Short video making apps are gaining much popularity especially among the youth today. While TikTok stayed the top most popular short video platform, another platform that grabbed attention is Likee. In 2019, Likee registered 330 million downloads worldwide, and half of these downloads were from India. On 29th June, 2020, Govt of India declared banning of 59 apps including Likee on the grounds of 'stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India".
As such Likee is not currently available for download in India. However, the app is available in around 180 countries worldwide and was declared the 6th most downloaded app globally in the Q1 Global App Market Index (reported in April 2020) by 'App Annie', a leading mobile data and analytics company. Here is all you would love to know about the popular app - 'Likee'
Likee – Company Highlights
| Startup Name | Likee |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Singapore |
| Sector | Video Editing and sharing application |
| Founder | Jason Hu |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Parent Organization | Bigo Technology Private Limited |
| Website | www.likee.com |
About Likee
Likee - Parent Company
Likee - Founders/Owners
Likee - Name & Logo
Likee - Revenue Model
Likee - Competitors
Likee - Revenue and Growth
Likee - FAQs
StartupTalky
About Likee
Likee is an app that allows users to create, edit and share short videos. It helps in making engaging videos through its cutting-edge special effects, video shooting, and editing tools. Likee was launched in July 2017 and Singapore based Bigo Technologies is its Parent Organization. The app allows the users to interact with various people across the world and helps to form a community based on similar interests. The mobile app is compatible with both Android and iOS.
One of the primary reasons for which Likee gained popularity among Indians is that the app was available in 15 Indian regional languages. Besides, around the world, the app is available in other languages like Portuguese, Arabic etc, besides English. Likee even came up with the feature of 'parental control' to address the growing concerns of the parents over the type of content their children are viewing on the app.
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Likee - Parent Company
Likee is owned by the Singapore-based BIGO Technology, whose parent company is JOYY, a Chinese company listed on the NASDAQ.
BIGO Technology (BIGO) is one of the growing Singapore technology companies, with more than 30 offices and 6 R&D centres around the world. BIGO's products and services have gained popularity all around the world which is powered by Artificial Intelligence. These include Bigo Live (live streaming) and Likee (short-form video platform). With an aim to empower the new generation in a creative online environment, BIGo has created platform which inspires billions of people's lives.
Likee - Founders/Owners
Likee app is a product of Singapore based company Bigo Technology. The co-founders of Bigo Technology are Li Xueling and Jason Hu.
Bigo Technology co-founder and President Jason Hu had a very humble beginning. At the age of 19, Jason was working at a factory in China. Jason, who had a Junior College Degree, appeared for national graduate entrance exams, and got selected to do a post graduate computer science program at Peking University. Jason Worked with industry giants like Alibaba and Microsoft, post which he joined 'JOYY' (earlier known as YY). JOYY is a leading video based social media platform. JOYY founder Li Xueling was quite impressed with Jason's way of working, which made him select Jason as the co-founder of JOYY's Singapore based venture - 'Bigo Technology' founded in 2014.
Bigo Technology co-founder and CEO David Xueling Li holds a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from Renim University of China. Xueling Li is also founded CFP.cn in the year 2000 , which is a copyright trading platform for journalists and photographers. From 2003-2005, Xueling Li worked as the chief editor at Netease.com, which is a Chinese portal, before staring JOYY in 2005.
StartupTalky
Likee - Name & Logo
When the app was launched in 2017, it was named “LIKE” initially and in mid-2019, the name was changed to “Likee”. The idea behind adding the extra 'e' to 'like' was to imply that the company is offering more value to its users.
StartupTalky
Likee - Revenue Model
Likee generates money through its in-app purchases, advertisements and earns live streaming revenues too. Many music and movie production houses also tied up with Likee to promote their projects, which has again been a good source of revenue for the company. Popular Bollywood movies like Chhichhore, Dabangg 3, Panipat and Housefull 4 were promoted through Likee and was able to garner huge user engagement.
Likee - Competitors
TikTok, Helo, VMate are the leading competitors of Likee. The future of the app lies in the enchanting factors of the video creation and active users.
StartupTalky
Likee - Revenue and Growth
Within a span of two years, the app has received 115.3 million of active users. As per Sensor Tower data, Likee made $776K in India only through in-app spending.
In Google Play Awards 2017, Likee was declared as the 'most popular app' , 'the best social app' and 'the most entertaining app'.
Again, Likee was ranked as the No. 1 app in 'Top 10 Breakout Apps' list according to App Annie’s report of 2019. Recently, Likee ranked as the No. 6 Top Apps throughout 2019 and No. 7 of the Overall Worldwide downloads in Q4 of 2019, as reported by Sensor Tower.
In 2019, Like even made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the 'Largest online video album of people waving a flag in India' under its 'No matter where I am, #IAMINDIAN' campaign.
In June 2020, before the banning of the app, the app had 6.1 million new installs in India.
While the Likee team was quite optimistic about its expansion in India, the banning of the app in the country will surely have a huge impact on the app's revenue and user base size.
Likee - FAQs
Who is the founder of Likee?
Li Xueling and Jason Hu are the founders of Likee app
Is Likee app Indian?
No. The parent organisation of Likee app is Singapore - based Bigo Technology, which is owned by Chinese Internet firm Joyy Inc.
Is Likee App same as Tik Tok?
Yes. Likee is mere similar TikTok that lets users create short videos
Is Likee also banned in India?
Yes. Among the 59 apps banned by the The Government of India, Likee App is one among them. It aslo includes Tik Tok, UC News etc., for "engaging in activities prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order."
Is Likee Chinese app?
The parent organisation of Likee app is Singapore - based Bigo Technology, which is owned by Chinese Internet firm Joyy Inc.
Link : https://startuptalky.com/likee-app/
Author :- Himaya Presthitha
August 04, 2020 at 01:43AM
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