TikTok may return to India in a new avatar 'TickTock'

New Delhi: With ByteDance's filing of a trademark application with the Controller General of Patents Design and Trademarks, the possibility of TikTok's return to India in the form of 'TickTock' has increased.

This is the first time the parent company of the famous short video-making app is filing for the licence to provide a platform for hosting online web facilities to others for sharing online content since TikTok's banning in June 2020, along with other Chinese mobile applications during the peak of India-China heat over the Galwan standoff.

ByteDance is said to have filed the application under Trademarks Class 42 which pertains to scientific and technological services and research and design relating thereto. The company said this was for hosting online web facilities for others sharing online content and hosting digital content on the internet.

When the Union government banned TikTok on June 29, 2020, the app was said to have had an estimated 20 crore subscribers.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is reported to have a favourable stand on ByteDance applications that said that ByteDance was not on the list of significant social media intermediaries that had been asked to share compliance details.

PUBG Mobile, one of the apps that had been banned, recently made its return to the country as Battlegrounds Mobile India. Shein, an e-commerce platform that was popular in the country and was also banned, is looking to make a re-entry during Amazon's Prime Day later this month.

Despite the India ban and a legal battle in the US, TikTok became the highest-grossing app globally in 2020 with $540 million in profit.