Chinese consumer electronics company Xiaomi is shutting down its short videotape platform Zili. The establishment announced the development through an Instagram post, on February 11, at a time when Chinese apps are being scrutinised by the Indian government. As per Google Play Store, the app had over 10 Cr downloads (over 100 Mn) before it was taken down.
Zili became an instant megahit among short-videotape content generators following the Indian government’s decision to ban 59 Chinese apps, including popular short-videotape platform Tiktok, in June 2020. For those ignorant, the Chinese tech mammoth’s Zili was first launched in Google Play Store back in 2018 and worked analogous to another social media mammoth, TikTok. In other words, Zili also allowed users to partake or watch short videos on their platform and indeed sought to fill up the request left by TikTok after it was banned by the Indian government. But now, it appears that Xiaomi is also exiting the request, as it plans on shutting its operations on 13th March 2023 at 23:59 PM “due to a functional adaptation”. According to data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower, Zili saw 3 Mn installs in three weeks before the Indian government’s ban on Tiktok.
Still, this number shot up to 8 Mn in the three weeks following the ban. In terms of growth in absolute downloads, Zili was replaced only by Roposo, whose downloads increased 5.5 Mn during the three-week period previous to the ban to 13.3 Mn in the three weeks after the ban. The ban on Tiktok saw a number of startups rotating to the short-videotape model and seeing rapid-fire growth originally. Still, the utmost of them, including ShareChat, Roposo and Chinagari, feel to be floundering with declining downloads and engagement. Xiaomi’s move to shut Zili comes at a time when Chinese enterprises operating in India have come under the scrutiny of the Indian government for duty elusion and other reasons amid pressures between two countries over border controversies.
Chinese smartphone manufacturers Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo are under disquisition in India for duty evasion and have also seen raids by the I-T Department in history.