TikTok overtakes Facebook

Chinese-owned social media app TikTok has overtaken Facebook to become the world’s second most downloaded app. Only the Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp has more installs globally. Tech in Asia reports that the Chinese-owned app TikTok and its Chinese equivalent Douyin has been ranked as the world’s second most downloaded app of 2019. TikTok and Douyin had a combined number of 740 million downloads last year, overtaking both Facebook and Messenger to become the world’s second most downloaded app just behind WhatsApp according to market analyst Sensor Tower.

One of the company’s smaller rivals, Likee, which is another short-form video app owned by the Singapore-based firm Bigo. It made its debut among the top 10 with 330 million installations, half of which came from India according to Sensor Tower. The report includes worldwide downloads for iPhone, iPad, and Google Play but did not include Apple apps and Google pre-installed apps.

Meenakshi Tiwari, an analyst at the technology market research firm Forrester commented: “Short video has been popularized by TikTok for sure, but bigger social networking platforms like Facebook and Instagram are aware of it and are doing something about it.”