​Is There a Real Opportunity for a Privacy-Focused Short-Video Platform in Emerging Markets?

I’ve been thinking a lot about how short-video platforms have exploded in emerging markets, especially India and Southeast Asia. But with that growth, users have also become way more aware of how much data these apps collect permissions, device info, behavioral patterns, contacts, location, everything.

The interesting part is:
even though users complain about privacy, most of them still use the platforms because there’s no real alternative that gives them similar speed, content variety, and ease of use.

So it made me wonder is there actually a business opportunity for a short-video platform that takes a privacy-first approach, but still delivers the fast, addictive experience people expect?

A few things make me think the timing might be right:

Growing distrust in big platforms A lot of users feel they have no control over what is being tracked or how algorithms decide what they see. Transparency is becoming a selling point, not just a technical detail. Creators want more ownership Not in a technical or tokenized sense just basic clarity about reach, earnings, and visibility. Many feel they’re building careers on unstable foundations. Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets are underserved There’s huge demand for regional content, but the big platforms don’t really optimize for smaller creators or regional audiences beyond surface-level features. Privacy could actually become a differentiator Not “no data collected,” but more like: limited tracking transparent policy user control over recommendations simple permission structure no hidden behavior logging

Basically: Can you build a short-video ecosystem that earns trust rather than just attention?

My personal interest in this topic comes from working on a project in the video/social space, where we keep debating how much of the traditional model we should even adopt. We keep returning to the same question:
Is a privacy-respecting video app a real opportunity or just a nice idea that users wouldn’t switch to?

I’d genuinely love to hear from people who understand user behavior or have built apps for emerging markets:

Do you think users actually care enough about privacy to switch platforms?
Or will convenience always win?
If you were building something in this space, what would be the biggest operational or business challenge?

Curious to hear different perspectives.