A TikTok competitor named Byte experienced a record number of installations and passed TikTok on the Apple App Store charts today after President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both publicly flirted with the idea of banning TikTok from U.S. users.
Sensor Tower data reported Byte’s installation count spiked July 9, when it was downloaded 622,000 times — the most downloads since the app launched in January 2020. “This was the most downloads it has ever seen in a day, up 47 percent from about 422,000 downloads on January 25 right after launch,” Sensor Tower mobile insights strategist Stephanie Chan told TheWrap.
Chan said the download spike was directly related to recent talk of the U.S. banning TikTok. “The spike does correlate with the White House’s comments about a potential TikTok ban in the U.S.,” Chan said. “Anecdotally, on July 8 and 9, we saw a number of user reviews mentioning TikTok, so that also seems to point to the White House’s comments as the reason for the increased interest.”
Chan added that Byte rolled out an update July 6, but that the update was to make minor improvements and fix bugs — “so that update probably doesn’t account for the spike.”
Byte launched in January 2020 and was created by former Vine co-founder and general manager Dom Hofmann. Twitter acquired Vine in fall 2012, and shut down the app’s operations by October 2017. Hofmann began work on Byte in December 2017, originally intending for it to be a clone of Vine. The current Byte app is similar to TikTok, and lets users capture and edit short looped videos to post to social feeds.
Sensor Tower estimates Byte has 2.5 million downloads worldwide on both iOS and Android since its launch.
TikTok has 2.3 billion users globally. The app was originally called Douyin and launched in China in 2016. After acquiring Shangai and Santa Monica-based startup Musical.ly in 2017, TikTok’s Chinese-based parent company ByteDance consolidated the two into one app, rebranding it as TikTok to launch it in the United States in August 2018. The control of TikTok by the Chinese government and concerns that it could use the software to snoop on unsuspecting Americans through their phones is what’s prompted Pompeo and Trump to openly consider a ban.
“This (2.3 billion users) figure also includes the Chinese version of the app, Douyin, and it excludes downloads from third-party Android marketplaces in China,” Chan said of TikTok’s total download count.
While it doesn’t come close to TikTok’s user count, Byte is currently the top-ranked free download on the Apple App Store, while TikTok is No. 3, after video conferencing software Zoom. Byte and TikTok did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Hofmann did recently respond to popular game streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who tweeted he deleted TikTok, claiming it was “data farming” and is run by an “intrusive company.” Blevins added that he did try out Byte, but said, “there’s byte, but I’ve seen it and tried to use it, just not as clean and seamless as TIKTOK. Just waiting (at the moment).” Hofmann simply replied to Blevins, “damn, headshot.”
Byte isn’t the only TikTok competitor to get a boost from skeptical TikTok investors and users. Shares of social media app Snap rose nearly 8% on Tuesday, hitting a high of $25 per share, the highest since its March 2017 IPO.
I have deleted the TIK TOK app off all my devices. Hopefully a less intrusive company (data farming) that isn’t owned by China can recreate the concept legally, such funny and amazing content on the app from influencers.
17 Chill Video Games for Your Coronavirus Quarantine
With the coronavirus pandemic killing so many people and creating tons of stress for everyone who has a soul, I've been turning to video games a lot lately. When I'm all frazzled and unable to sit still long enough for a movie or TV show, games require more focus and thus often work better at keeping me chill. So here's a list of games that are great for relaxing with while you're stuck at home for the foreseeable future.
"Euro Truck Simulator 2" -
This game, which is available for PC and Mac, has been one of my favorites for a long time. I just turn on one of the European pop radio streams available in the game, and drive around. I pretty much only do jobs so I'll have a destination -- you could just not do them if you'd rather just wander.
"SnowRunner" -
It's like "Euro Truck Simulator," but in places that mostly just have dirt roads that are covered in snow. The other night I spent an hour slowly pulling my truck out of a mud puddle and I loved every second of it.
"Katamari" series -
These games are about rolling up garbage into a giant ball. They're cute, and nice, and upbeat. The most recent of these, "Katamari Damacy Reroll," is a remake of the original game for Switch and PC. If you've got an Xbox 360 or PS3 lying around you can play some of the older games too.
