Douyin has become the world most downloaded non-game app in the iOS App Store, according to market research company SensorTower. The short video app has been downloaded 45.8 million times from the App Store during the first three months of 2018 exceeding Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. However, Facebook is still in the lead for overall (iOS and Android) and non-game app downloads.
The popular music app belongs to Beijing-based ByteDance, the company behind China’s news aggregation platform Jinri Toutiao. Along with Kuaishou, Douyin is among the frontrunners in China’s crowded short video streaming industry. The app came under global attention recently after banning popular cartoon character Peppa Pig for being too subversive.
Bytedance is also the company behind the international short video and social app Tik Tok and it also operates Tik Tok’s rival Music.ly which it bought in November 2017.
Another win for Chinese companies was in the mobile gaming department. Tencent’s PUBG Mobile is the world’s most installed title both the App Store and Google Play. Tencent also topped the charts of for game revenues with Honor of Kings.
According to the research, Tencent was No. 1 for overall mobile app revenue and mobile game revenue, and No. 2 for non-game app revenue after IAC, owner of Tinder. Unsurprisingly, Chinese apps showed better performance on the App Store since Google Play is blocked in Mainland China.
Tencent has been trying to capture China’s feverish short video market as well. Earlier this month, news broke that Tencent was spending RMB 3 billion ($478 million) in subsidies to lure influencers to an upgraded version of its short video streaming app, Weishi (微视). And a few days ago, local news media reported that Baidu Tieba, a large online community platform owned by Baidu, would be investing most of its budget into building up its short-video ecosystem, including Nani.