The popular short video app TikTok has registered a sharp fall in downloads globally in July after facing a blanket ban in India, the largest market for the Bytedance-owned company outside China.
TikTok’s download numbers diminished by 25% from 87 million in June to 65.2 million in July according to Sensor Tower data. India, which was the top contributor with 18.8% share in TikTok’s overall downloads in June was replaced by the USA in July.
USA and Indonesia were the top two players in terms of number of downloads in July with 9.7% and 8.5% market share respectively but the top spot looks a bit shaky now with President Donald Trump, citing the example of India, issuing executive orders on Thursday to ban any US transactions with ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, starting in 45 days.
This decline in downloads for TikTok is in sharp contrast from May when the number of downloads was as high as 111.9 million for the month. The estimates include downloads for the App Store and Google Play worldwide and pre-installed apps excluded.
However, TikTok retained its position as the top downloaded app in the non-gaming category in July.
Besides TikTok, two more Chinese apps — Snack Video and Likee — made it to the top 10 list in July. While Snack entered the list for the first time and was ranked at 8th with 28.8 million installs, Likee was ranked 9th with 28.4 million installs.
The local alternatives of TikTok such as MX TakaTak, Roposo, Josh, Moj, Chingari, and Mitron Tv have also gained popularity in a very short time post the ban on China-linked apps in India. Some of these apps have crossed 30 million downloads in the last couple of months.
TikTok is facing strong headwinds in its most popular markets with a recent media report saying Microsoft is mulling to take over ByteDance’s global business that may include India.
