Sensor Tower, a company specializing in the app economy, has unveiled its quarterly report on the most downloaded applications in the world. In the first quarter of 2022, running from January to March, TikTok is once again the most downloaded application… Probably much to the chagrin of Meta.
#1 in downloads AND spend
Having become the most downloaded application in the world in 2020, TikTok was dethroned by Instagram in the last quarter of 2021… But that clearly did not last long. In the first quarter of 2022, the Chinese application regained its first place ahead of the three platforms of the Meta group: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. In addition, the CapCut service, which allows you to edit videos for TikTok and which is also owned by the giant ByteDance, is also in the top 10 of the most downloaded applications.
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Sensor Tower also ranked apps based on how much users spend on them. Here too, TikTok is at the top of the ranking ahead of YouTube. While Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, is factored into these results and accounts for 60% of the app’s revenue, TikTok had a record quarter for spending. in-app, reaching $840 million in the first quarter, according to data.ai.
In the US alone, spending in TikTok was up 125% from the previous quarter, a positive sign for the evolution of the firm’s e-commerce plans. As a reminder, TikTok is redoubling its efforts in the e-commerce sector in order to take advantage of its incredible popularity.
TikTok leads the ranking of the most downloaded applications in the world for the first quarter of 2022. Infographic: Sensor Tower
Who to stop TikTok?
Despite its many efforts and a total overhaul of Instagram to look more like TikTok, Meta is struggling to gain the upper hand over its Chinese rival. Many changes are also to be expected on Instagram: it will soon be possible for all users of the application to label products, illustrating the efforts of the platform in e-commerce (like its competitor). Additionally, Meta is reportedly looking to introduce digital tokens to reward users on Instagram, similar to what is already possible on TikTok.
Notably thanks to its overpowered algorithm, the growth of the Chinese application is simply dizzying and unprecedented, and it seems that it is far from over. ” We predicted that TikTok would surpass the 1.5 billion monthly active users mark in 2022, and after just one quarter in 2022, TikTok has effectively shattered that prediction. Not only does TikTok have a growing user base, but the app has fostered deep engagement – global users outside of China spent an average of 19.6 hours per month in the app in 2021 “says data.ai.
Now, it remains to be seen whether TikTok will be able to turn its e-commerce and subscription tools into an effective monetization channel comparable to what YouTube does, for example.