TikTok and its Chinese equivalent, Douyin, ranked as the world’s second most downloaded app last year, but the short-video platform operated by Bytedance is facing challenges from both upstart rivals and established players that are starting to embrace short-form content.
TikTok and Douyin amassed a combined 740 million downloads last year, overtaking Facebook and Messenger to become the world’s second most downloaded app behind WhatsApp, according to market analyst Sensor Tower.
One of its smaller rivals, Likee, a short-video platform owned by Singapore-based Bigo, made its debut among the top 10 with over 330 million installations, half of those from India, according to Sensor Tower, whose report included worldwide downloads for iPhone, iPad, and Google Play but excluded Apple apps and Google pre-installed apps. It also did not include Android downloads from third-party stores mostly used by Chinese because Google Play is blocked in China.
"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,” said Meenakshi Tiwari, an analyst at technology market research firm Forrester, who pointed to Instagram’s TikTok-like video-music remix feature “Reels” launched in Brazil two months ago.
Another challenge for TikTok is WhatsApp, which has not yet monetized its user base but might do so this year, Tiwari said.
TikTok has its own monetization challenges because most of its Beijing-based parent’s revenue is generated in China, despite the app’s rapid international expansion.
TikTok and its Chinese equivalent, Douyin, ranked as the world’s second most downloaded app last year, but the short-video platform operated by Bytedance is facing challenges from both upstart rivals and established players that are starting to embrace short-form content.
TikTok and Douyin amassed a combined 740 million downloads last year, overtaking Facebook and Messenger to become the world’s second most downloaded app behind WhatsApp, according to market analyst Sensor Tower.
"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,” said Meenakshi Tiwari, an analyst at technology market research firm Forrester, who pointed to Instagram’s TikTok-like video-music remix feature “Reels” launched in Brazil two months ago.
TikTok has its own monetization challenges because most of its Beijing-based parent’s revenue is generated in China, despite the app’s rapid international expansion.
