TikTok And Bigo Live Are Increasing The Number Of Educational Videos In India

After being criticized for letting inappropriate content spreads on their platforms, short video-sharing apps of companies like Bigo Live and ByteDance are boosting the number of educational videos in India.

Earlier this month, Bigo Live, a live streaming site from a firm based in Singapore, introduced its channels for education. TikTok has done a similar thing; its #EduTok is the latest trending hashtag with more than one billion views.

The expansion to educational videos comes amidst the wave of entertainment content on both Bigo Live and TikTok. Earlier this year, TikTok was temporarily banned in India after the Madras High Court concluded that the app is harmful to young children.

With TikTok, tuition teachers and motivational speakers are creating video lessons under the #EduTok hashtag.

A teacher of English with the account @alwalcreations has 3.6 million followers, and he posted videos teaching the language while also promoting his own classes. Another user with the handle @officialdear is followed by more than 300,000 users and has several videos showing simple tricks in math. The content strategy of TikTok relies heavily on hashtags. Some other popular ones on the site are #tiktoktravel, #cricketworldcup, #yogaday, and #mytiktokstory.

Bigo Live, on the other hand, follows a different path. It aims at creating more localized content and is working with more than 14,000 broadcasters to realize this target. According to the company’s deputy country manager Nagesh Banga, it also has plans to offer soft skills training.

The company has already had 70 English teachers on its payroll, and the number will increase to 200 by the end of this month. In the next three years, it is reported that it had plans to pour $100 million of investment in India.