
Despite being locked out of the Indian market and facing probes in some of its overseas markets due to data security concerns, ByteDance’s short video app, known as TikTok internationally and Douyin in its home market of China, retained its position as the world’s most downloaded and highest-earning non-game app in October.
Last month, TikTok, and its sister app Douyin, were downloaded 66 million times globally, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.5%, according to a report by research firm SensorTower.
Users in China had the strongest interest in the app, with the country accounting for 12% of its total October downloads, followed by Brazil with 10%, the report showed.
Meanwhile, TikTok and Douyin combined were still the world’s highest-earning non-game app in October, generating more than $115 million in revenue which is 6.2 times higher than a year ago, according to another report by SensorTower.
Approximately 86% of TikTok and Douyin’s total October revenue was from China, followed by 8% from the U.S. and 2% from Turkey, the statistics showed.
In recent months, ByteDance has made efforts to allay foreign governments’ concerns about TikTok’s data processing activities and whether it blocks or delete content that is disapproved of by the Chinese government. After being banned in India in June, TikTok faces its biggest challenge in the U.S., where the government is trying to force the Chinese app to sell its local operations to an American firm due to national security concerns.
Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)
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