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TikTok announced Monday that it has passed one billion monthly users. That’s a remarkable figure for a platform launched in August 2018 that has come under scrutiny by governments, including the United States, which is concerned about the data collection practices of its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance. .
TikTok’s popularity skyrocketed during the pandemic, becoming the world’s most downloaded app in the first quarter of 2020, with some 315 million downloads in that quarter alone, according to app analytics company SensorTower.
ByteDance reportedly saw its 2020 revenue more than double from the previous year, reaching $ 34.3 billion. Since its launch to date, SensorTower reports that TikTok’s installations have reached 3.2 billion, which includes information from Douyin, the Chinese version of the app. Average monthly TikTok users in August were up 25% from August 2020. As of June of this year, ByteDance was valued at $ 425 billion.
And other apps, seeking to replicate TikTok’s huge success, have created their own short-lived video products. Instagram, owned by Facebook, launched Reels last August; Snapchat showcased its TikTok clone in the Spotlight app in November, and even video giant YouTube stepped into the game for short, releasing its YouTube shorts in the US earlier this year. But TikTok continued to grow; a report released earlier this month found that TikTok users spend more time watching its content than YouTube users.
On Monday, TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas thanked users in a video on TikTok for “making TikTok a really special place.”
ByteDance has reportedly postponed plans for an initial public offering indefinitely amid a crackdown on tech companies by Chinese regulators in recent months. China examines what it considers anti-competitive practices by its big tech companies and how these companies handle sensitive customer data
ByteDance and TikTok were among Chinese tech companies targeted by the Trump administration last year through a series of executive orders blocking their apps in U.S. app stores. None of the ordinances ever went into effect, and in June President Joe Biden signed an executive order revoking the Trump-era bans. Biden has asked the Commerce Secretary to investigate apps with ties to foreign adversaries like China that may collect sensitive data from U.S. consumers.
But TikTok also saw new bright spots during the pandemic, not least of which was fan-generated crowdsourcing. Ratatouille Musical TikTok. It started out as a one-off track based on the 2007 Disney / Pixar movie to which Broadway fans, songwriters, choreographers, and others added, one TikTok at a time. Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical debuted as a one-night streaming concert on January 1, raising over $ 1 million for The Actors Fund, which supports artists and workers in the entertainment industry.
Correction Sept. 27 at 12:32 p.m. ET: TikTok’s COO’s first name is Vanessa, not Veronica. We regret the error.
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