Snack Video’s clone corners 10 Mn downloads since ban of the original app

The race to fill the void created by several Chinese-origin short video sharing apps, including TikTok, has also helped a clutch of clone apps to corner quick downloads in the past two-three months in India.

While a large number of TikTok clones are already in the Indian market, Chinese short video app Snack Video has become the latest example of copycats gaining downloads. According to data sourced from Sensor Tower, an app called SnackVideo (developed by Snack Video Status) has garnered over 10 million downloads since the ban of the original app by the Indian government.

On November 24, the Indian government had blocked 43 more Chinese-origin apps, including Snack Video, AliExpress and DingTalk. However, the new clone of Snack Video has been able to clock over 10 million downloads from India during the period of November 24 to December 12.

The Sensor Tower data also reflects that the new app (SnackVideo) has been dominating the Google Play Store top chart for the past six days and was the top free app in the country since December 9. 

The app allows watching, downloading, and sharing videos on social media including WhatsApp and Facebook.

Homegrown short video apps such as MX TakaTak, ShareChat’s Moj and Dailyhunt’s Josh have also maintained their position in the Play Store’s top 10 chart and recorded 15.8 million, 8.3 million and 7.8 million downloads respectively since November 24.

Besides SnackVideo (Snack Video Status), there are dozens of clone apps available on the Android Play Store with a similar name to Snack Video.

It’s worth noting that Snack Video was the highest downloaded app among all short video apps in India before the ban. Developed by Kuaishou Technology, it was downloaded over 35 million times from October 23 to November 22. During the same period, leading short video sharing apps from India such as Josh, Moj, MX TakaTak and Roposo recorded 12 million, 8 million, 7 million and 1 million installs respectively.