media hole. This hole is now
quickly being filled in by smaller apps that are focused on the short-video category such as
Roposo, which has added millions of users over the past month. At the end of the day, the
strong demand for short-form video apps looks to be a resilient, enduring trend.

MX player, which started out as a video player back in 2011 recently pivoted and relaunched
as an OTT platform in 2019, decided to capture this growing demand for short-form video
apps by launching ‘MX TakaTak’ on July 10th. MX TakaTak allows users to create short
videos and share them on social media. Similar to TikTok, it enables video browsing across
genres such as dialogue dubbing, comedy, gaming etc. Within 2 weeks since its launch, MX
TakaTak has had over 10 million downloads.

Times Group, which owns the MX Player entity, is trying to fill this massive void and sees this
as the perfect opportunity to enter this domain with TikTok not around for a while.

Your Problem at Hand

Even though TikTok is banned for now, the government has stated that the ban is temporary and can
be lifted if and when guidelines are met, creating an uncertainty and urgency for the new Indian
players. Adding on to that, with over four dozen Indian apps fighting for this market including from
established players like Facebook (Instagram Reels), ShareChat and InMobi’s Roposo, how can MX
TakaTak create a foothold in this segment? Use necessary frameworks and propose a market
capture strategy.

Assuming TakaTak can create a significant user base in India, what measures specific to the Indian
market should the company focus on to scale and sustain the growth? Suggest a suitable growth
strategy and a business model for TakaTak filling the gap of TikTok for the advertisers while
competing with YouTube and other established players.