New Delhi, June 10: There is a growing clamour in India for replacing "Made in China" products with indigenous ones. The call for a boycott of Chinese products, in the wake of India-China border standoff in Ladakh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pitch for promoting local products, has affected video-making app TikTok and created an opportunity for India-based app developers. Amid this situation, Indian social app Chingari has garnered more than 100,000 users and the number of subscribers is shooting up steadily. Chingari has emerged in competition with Mitron app, which is also touted as an Indian alternative to Chinese TikTok. TikTok Downloads Fall Over 50 Percent in India in March And April Amid Calls For Boycott of Chinese App.

What is Chingari?

Chingari is a custom-designed audio and video-based free social platform. According to its developers, Chingari app allows a user to download and upload videos, chat with friends, interact with new people, share content, and browse through feed. The application also pays video creators if their clips go viral. The app is available in multiple languages including English, Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu. Mitron, The Indian Alternative to TikTok? Know Everything About The Short Video Making Social Media App With Over 5 Mn Downloads.

Chingari app is available for download on Google Play Store where its description reads: "India ka Naya TV, TV by the people, for the people. Now everyone can be a STAR (sic)." A Chingari user gets the opportunity to go creative with WhatsApp status, videos, audio clips, GIF stickers and photos.

Who Developed Chingari And Why:

Chingari app was developed in 2019 by two Bengaluru-based programmers Biswatma Nayak and Siddharth Gautam in their part-time. Speaking to news agency PTI, Biswatma Nayak said the application has been developed in India and keeping in mind needs of Indians. "It is the best replacement for video entertainment apps by foreign firms. Chingari isn't a clone of some foreign app but has been designed in keeping with the needs of Indian users," he said.

"The primary difference between Chingari and TikTok is that the former pays a content creator on the basis of how viral the video becomes. For every video that you upload on the Chingari app, you get points (per view) which can be redeemed for money," the developers said. "So, unlike TikTok, Chingari is rewarding for creators as they don't just get fame but also money for the content they upload on the app," they added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 10, 2020 10:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).