Despite TikTok ban, China's ByteDance wants to invest $1 billion and expand its workforce in India

Unfazed by ban on TikTok in India, popular Chinese short video app's parent ByteDance remains "very optimistic" and plans to invest USD 1 billion in country over next three years.

ByteDance -- touted to be among world's most valuable startups with investors like SoftBank, General Atlantic, KKR and Sequoia on board -- also offers platforms like Helo and Vigo Video in India.

Speaking to PTI, ByteDance Director (International Public Policy) Helena Lersch said company has been strengning its content moderation policies over last many months.

"We are obviously disappointed by current developments, but we are also very optimistic that we will resolve this issue. We remain committed to our Indian users. As a company, we are looking to invest USD 1 billion over next three years in India, that is how bullish we will remain to be here," she said.

company would also be increasing number of employees in India to 1,000 people by end of this year.

TikTok, which allows users to create short videos and share m, has more than 120 million users in India and is popular among youngsters.

Madras High Court on April 3 had directed Centre to ban TikTok app, saying it was evident from media reports that porgraphy and inappropriate content were made available through such mobile apps.

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Following Supreme Court's refusal to stay Madras High Court order, tech giants Google and Apple removed TikTok from ir app stores in India to prohibit furr downloads of app. 

Those who have already downloaded app would be able to continue using it on ir phones.  

Lersch declined to comment on court proceedings as matter is subjudice. hearing of matter is scheduled for April 22 in Supreme Court and for April 24 in Madras High Court.  

India is a critical market for social media platforms given large population of 1.3 billion people. 

With increasing availability of affordable smartphones and cheap data plans, country is also largest mobile data consumer market globally -- an opportunity that global tech companies are vying to tap into.

"We, as a company, abide by local laws, but we also want to be culturally appropriate. We have a content moderation team in India. We increased capacity of our content moderation team globally by 400 per cent last year because we were prepared for growth," she added.  

According to her, company has a two-step approach for content moderation.

"First is a tech approach -- a machine learning tool that filters content and n it goes to a content moderation team. In India, team speaks 14 langus. I think, it is fundamentally important that team is based in country and speaks local langus to make culturally relevant decisions," she said.

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Around six million videos have been taken off platform for violating its community guidelines, she added.  

Besides planned USD 1 billion investment, Lersche said company would be ramping up headcount to 1,000 people by December 2019.  

"(About) 25 per cent of that will be just content moderation, which means re is full-time moderation staff based in India...We have around 250 full-time staff (right w) but we are very growing that rapidly," she added.