First, it began with people arguing whether YouTube is a better platform or TikTok, but the controversy changed when Youtubers roasted the TikTokers and vice versa. Things got heated up when a popular Youtuber Ajey Nagar better known as CarryMinati roasted a fellow TikTok creator about the content they make in the platform. It became the country’s most liked video on YouTube. But later the video was taken down for violating the platform’s term of services. After this, an internet war erupted. Many popular Youtubers came in support of CarryMinati and expressed their opinion on the topic. Hashtags like #BanTikTok, #TikTokdown and many more trended for a long time in Twitter. This also resulted in TikTok’s ratings drop to 1.1 in the app store. The fight which was between creators resulted in demeaning of both the platforms. People wanted to prove that YouTube is better than TikTok. But before making any decision, let’s see what TikTok has achieved and what it is capable of.

Going by numbers, YouTube entered India 13 years ago and has a monthly active user of 27 crores, whereas TikTok entered India 3 years ago and has a monthly active user of 20 crores. All thanks to the internet penetration of India which is 2nd highest in the world, TikTok took full advantage of it and strategized to build its user base across rural and Tier II, III cities first and then moved to Tier I and metros. With no investment, TikTok gave the power of being a creator to every common man. This made the app a sensation in the country resulting in highest downloads across the world.



Coming to brands, they are slowly realising the potential of TikTok which gives them the opportunity to connect with the audience spread across the length and breadth of the country. Brands are partnering with regional and local influencers to market their product and services. With influencer marketing coming to its peak, it is expected that TikTok would best benefit out of it. TikTok provides a bouquet of ad services that can be tailor-made according to brand requirements. Brands that have deployed TikTok for marketing some of the campaigns are Flipkart, Meesho, Zara, Nike, Puma, Pepsico, Perfetti Van Melle and many more.


Looking on the downside, TikTok has received backlash due to its privacy and censorship over explicit and inappropriate content spotted over the platform. Because of this, brand safety concerns have heightened among marketeers. Also coming to a political angle, TikTok is an app made by a Chinese company and it’s a fact that all Chinese companies dance to the tunes of the Chinese government. Recently, employees of TikTok in the US were reportedly pressured to censor ‘culturally problematic’ content that might offend the Chinese government. With the recent corona virus controversy, where the American president is vocal about his opinions against China, several US govt. agencies have even barred their employees from downloading and using the app. However, TikTok has clarified that no foreign government makes a decision about censoring content and none of the moderators are based in China. Still, it lacks the trust. Although the company is based out of the US, the question is how independent is TikTok from its parent company Bytedance which is based in China. This is the reason TikTok has hired former Disney Executive Kevin Mayer to be its new CEO. This will help the company to attract more western brands for advertising on the platform, as they have already attracted a lot of users.

TikTok advertising is still in a nascent stage where marketers are trying to understand what the platform and audience can deliver. The platform should enable other technology channels to source the data to analyse specific campaign metrics to evaluate performance at a larger scale. Short video platform is on the rise as the average time spent here is more than YouTube, because of which Youtube is soon going to launch ‘Youtube Shorts’, Instagram has ‘reels’ and Facebook is launching ‘Lasso’ to enter into this space. No doubt, YouTube is more trusted by brands and has build credibility in the market. But with short video platform on the rise, it would be interesting to watch out how TikTok will compete and what can it offer in the upcoming days.