TikTok owner ByteDance could lose over $6 billion after India’s ban on Chinese apps: Report

China-based ByteDance, the privately owned operator of popular video sharing application TikTok, is anticipating a loss of over $6 billion (approximately Rs 45,000 crore) after two of its other apps were also banned in India following a border standoff between the two countries, Caixin reported on Thursday.

Apart from TikTok, the ByteDance apps that were banned include Vigo Video and social networking app Helo. They were among the 59 apps that India banned, citing threat to national security and sovereignty.

The biggest casualty of the move appears to be ByteDance, whose figure is said to be higher than the combined losses for all the other Chinese companies. The Indian government order did not name China or cite the border clashes as the cause for its move. The ban covers a variety of applications from e-commerce to gaming, social media, browsers, instant messaging and file sharing.

Analysts told Caixin that the consequences of India’s decision to target China in the online space could be more long-lasting.

Late on Tuesday, TikTok’s already downloaded versions on phones in India stopped showing any videos. With more than 600 million downloads, India has accounted for 30% of TikTok’s 2 billion downloads worldwide so far.

Reports said ByteDance last year hired several senior executives and laid out plans to invest $1 billion in India, its top market. “Our managers say there is no need to panic and it’s business as usual. But we all are concerned about losing jobs,” one ByteDance content reviewer in Hyderabad told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

On Thursday, China claimed that India’s ban on these apps was a violation of World Trade Organization rules. Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng told reporters that Beijing hoped New Delhi would correct its “discriminatory actions” against Chinese companies immediately.