"Flower" -
This game, which you can get as a digital download on any recent PlayStation device or on PC, is so chill and therapeutic. You're just a flower petal floating on the wind drifting around with other flower petals. It'll make you feel good.
"Portal" series -
It's got a novel brand of puzzles, as well as a similar, though less crass, sense of humor to "Saints Row." The story is overall almost nihilistic, and it's got plenty of jokes about giant corporations exploiting people in horrible ways. It feels just about right.
"The Sims" -
You probably know all about this series a this point, so let this simply serve as a reminder.
"Star Wars: The Old Republic" -
This online "Star Wars" game is free for anybody with an ok gaming PC (it came out in 2011, so it's not super demanding), and it's very easy and chill to get into after nearly a decade of quality-of-life improvements. But the real reason you should play it is because it's got the best "Star Wars" stories from the past ten years.
"Yakuza" series -
The main stories in these games are overwrought Japanese melodrama, but the real fun is the wacky shenanigans that gangster Kiryu Kazuma gets into in his every day life. That juxtoposition hits the sweet spot. You can get these for PlayStation or PC.
"The Talos Principle" -
It's another 3D puzzle game in the vein of "Portal," but instead of cracking jokes it's more about musing about the nature of humanity, which has long since gone extinct. That may sound upsetting, but honestly it's pretty calming. It's like going to therapy, but in a puzzle game that's available on every platform, including mobile devices.
"Cities: Skylines" -
It's kinda like Sim City, but I like this one much more just because it's generally less complicated and annoying. Even better: you can get it on PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, which is unusual for a game like this.
"Viscera Cleanup Detail" -
So when you're playing a shooter game, you tend to leave a lot of corpses behind as you move to each new area. But in this game, which is available on Steam for PC and Mac, you're not the one doing the shooting -- you're the one who cleans up all the bodies and mops up and blood. Some people enjoy cleaning their homes to chill, and this is like that but you don't have to stand up.
"The Stanley Parable" -
Nothing really happens in this game. You just wander around pressing buttons and try not to do what the narrator tells you to. It's a weird comedy meta-game of sorts, mocking standard video game storytelling. If you play a lot of video games, it'll amuse you. Available for PC and Mac.
"Final Fantasy XV" -
Like all "Final Fantasy" games, the plot here is ludicrous. But the appeal of this game for me has always been as a sort of road trip simulator. You roll around the country with your bros, stopping every once in a while to get gas, kill some monsters, go camping, or climb to the top of a volcano to take down a giant bird so you can take its giant eggs and eat them with cup noodles. It's nice.
"Goat Simulator" -
This may be the dumbest game ever made. It's not a real "simulator" in the normal sense -- it's actually just a goofy physics game where you like strap a jetpack on your goat or whatever. It's available on pretty much every platform you might use for gaming so you should probably just go for it.
"Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone" -
It's just a silly PS4 rhythm game where you perform songs by the famous "vocaloid" Miku and her digital friends. There's plenty of excellent songs, and most of them come with stupidly amusing music videos. And unlike the other Miku games, this one doesn't bother with a plot or any kind of unlock progression. You just have all the 200+ songs from the start and there's nothing to try to force you to do songs you don't like.
"Saints Row IV" -
I will admit that I've had a pretty tough time laughing at anything the last couple months (have we really been in lockdown that long?), but the ludicrous action comedy game "Saints Row IV" manages to hit the spot even so. Plus it has just enough of a dark tinge to fit this moment in history -- it's pretty much just "The Matrix," except it's aliens running the simulation after they blew up the Earth. Anyway it's funny in the right way for right now. You can grab this on any current game console or PC. For maximum chill, just turn down the difficulty setting and enjoy the madness.
Any mobile puzzle game -
This is your reminder that any app store you have on your phone is absolutely full of free puzzle apps, like word searches or crosswords or whatever. My phone go-to is sudoku, but almost certainly you can get whatever your preferred puzzle time-waster is without having to pay anything.
1 of 18
There are plenty of relaxing video games you can enjoy while there’s nothing to do outside your home
With the coronavirus pandemic killing so many people and creating tons of stress for everyone who has a soul, I've been turning to video games a lot lately. When I'm all frazzled and unable to sit still long enough for a movie or TV show, games require more focus and thus often work better at keeping me chill. So here's a list of games that are great for relaxing with while you're stuck at home for the foreseeable future.
