India’s influencers still struggle 4 years after TikTok ban: ‘difficult to recreate success elsewhere’

Kumar and many other content creators eventually flocked to those US-owned platforms, but few were able to replicate their earlier followings.

“It is difficult to recreate the success elsewhere, because I haven’t got the same engagement on any other platform,” said Kumar, 30, from his studio in Rohtak, a short drive south of the capital New Delhi.

“It takes years to grow an audience on Instagram and especially on YouTube,” he added.

Kumar was an engineer by training but ditched white collar work when he found an audience for his dance routines on TikTok, eventually garnering more than 1.5 million followers.

His new-found celebrity netted him paid opportunities to choreograph dance numbers for other influencers on the platform and music videos featuring Indian celebrities.

Kumar said in his final video on the platform that he agreed with the ban, urging those watching to follow him over to Instagram and YouTube.

“They must have thought thoroughly before making this decision,” he said in a short speech to camera. “India comes first.”

Four years later, just under 94,000 people follow him on Instagram – a tiny fraction of his earlier audience – and he laments that his chances to make money have dried up.

“For us, the work stopped,” he said.

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TikTok arrived in India years after other established social media platforms, but quickly became a national phenomenon.

A year before it was kicked out of the market, the platform said it had more than 200 million users in India – one out of every seven people in the country.

“Every influencer, every personality trying to build an online following had to tap into the platform whether or not they liked it,” said Viraj Sheth, co-founder of