Bytedance, the Chinese internet giant that owns popular short form video app TikTok, has announced shutting down of two similar apps, Vigo Video and Vigo Lite. The two apps allow users to create short form lip-syncing videos over bollywood songs. The announcement came via a message early Monday, that was posted on these apps.
In a message called “farewell letter“, Bytedance announced the shutdown, but did not offer any reasoning behind the same. The company said in the letter, that it is “saddened” by the shut down. From the numbers that these apps had, their shut downs point towards a pure business-focused decision. While TikTok has amassed over 200Mn users in India, the Vigo family of apps haven’t found similar success in the world’s second largest internet market. And then, both Vigo apps pretty much offered something similar to TikTok, hence consolidation looks logical.
According to the notice on the apps, the cut-off date for the apps is October 31st. 2020. Until then, Bytedance will help users of the Vigo apps to migrate to TikTok. The company did not immediately respond to our emailed request for comment.
The timing of this shut down is rather peculiar. TikTok, which is Bytedance’s bread and butter in its largest overseas market, has been facing severe backlash in the country. While the backlash originated from Tiktok’s inability to remove controversial, unethical videos, recent ‘Anti-China’ sentiment within the country has further fueled the fire.
As a result of that backlash, Indians rushed to Play Store, giving negative reviews in millions to Tiktok, degrading the app’s rating to as low as 1.2. It was only after Google interfered and removed millions of such negative reviews, that the ratings improved.
The Vigo apps, which counted India as their largest market, are also available in other nations, such as India’s eastern neighbour Bangladesh. It is not clear as to whether the apps are shutting down in all markets or just India.
In its message to users on Vigo apps today, ByteDance said it will help them migrate their videos to TikTok. On TikTok, “you will be able to show your talent to a larger group of friends. We are eager to see you [there]!” the message reads.
