Homegrown short-form video platforms, which were hurriedly launched to fill the vacuum after the popular Chinese app, Tik Tok, was banned in India in 2020, have now become a force to reckon with, collectively attracting over 240 million active monthly users. Clearly, TikTok’s loss has been the home-grown startups’ gain.

       At its peak, TikTok had over 170- 200 million active monthly users in the country. It also had over 20 million active content creators who uploaded at least one video every month. The Indian short-form video players have built up their own user base of ...