Unfazed by the ban on TikTok in India, the popular Chinese short video app's parent ByteDance remains "very optimistic" and plans to invest USD 1 billion in the country over the next 3 years. ByteDance – touted to be among the world's most valuable startups with investors like SoftBank, General Atlantic, KKR and Sequoia on board – also offers platforms like Helo and Vigo Video in India. ByteDance Director Helena Lersch said the company has been strengthening its content moderation policies over the last many months.
"We are obviously disappointed by the current developments, but we are also very optimistic that we will resolve this issue. We remain committed to our Indian users. As a company, we are looking to invest USD 1 billion over the next three years in India, that is how bullish we will remain to be here," she said. The company would also be increasing the number of employees in India to 1,000 people by the end of the year.
TikTok, which allows users to create short videos and share them, has more than 120 million users in India and is popular among youngsters. Following the Supreme Court's refusal to stay the Madras High Court order, tech giants Google and Apple removed TikTok from their app stores in India to prohibit further downloads of the app. "We, as a company, abide by local laws, but we also want to be culturally appropriate. We have a content moderation team in India. We increased its capacity globally by 400%," she added.
