TikTok owner reportedly wants to re-enter India, company looking for new partners

Hiranandani Group is a Mumbai-based firm that runs data centre operations under the Yotta Infrastructure Solutions. It has recently launched a technology-led consumer services arm-Tez Platforms and is planning on investing up to 3,500 crores over the next two to three years in the new business.

TikTok India return soon

The talks between the two groups are still at the exploratory stage, according to the sources but the union government officials have been informally detailed about the plans. Responding to ET’s query on the development, a senior government official said that “there have been no formal talks with us yet. But, we have been informed of the plans. As and when they come to us for approvals, we will examine their request.”

However, it remains to be seen whether the decision to allow TikTok or other Chinese apps to relaunch in India will be taken or not, considering it could be a political one courtesy the existing impasse with China. For TikTok, the possible scope for partnership is to join hands with Hiranandani’s consumer technology business Tez Platforms or store data at the group’s Yotta Infrastructure’s data centres.

TikTok representative told ET that though the company continued to be hopeful about “reconnecting” with Indian users, who had used the platform for multiple purposes, it had no plans to resume operations in India, for now. However, Bytedance did not respond to questions asking about the details of the new hiring in India, its partnership with the Hiranandani Group, and the possible comeback to India.

A major issue behind the TikTok ban in India was because of the uncertainty of where the user data was being stored and processed by the company. “Critical user data should not be stored outside India. All apps and websites have either made provisions to store data locally or are making necessary changes to their data storage and processing policies. If they (Tiktok) come back, they will have to follow these norms,” the government official said.

One industry official said that the Hiranandani group has had “exploratory discussions” with multiple entities including ByteDance. The Yotta Infrastructure’s operational data centre in Navi Mumbai has a capacity of 7,000 racks. According to sources, Sameer Singh, who used to lead the monetisation in India for TikTok before the ban was given the new responsibility as Head, Global Business Solutions, APAC is driving the comeback in India.