Helo App Success Story: A Chinese App that is Letting Millions of Indians Enjoy Content in Their Own Regional Language!

Helo App Success Story

Helo App Success Story


Helo app is a Chinese social media platform, where besides English, content is also available in 14 other Indian regional languages. Zhang Yiming founded the Helo App in the year 2018.


People all over the world are spending more and more time on their smartphones, as revealed by a survey carried on by Cybermedia Research (CMR) and smartphone brand Vivo, an average Indian spends one-third of his waking hours on a phone, which amounts to 1800 hours a year. Again as reported by Statista, in February 2020, there are more than 3 billion smartphone users worldwide, while China, India, and the USA have the highest number of smartphone users.


With the growing prominence of smartphones in our day to day lives, many app development companies are coming up with interesting apps to entice the smartphone using population. Speaking of the Indian app market, many Chinese apps gained popularity among the Indian users, and one such app is Helo. Developed by 'ByteDance', the makers of TikTok,


While currently due to the charges raised against China as regards COVID 19, an increasing number of people are uninstalling Chinese apps including Helo, but since its launch in 2018, it has been downloaded by millions of users, thus making Helo app one of the top downloaded apps in India. Here are some interesting facts and figures about Helo - India's coolest social app!

Helo App - Company Highlights

  • Startup Name-Helo App
  • Headquarter-Beijing (China)
  • Founder-Zhang Yiming
  • Founded-2018
  • Sector-Mobile Application
  • Parent Organization-ByteDance
  • Website-helo-app.com

About Helo App

Helo app showcases itself as India's coolest social media app and has indeed come up with cool features to keep its users engaged. Once you are on the app, you can scroll through interesting content shared by other Helo app users; share your content which can be in the form of text, photo, video, and poll; follow your favorite celebrities who are present on the platform (from Bollywood stars to popular singers and comedians, there are many known personalities on the platform); you can download the content posted on the platform, and also chat with your friends who are on the Helo app.


The best part is the Helo app, besides entertaining you, also allows you to earn some money, and there are many ways to make money on the Helo app. You can earn money by referring it your friends, posting content, and even watching videos. Again with the huge number of users available on the platform, the Helo app is a great platform to market your products as well.

Helo App - Country/Headquarters

Helo App is based out of China. Its headquarters is in Beijing, China.


This social app is a Chinese variant of Sharechat (an Indian local app).  Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance in 2012, and Helo is a platform developed by ByteDance.

Helo App - Founder

Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance in 2012, and Helo is a platform developed by ByteDance. Other platforms developed by ByteDance are TikTok, Toutiao, TopBuzz, and Vigo Video. Toutiao is very similar to the Helo app and is quite popular in China. ByteDance is valued at $75 Billion. ByteDance Founder Zhang Yiming


A software engineer by education, Helo app founder Zhang Yiming worked with Kuxun (a travel website), and later for Microsoft. In 2009, Zhang Yiming, started his first entrepreneurial venture 99fang.com, which is an online real estate search platform. Yiming is presently 37 years old.

Helo App - Funding & Investors

Helo app's parent company ByteDance has raised total funding worth $7.4 billion in 9 rounds. ByteDance is also considering a public listing of its shares that may value the company $150 billion and $180 billion. However, as per recent reports, with a sufficient amount of cash in hand, ByteDance is in no hurry to launch an IPO.

Helo App - Competitors

India's very own social sharing app ShareChat is the major competitor of Helo. Helo was initially just the clone of ShareChat and was even taken to court for copying its design and thus violating copyrights. ShareChat later had to change its design to save itself legal proceedings. It claims to have over 60 million monthly active users. In 2019, SharChat also acquired video startup 'Clip' to strengthen its fight against ByteDance.


Interestingly, ByteDance was in talk with ShareChat and wished to invest in it, but later things took a new turn when it decided to compete with ShareChat by launching Helo.

Helo App - Growth

Owing to the availability of content in regional languages, Chinese app Helo is gaining much popularity even in Tier II and Tier III cities of India. As reported, in July 2019, Helo had over 50 million monthly active users (MAUs). Helo app is among the most downloaded apps of Google Play store and had 1 million downloads just within one month of its launch in 2018, and is also one of the top downloaded apps on the App Store.


Again, besides India, the Helo app also has been made available for download in the US, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Bangladesh to serve Indians in these locations. As claimed by the company in June 2019, users spend an average of 30 minutes on the Helo app, and 85% of the content on the platform is user-generated.

Helo App - Future Plans

Helo is a Chinese app and is chasing a target of garnering 100 million users on the platform. To achieve the goal, Helo is trying different techniques to catch the fancy of users and content creators. From free traffic boost to staff support, and Helo live streaming to Helo Analytics, it is providing good opportunities to eligible content creators to increase their followers. It has also started a 'Helo Stars' incubation program, whereby it is supporting 100 content creators to reach one million followers.

Helo App - Latest News

As per the notification received by The Ministry of Information Technology on Ban of 59 Chinese Apps, one among them is Helo App. Predominantly, India served as the target market for Helo App with over 50 million Indian users and more than 10.8 Million installs over its existence.


The Helo app ban is going to affect the net worth of ByteDance by a lot! As per the reports generated by Global Times, ByteDance (Parent Company of Helo app and many other chinese apps) is going to face a loss of close to $6 Billion. With its exhaustive investment around $1 Billion in Indian Market, ByteDance is certainly looking up for significant downfall in coming days unless they can get helo app back in India soon.

Helo App - FAQs

Helo App is from which Country?

Helo app is a social networking app launched by a leading company from China, Bytedance. This social app is a Chinese variant of Sharechat (an Indian local app).

Who is the Founder of Helo App?

Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance in 2012, and Helo is a platform developed by ByteDance.

What are the Top Alternatives to Helo App in India?

ShareChat, Roposo, Chingari are alternatives to the Helo App in India.

Who is Helo App's parent company?

ByteDance is the parent company of Helo App.

Is Help app banned in India?

Yes, unfortunately The Ministry of Information Technology has banned Helo App along with 59 other Chinese Apps in India.