Unsurprisingly, social apps are the most downloaded apps on Android and iOS smartphones, with Facebook being the most popular for a long time. Despite being only operational since 2017, TikTok, a Chinese short video app, has recently surpassed Zuckerberg’s behemoth as the world’s most downloaded app.
Although Facebook Messenger was the top global app in 2019, TikTok jumped from fourth to first in 2020. The rest of the top five is made up of the main Facebook app as well as Facebook’s other services WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, according to the Nikkei Asia article. Snapchat and Telegram take the next two spots, with Likee, a Chinese short video app, taking the eighth spot. The top ten is completed by Pinterest and Twitter.
Last year, Donald Trump and US officials scrutinised TikTok owner ByteDance extensively until President Biden came in and rescinded the executive order that had been hanging over it. Although there are still concerns about the app’s data privacy procedures, this hasn’t stopped millions of people from downloading and using it, as well as its addicting content. Even if we simply look at US download figures, it’s still number one, which is quite a success for such new and contentious software.
