TikTok, a popular app among Gen Z and Millennials is now the most downloaded app in the world. The app even outranked Facebook and its family of apps(Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger) in the US.
TikTok was recently banned in the US and India for a while mid last year but this small stepback couldn’t shrink its downloads throughout the rest of the world.
Early this year, WhatsApp changed its privacy policies and its lack of clear communication made people switch from the Facebook-owned app to other privacy-focused messaging apps like Signal and Telegram with the latter adding almost 100 million new users during that week.
The platform even resorted to using its Status feature to make proper user information announcements including their commitment to user privacy.
In 2019, Facebook Messenger topped as the worlds most downloaded app while TikTok was ranked number 4. In 2020, TikTok wiped the floor with Facebook to come out first. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger completed the top five rank repsectively.
Snapchat, Telegram, Likee, Pinterest and Twitter took the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th positions respectively.
In Asia, excluding China, Facebook is ranked number one, followed by TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger completes the top five.
TikTok has become very popular especially with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as people found new ways to entertain themselves and others on the platform.
We’ve seen the likes of Azziad become famous on the platform and moving on to other platforms to maximize their popularity.
Other people who’ve become famous thanks to the app include Khabi Lame with his comic expressions and deadpan reactions, is the most followed person on the app with 100m followers with his account earning him six figures.
Short-form video was brought back to life by TikTok after Vine shut down and other platforms are now trying to release new features based on that format. We’ve seen Instagram replicate it with Reels and YouTube with YouTube Shorts.
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out long term for these social media apps.
TikTok is now copying other platforms as it has started testing Stories on its platform. We’ll see how this turns out.
