TikTok was banned by the Indian government last year under section 69A of the Information Technology Act post the India – China tension at the Galwan Valley border. More than six months of being non-operational in the country a report from Bloomberg now hints that the ban on the short video platform could be lifted soon.
The report suggests that parent company ByteDance is exploring a sale of its Indian operations to Glance to bring back the short video platform to the country. The report noted, “ByteDance Ltd. is said to be exploring a sale of the India operations of TikTok to rival unicorn Glance, in an attempt to resuscitate the once-thriving short video sharing app that’s been banned indefinitely in the South Asian nation.”
It further highlights that “the discussions have been initiated by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. conglomerate, according to people familiar with the talks, who declined to be identified because the talks are private as well as early and complex.” Notably, SoftBank backs both Glance’s parent company InMobi Pte and also TikTok’s parent ByteDance.
“The talks are between SoftBank, ByteDance and Glance and any deal will need a final seal of approval from Indian authorities. India banned thousands of Chinese apps including TikTok last year following intense hostility on the India-China border,” the report states.
Neither SoftBank nor ByteDance and Glance have commented on the matter yet.
Soon after TikTok was banned in India several Indian developers introduced alternative short video platforms to get the millions of TikTokers onboard.
Meanwhile, TikTok is non-operational in the country and has been removed from both the Google Play store as well as Apple App store. In line with the ban, ByteDance recently laid off over 1800 Indian employees.
