TikTok Alternatives in U.S. Grow 361% After Talk of Government Ban

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President Trump previously said TikTok has until September 15 to be fully owned by an American company

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TikTok competitor apps grew installations by 361% since the White House threatened to remove the Chinese-owned social video app from U.S. marketplaces, according to new data from SensorTower. The big four U.S.-based social media apps that are direct competitors to TikTok are Byte, Dubsmash, Triller and Zynn. SensorTower found that these four apps were downloaded 1.5 million times since July 27 when President Trump first made mention of banning TikTok because of its Chinese parent company ByteDance and concerns that ByteDance is misusing user information to compromise U.S. national security. Trump said Aug. 3 that he would allow TikTok to continue its operations in the U.S. if it was bought by an American company, and set an arbitrary deadline for the company to come under new ownership of Sept. 15. It’s been speculated that Microsoft could make a purchase of TikTok, but no buyers or sales have been confirmed. “ByteDance’s competitors have benefited from the uncertainty around TikTok’s future,” SensorTower analyst Stephanie Chan wrote, and noted that the situation in the U.S. is similar to what happened in late June when India banned TikTok and other localized competitors to the app saw a rise in downloads. “Although TikTok has yet to see an outright ban in the U.S., its situation has parallels to what happened after it was removed from India’s App Store and Google Play on June 29,” Chan said.
SensorTower
SensorTower found that Byte and Triller had the most week-over-week growth — Triller installs grew 1,227% and Byte’s download count grew by 428%. Byte also saw a spike in downloads the week of July 6 when the potential TikTok ban was first discussed by the White House. Triller reached No. 1 on the iOS App Store free app downloads charts in 50 markets on August 1, SensorTower found. TikTok competitor Zynn was temporarily removed from the U.S. App Store and Google Play in June but is now back online and SensorTower found its installs grew 93% week-over-week during the week of July 27. App Dubsmash has the highest lifetime downloads of any U.S. TikTok rival, with an estimated 41.6 million installations. The app saw a 69% increase in users during the same time period. “As ByteDance works to resolve its current situation in the U.S., its competitors now have even more opportunities to grow their own audiences,” Chan said in her report. “However, as the playing field grows crowded with so many choices, developers will have to continually hone their user acquisition and app store optimization strategies as they vie for consumers’ attention.”

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