Snap Lists ByteDance and TikTok as Its Major Competitor in Asia – Caixin Global
What happened: In its financial report for 2018, US social media player Snap mentioned Bytedance, including streaming app TikTok, among its competitors. Globally, the list is topped by Apple, Facebook—including Instagram and WhatsApp—Google, and Twitter. For the Asia region, Snap also cited Chinese gaming giant Tencent, as well as Japan’s Line and South Korea’s Naver and Kakao. Snap also announced that its daily active user count was 186 million, one million shy of 2017’s final figure.
Why it’s important: Bytedance’s mention among Snap’s Asia competitors reflects a relatively recent addition to the ranks of social media titans. In the first three quarters of 2018, TikTok was the fourth most downloaded app across Google and Apple app stores. Last November, Facebook also released the app Lasso, which was seen as an attempt to wrangle some of TikTok’s audience. In the same month, TikTok surpassed Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat in monthly installs in the US. Snap, too, has been feeling the heat. In addition to issues with app design and performance on Android devices, it cited competition as a reason for the year-on-year drop in daily active user count.