ByteDance To Shut Its Vigo Family Of Apps, Users Urged To Direct To TikTok

TikTok parent, ByteDance, has announced its plans to shut down its Vigo family of apps- Vigo Video and Vigo Lite in India on October 31 this year. The Chinese internet giant is directing its users to export their videos to TikTok, which has millions of users in the country right now. 

The company announced the shutdown through an in-app announcement on Vigo Video's website. The prompt was followed by a link to download the company’s other short-video making platform, TikTok. The app, which was available on Android and iOS, has already been discontinued for Brazil and the Middle East and going forward, the company has decided to "focus energy and resources on other businesses", the note said. The move was first reported by Entrackr.

Since its inception in 2017, Vigo Video had over 100 million downloads globally, as per its listing on Google Play. The app allowed users to create and share short-form sketches and lip-syncing to songs 15-second videos across various genres like dance, food, stunt, beauty, art, comedy, music, and pets among others. The app also let's add special effects, stickers.

The app's interface is much like that of TikTok. However, TikTok dominates the short video apps segment in India, Vigo Video wasn't able to gain much traction in the country. It had about 4 million monthly active users last month while Vigo Lite had about 1.5 million users, according to a TechCrunch report. TikTok has a reported 120 million monthly active users in India.

"Users will be informed about the app shutting via in-app notifications with detailed instruction on downloading their personal data or deleting their account permanently, including videos, personal information, chat history, and favourite list," the app added in its ‘farewell letter’.

ByteDance is seen wrapping up its operations globally. Earlier this month, ByteDance had also shut down its artificial-intelligence-based news aggregator TopBuzz, one of the company's earliest products aimed at the global markets.

The TikTok parent company also operates a social networking app Helo and productivity suite Lark in India. The company had set up a second corporate entity in the country earlier this month as it looks to deepen its roots in Asia’s third-largest economy.

The new second entity is likely to provide Information Technology and IT-enabled services support to all of ByteDance’s platforms worldwide, including in India.