TikTok is now estimated to have been downloaded more than two billion times, evidence of just how popular (and how quickly) the app has raised to prominence. However, that meteoric rise has not been without its issues, and while TikTok might be an in-demand app, it’s also a highly controversial one.
Any app that passes the one-billion marker is considered a hit, highlighting just how impressive surpassing the two billion figure is. For example, outside of Google apps, there's only really the apps owned by Facebook that have also managed more than two billion downloads. That’s the league and company TikTok now finds itself in.
As part of its latest Store Intelligence estimates, Sensor Tower points to the TikTok app having now been downloaded more than two billion times. In fact, the data suggests that the number of downloads of the app in the first three months of this year, were not just the best quarter for the TikTok app, but any app, ever. An indication that TikTok is one of the services that has seen a massive spike in downloads and usage as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. While impressive, there are some points to note: the 2 billion doesn’t mean it has 2 billion users, nor does it mean it has been downloaded by 2 billion different people. It simply refers to the number of times the app has been downloaded in general. That is, if the number is even correct to begin with, considering these are estimates based on how the analytics firm collects data. Third-party estimates aside, it is unlikely the official number deviates from Sensor Tower’s enough to make much of a difference. Either way, TikTok has been downloaded a lot.
With So Many Using The App, Is It Safe?
On the surface, TikTok is simply an app that lets users upload their own videos. In this sense, it is no more or less safe than YouTube, or any of the other social media services currently in operation today. However, unlike those others, TikTok has found its fame and fortune through younger users, and this is where concerns can be raised. In the past year, there have been suggestions the app has a drug content problem, that it failed to intervene quickly enough when a user live-streamed their suicide, and it's a platform catering to various viral challenges that put the well-being of users (and unsuspecting) people at risk. All of which has led to the app routinely being accused of lacking in its duty of care, and to some of the most vulnerable in society.
That’s just at the user level. TikTok has also raised more fundamental safety concerns over the last year. Most notably, in terms of privacy and its relationship to the Chinese government. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, and it is this company that has raised flags for many, due to its alleged close ties with prominent Chinese government officials. This particular concern has resulted in multiple official organizations and agencies banning employees from using the app, through fear individual and even national security could be at risk. Furthermore, it is not just the data that the app might be accumulating that’s proved to be a concern, but also what it refuses to show. For example, and as an additional indicator of the close ties with China, there have been claims of how TikTok censors videos that are not in sync with the image the Chinese government wants to portray.
Of course, TikTok denies all the claims made against it and has routinely argued it is doing as much as it can to protect users and privacy - both at the micro and macro level. Regardless of whether it is safe or not, two billion downloads suggest TikTok is not going anywhere, anytime soon.
Source: Sensor Tower