#VocalForLocal: Video app Mitron crosses 1 crore downloads on Google Play Store

Indian short-form video app Mitron TV — launched as an alternative to Chinese company ByteDance-owned TikTok — crossed one crore downloads on Google Play Store, with a rating of 4.5 out of 5. This is within just over two months of its launch. 

In a statement, Co-founder and CEO Shivank Agarwal said, "We are thrilled to see the rapid adoption of Mitron in India...There is a strong sentiment of #VocalForLocal. We are proudly building Mitron to reimagine digital engagement and entertainment while being sensitive to the users in our market and being compliant with our local laws. We are working with our users to create a more India-centric product and we believe that is working well for us.”

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Created by Shivank Agarwal and Anish Khandelwal, Mitron was launched in April 2020, and has become one of the most popular apps in India during the lockdown.

Its popularity could also be attributed to the controversies surrounding TikTok allowing 'objectionable content' on its platform. As a result, millions of Indians began uninstalling TikTok, and moved to Mitron. 

Anish Khandelwal, Co-founder and CTO, said "We are keenly listening to the feedback we are receiving from our users, and we are rapidly improving the product. We have released six updates to the app in the last one month, and we are planning to launch a number of additional features in the next month."

Initially, the app faced a lot of challenges as it was alleged that Mitron’s source code had been bought from Pakistan.

In a previous interaction with YourStory, the co-founders clarified that the template for Mitron was purchased on Envato, an Australian online marketplace. The duo then modified it to fulfil security and scalability requirements.

The app was also removed from the Google Play Store for a day or two "due to violation of its ‘spam and minimum functionality’ policy". However, the co-founders were able to sort out the issues, and Mitron was back soon enough. 

Bootstrapped as of now, Mitron’s growth so far has been purely organic — without any marketing expenses and campaigns.