While audio social may be the trending function of the moment, and copycat versions of TikTok continue to gain traction on YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram, the original has still held its ground in the download charts, coming in at number one, once again, on Sensor Tower’s monthly app download listing for April 2021.
As you can see here, TikTok has held its ground at the top of the download charts for another month.
Despite being banned in India, its biggest user market at the time of its removal, and a steady flow of challengers rising up to steal its thunder over time, more and more users keep coming to the short video app, which is on track to become the next billion-user platform at some stage this year.
As explained by Sensor Tower:
“TikTok was the most downloaded non-gaming app worldwide for April 2021 with more than 59 million installs. The countries with the largest number of TikTok installs were from Brazil at 13%, followed by Douyin in China at 12 percent.”
TikTok’s growth is significant, particularly in the face of ongoing concerns and controversies, and as noted, more copycat functions being added to major social media apps. Indeed, YouTube recently reported that its TikTok clone ‘Shorts’ is now facilitating 6.5 billion views per month, a huge amount which you would assume would have to eat into TikTok’s audience share somewhat.
We’ll see if that becomes a bigger issue for TikTok with Shorts being launched to all US users over the next week, while Snapchat’s Spotlight is also now up to 125 million monthly users, and Instagram Reels continues to gain traction.
Yet, even with short videos being made more readily available everywhere else, TikTok’s momentum has held, which is a positive sign for the platform as it works to evolve to the next stage, which includes more business and revenue generation tools for creators.
Sensor Tower’s top apps listing is largely unchanged from last month, with the only notable addition being Indian streaming app ‘Hotstar‘ in the Google Play downloads top 10, largely due to cricket coverage.
Facebook, of course, still dominates the overall chart, with 4 of the top 10 apps in all categories, but the resilience of TikTok over time is truly amazing. No other trending app has had the staying power of the app, particularly in the face of competition. In fact, right now, we have the case study of Clubhouse as a comparative example – a trending app that saw huge traction, but is now seemingly on the decline as Facebook and Twitter advance their own competing audio social tools.
That largely mirrors the trajectory of most trending social apps, but TikTok has been able to maintain its position, and run with the big players, as more and more young people, in particular, find connective value in the app.
If you haven’t taken TikTok seriously in the past, it may well be time to reassess, and to consider its evolving ad and promotional options within your social media marketing approach.
You can check out Sensor Tower’s full monthly download listing for April 2021 here.
