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TikTok said it surpassed one billion monthly users, a significant number for a platform launched in August 2018, and has come under intense scrutiny by governments – including the United States – which are concerned through the data collection practices of its Beijing-based parent company. ByteDance.
The platform gained popularity during the pandemic, becoming the world’s most downloaded app in the first quarter of 2020, with around 315 million downloads in the quarter alone, according to app analytics company SensorTower.
ByteDance saw its 2020 revenue more than double from the previous year, reaching $ 34.3 billion.
Since its launch so far, SensorTower says the platform’s app installs have reached 3.2 billion, which includes data from Douyin, the Chinese version of the app, according to Arab Technical News. Gateway.
The average number of monthly users of the platform increased by 25% in August, compared to the same month in 2020. In June of this year, ByteDance was valued at $ 425 billion.
Other platforms looking to replicate TikTok’s phenomenal success have created their own short video products. The Facebook-owned Instagram platform launched the Reels feature last August.
Snapchat introduced Spotlight in November. Even the giant video platform YouTube entered this area via YouTube Shorts.
But TikTok continued to grow. A report released earlier this month found that users of the platform spend more time viewing its content than users of YouTube.
Vanessa Pappas, COO of TikTok, thanked users in a video on the platform for “making it such a special place.”
ByteDance has reportedly postponed its IPO plans indefinitely amid a crackdown on tech companies by Chinese regulators in recent months.
China is examining what it considers anti-competitive practices on the part of its large tech companies and how companies handle sensitive customer data.
ByteDance and TikTok were among Chinese tech companies targeted by the Trump administration last year. And this thanks to a series of decrees banning its applications from American app stores.
None of the ordinances went into effect, and President Joe Biden signed an executive order in June repealing the ban, but asked the Commerce Secretary to investigate apps that have ties to foreign adversaries like the China, and who may collect sensitive data from US consumers.
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