TikTok was the most downloaded app last year in the world, ahead of Facebook and its messaging platform, market tracking app Annie said Tuesday. The Chinese-owned video app is gaining popularity, according to the research firm, despite efforts by former President Donald Trump to ban or force it to sell it to US investors.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has an estimated 1 billion users worldwide, including more than 100 million in the US, and its short videos are very popular among young smartphone users.
In June, US President Joe Biden revoked his predecessor’s executive order seeking to ban China’s TikTok and WeChat from the US market for national security reasons, but ordered a review of the potential risks of foreign Internet services.
While political debate about the feeling of sharing video clips has heated up, TikTok has climbed from the fourth most downloaded app in 2019 to first place last year, according to App Annie.
On the way there, TikTok surpassed Facebook and the two US internet companies sent text messages to Messenger and WhatsApp, the market announced.
The popularity of TikTok has prompted Instagram, a Facebook-owned company, to add video capabilities to capitalize on current trends.
Meanwhile, TikTok allowed users to post videos of up to three minutes last month, triple the previous limit to stay one step ahead of the competition.
Facebook claims that TikTok’s surge in popularity undermines US antitrust claims that the Californian group dominates social media.
A potential deal to solve the problem, in which parent company ByteDance would sell part of its US business to US tech giant Oracle and retailer Walmart, received initial approval from Trump but never accepted by the Chinese government.
Since he became President of the United States in January this year, Joe Biden has revoked Trump’s executive order.
In addition to addressing these challenges in the US, companies are looking for new ways to attract customers.
Last week, it emerged that TikTok was testing a new vanity feature for videos, similar to features on Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram.
TikTok Stories lets their users to see content posted by accounts they follow for 24 hours before removing it.
This comes after WhatsApp released a feature that allowed users to post photos or videos that would disappear once they were seen.
Read more Amazon Restore Mask Requirement for All US Warehouse Employees
