TikTok, a video-sharing app developed by Chinese company ByteDance, is officially the world’s most downloaded mobile application, according to a global survey of downloads in 2020.
First launched internationally in 2017, TikTok has since overtaken all the apps forming part of Facebook’s social media empire, including WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, apart from the company’s flagship Facebook application, which together round off the rest of the top five spots.
The survey, conducted by digital analytics company App Annie, shows that in China itself, ByteDance also holds the top spot thanks to the continued popularity of Douyin, a Chinese-language video sharing app described as TikTok’s predecessor.
TikTok’s popularity comes despite former US President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban new downloads of the app, which saw tremendous growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming the leading download in Europe, South America and the USA.
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