TikTok tops social media download ranking in Sept, India accounts for 44%

Bytedance-owned short video app TikTok has emerged as the most downloaded social media app in the world for September.

The popular short video app was downloaded about 60 million times last month, as per Sensor Tower data. Most of the installs were contributed by India, which accounted for 44% of its total downloads.

Social networking giant Facebook emerged as the second most installed app with 50.5 million downloads. India contributed 23% of its total install. Instagram, Likee, and Snapchat followed it on the ranking table.

Though, for the first time in the last two years, the app saw a downfall. In the third quarter, China-based app attracted about 177 million first-time users, which is 4% less than last year figure, across the Apple App Store and Google Play.

This year the app has been installed by 564 million users.

Earlier in March quarter, TikTok recorded 188 million new installs, out of which 47% users belonged to India.

TikTok, which allows users to make and upload short videos of up to 15 seconds, emerged as a major competitor to social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Periscope soon after its launch in 2016.

Over the last couple of years, TikTok has emerged up as a popular advertising platform for consumer brands. Indian firms, including online retailer Voonik, Myntra, ShopClues, Snapdeal, and Cuemath are placing ads on it.

Globally, it has also been spending a huge amount on advertising.

In mid-year Sensor Tower report, TikTok in-app purchase portion of revenue witnessed significant growth. The short video platform in-app purchases revenue touched $9 million in May. It registered a growth of over 500% in comparison to last year figure, $1.5 million.

A major share of the portion was contributed by China (65%) and the US (22%) markets. India, which is the largest overseas market for the app, accounted for about half a percent of spending, about $45,000.

In April, it had garnered about $7.4 million from in-app purchase.

Though, the app has time and again faced friction from the various governments in the world. The app was banned for a two-week by Madras Court raising concern over its inappropriate content, which had hampered its user base growth for the month in India.