TikTok star gets political seat – and we are still discussing Bharat 1 and 2

Tik Tok star and the party's womens wing member @sonalibjp gets a ticket in the upcoming #HaryanaAssemblyPolls https://t.co/pxNNNdFgCY

— Shilpa Kannan⚡️ (@shilpakannan) October 3, 2019

And this happened !

TikTok star Sonali Phogat is contesting Harayana assembly election (BJP seat).

While the intellectuals are discussing Bharat 1, Bharat 2 opportunities – politicians (who are way smarter in the ways of world) are going after the local-and-mass brand. And using TikTok platform as a way to gauge one’s popularity.

Pretty much similar to what you’d have with Sunny Deol running for the state seat (platform: Bollywood).
OR
Smriti Irani who once upon a time was part of Saas-bahu serial (platform: TV).

TikTok is the new Doordarshan

TikTok is the new Doordarshan for Bharat, the only Facebook, the desi Instagram, the FTV for Bharat.

It is the only battleground.

Which is why politicians are going after TikTok , and want to control it so that they can use it to their advantage.

Coming back to intellectuals who love to discuss Bharat opportunity, the entire debate of Bharat 1, 2, 3 has no meaning if we don’t learn how to build products which (Bharat) people need.

Bharat is a huge opportunity and needs to go beyond the Bharat 1/2 definition set by intellectuals. When a Chinese company penetrates the market, one needs to stop and really think about what ‘building for Bharat‘ means.

Maybe, for a change – let’s get out of that ivory tower and do a TikTok?

Hello founders / product managers – do we even understand Bharat market (better than politicians)? Beyond excel sheets and visually good-looking graphs?

For now, truth is that TikTok is the only consumer tech product at Bharat scale (nothing comes closer to TikTok in India when it comes to active DAU / MAU).

And I am equally happy and sad about it. Happy because some product geek out there cracked it and sad because none of the desi ones are even close to it.