After the India-China border skirmish, a ban on Chinese apps, that had beocme hugely popular, was always on the cards. In that sense, it was not surprising for the federal Indian government to wield the axe on a clutch of Chinese apps yesterday.
And this is an apt time for the Indian-made apps to ride the emotional tide rising in their favour.
We have listed five apps that have the potential to replace the likes of TikTok, Cam Scanner, Shareit, UCBrowser and Apus Browser --- all now banned by India.
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Bharat Browser
In a field dominated by region-agnostic biggies like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, etc, an unheralded Indian browser for mobile phones has odds stacked up against it.
But this is the right moment for this Bengaluru-based startup to make headway making the most of India-centric sentiment obtaining in the country.
BlueSky Inventions is the company behind Bharat Browser. BB is based on Android Application, and weighs just 8.2MB. It is aimed at providing regional content on low cost Android smartphones available in the country.
It offers trending news in 9 different Indian languages now.
“There are many browsers available on Google Playstore, but there is not a true Indian browser to address the regional diversity of India and also the needs for 500M+ first time Mobile Internet users in India . We are proud to launch a browser that will provide Indian content in a way that consumers’ desires and to top it all, it’s Indian,” Co-Founder and CEO of Bharat Browser was recently quoted as saying.
Bharat Browser can be a handy replacement to UCBrowser and Apus Browser, now in the banned list of Indian government. These banned browsers are mostly pre-downloaded with Chinese smartphones. Now, Bharat Browser can be take their place in smartphones.
Bharat Browser On Google Playstore.
Zoho Doc Scanner
After the Indian government banned 59 Chinese app, and among which was the popular Cam Scanner, right on cue, Zoho evangelist Raju Vegesna put out a tweet that Zoho scanner would be a good choice in India for those looking for an alternative to Cam Scanner. And smartly, it is making it free.
Zoho Corporation is, of course, well known as an Indian software development company, that offers web-based business tools, and its office tools suite and a suite of IT management software are hugely popular.
We are in the process of removing the payment option for the Doc Scanner app. The app will be free in India. An update will be rolled out later today.June 30, 2020
The company launched its doc scanner a few years back. The Zoho scanner does all that it is expected to: Scan your documents and digitize them. You can then e-sign, extract, translate, share, create workflows, and process your documents with Zoho Doc Scanner.
Zoho also has a card scanner app.
Zoho doc scanner is available both on iOS and Android platforms.
Zoho Doc Scanner On Google Playstore
Zoho Doc Scanner on Apple App store.
ShareChat
ShareChat is already pretty well-known as a video-sharing app and popular among vernacular users.
Founded by three IIT graduates, and headquartered in Bengaluru, ShareChat reportedly has 6 million daily active users, who use it for about half-an-hour a day on average, sharing content in 14 Indian languages.
ShareChat is keen to move in for the kill in the space left by the likes of TikTok, Kwai, Helo, Likee, Bigo Live. Sharechat has welcomed Indian government's move to ban the Chinese apps.
"This is a welcome move from the government against platforms that have had serious privacy, cyber security and national security risks. We expect the government to continue their support for the Indian startup ecosystem" Berges Malu, Director- Public Policy, ShareChat, said in a statement.
Roposo
Roposo is another 'Made in India' app and is again the brainchild of three IIT alumni. The App is a video-sharing platform and is available in several Indian languages over 25 channels.
Roposo had made the most of the anti-China sentiment in India, by clocking 700,000 daily installs and becoming the number one trending app on Google and Apple play stores. The app has so far more than 50 Million downloads.
The app is targetted on the user base between the age of 13-35 years, and is currently available in 10 different Indian languages.
Users can record videos, add effects, watch videos and can earn and transfer money via this app. If we talk about editing features, the app offers-- filters like TikTok, stickers & effects, time-lapse, portraits, natural light, studio light, contour light stage & stage mono light.
SHAREall
SHAREall, as the name makes it easily clear, is the Indian version of the SHAREit app.
It allows for sharing of files, movies, video, apps, pictures with other android phones while being offline without the internet. No flash drives, external hard drive, USB cable required.
The SHAREall file sharing app is also password protected. This app, produced by a Delhi based company, has already had over 10 million downloads.
The ban on apps like Club Factory and Shein would, of course, make things a little easy for those competing on the fashion platform. E-commerce biggies Flipkart, Amazon India and Myntra all have a good chance to up the ante in the competition in this particular niche.
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