Short video app Tiki to shut down ops in India

Social media platform Tiki is set to shut shop by the end of this month. “We regret to inform you that Tiki will shut down its operations. As of 11.59 PM India time, June 27, 2023, all Tiki functions and services will cease,” wrote Tiki in a Twitter post.

Tiki becomes the second China-linked short video app to wind up this year. In February 2023, Xiaomi-owned Zilli announced that it will shut its operations in India.

While the company didn't cite specific reasons for shutdown, lack of adoption (read daily active users), absence of monetisation channel and government’s crackdown on China-linked apps appear to be likely reasons for the shutdown. Moreover, the short video space has been hyper-competitive with Indian players including ShareChat and DailyHunt having raised billions of dollars in the past year.

Launched in early 2021, Tiki has achieved over 124 million downloads across Google Play Store and iOS, where the Android download contributes nearly 99%. Tiki secured its position among the top 30 highest-grossing apps in India. Further, it also stood at the eighth position among the most popular free social apps available.

Tiki was launched in India just after Chinese apps including TikTok were banned in June 2020. The short video app was run by DOL Technologies Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based company. Entrackr has checked DOL filings but there is no indication of liquidation process. The winding up of Tiki comes at a time when many short video apps have been struggling with monetisation and expansion. This could be evident from the financial performance of DailyHunt and Sharechat in FY22 as well as consolidation in the space. According to Fintrackr, Sharechat had posted a loss of Rs 2,988 crore in FY22 with a revenue of Rs 347 crore while DailyHunt recorded over Rs 2,500 crore loss in the financial year ended 2022. ShareChat’s Moj announced its merger with MX Player’s Mx TakaTak in February last year in a strategic deal whereas Blume Venture-backed Mitro TV eventually got acquired by Twitter rival Koo in 2022.  MX player’s losses also jumped to Rs 740 crore in FY22 with operating revenue of Rs 36.8 crore.