Indian politicians eyeing voters on TikTok

As TikTok crosses 500 million users in the country, the political agencies, campaigners and strategists are planning to use TikTok for the upcoming elections, according to a report by the Economic Times.

The China-based video-sharing app which is owned by ByteDance, claimed some 500 million users globally last year, making it one of the most popular social apps.

TikTok had raised concerns over allowing political ads on the video-sharing platform. The digital agencies and marketers told the news website that there were other ways of promoting the desired political content on the app.

"We are considering TikTok very seriously for elections. It has emerged as an addictive platform for the youth. As an organisation, we will try to leverage it in a way that will not seem political,” Economic Time quoted Naresh Arora, director of DesignBoxed, which managed campaigns for Congress in the recent Haryana Assembly elections and also handled its social media campaign in the general elections.

Arora also mentioned that the Chinese app would be great in terms of opinion-making in the upcoming elections.

Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, chief executive and co-founder of digital agency Gozoop said, "Political parties favour this platform for their campaigns because it has a highly engaged audience from varied demographics. It has all of them who fall under the desired target audience, especially young users who are first-time voters,” ET reported.

TikTok was banned by the Madras High Court for a brief period of time, the court stating that it was 'encouraging pornography'. After coming back on the app store, the app retained its position of being among the most downloaded free apps in the country.