09.03.21
Four Facebook-owned social platforms are among the world’s top six apps, with a combined figure of more than two billion downloads, this according to research conducted by app development company Bacancy Technology.
While social video-sharing platform TikTok, the world’s most popular app, had 850 million downloads last year, accounting for nearly half of the Top 10’s global download figures, a new study shows that social media giant Facebook dominates the market with four of its platforms.
Research by Bacancy Technology shows that TikTok received 250 million more downloads last year than WhatsApp, the second most popular app on the list, the study finds.
However, because Facebook acquired Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014, respectively, Facebook dominates four spots in the Top 10 most popular apps of 2020, with a combined total of more than two billion downloads. The figure accounts for 46% of the total download figures within the top 10 list.
Following last year’s global shift to remote working, conference call platform Zoom (which ranks fifth on the global list) received 477 million downloads last year, and an increase in revenue of 317% over figures from 2019.
TikTok’s reported revenue was reportedly $540 million last year. Despite lockdown restrictions limiting face-to-face contact, online dating platform Tinder lands in second place with $513 million, and streaming video giant YouTube rounds off the top three, netting 478 million.
“Lockdown restrictions and the ‘stay at home’ mantra of 2020 caused many of us to turn to the internet and various apps for entertainment and to indulge in some level of human interaction,” said a spokesperson at Bacancy Technology, who was not identified. “TikTok’s seemingly endless library of entertainment has clearly captured the attention of millions of people, while the staple social media apps continue to be an integral part of our daily lives.”
Assessing a number of the most popular social platforms, the United States – which has the third largest population count in the world – ranks as the country with the highest active user counts for TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. India, with the second highest population in the world, has the largest amount of users of both WhatsApp and Facebook.
In analyzing an app’s number of users as a percentage of each country’s population, TikTok has the highest penetration in the Netherlands with 22% of its population using TikTok. This is followed by the US with 19% and Norway with 18%.
Seven in 10 Spanish citizens are actively using Whatsapp, while three quarters of the population of the Philippines have active profiles on Facebook – a figure that trumps both America (57%) and the UK (55%).
Half of the Turkish population are active on their Instagram accounts – representing the country with the highest usage, and the same can be said of Snapchat’s popularity in Saudi Arabia, with 50% of the population holding active user accounts.