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Panic over the US ban on TikTok has boosted the use and downloads of a number of alternative social media apps, including China-owned Texas-based Clapper. RedNoteand Likee, a is a little known platform From Singapore with an AI-powered video feed similar to TikTok, according to new market research.
The people in it United States could not access TikTok In the roughly 14 hours from Saturday to Sunday, a federal law aimed at curbing China’s alleged influence over the app went into effect, sparking an unprecedented case of internet censorship in a country that prizes freedom of expression. About 63 percent of US teens and one-third of US adults use TikTok Pew Research Center.
Among the places some of them took refuge was Likee, a TikTok clone launched in 2017 by the profitable Singaporean tech company Joyy. Likee had about 33.9 million monthly users as of November, most of which were outside the United States. But on Saturday, Likee had 143 percent more downloads and 37 percent more usage in the US than the previous day. Sensor towerestimates numbers by collecting data from a sample of devices. This trend continued until Sunday, when Likee usage increased by 11 percent from the day before.
Estimates by Apptopia, another app industry research company, show that for months Likee has registered fewer than 10,000 downloads a day in the US, rising to about 167,000 on Sunday and about 286,000 on Monday. Apptopia also assessed similar hits for TikTok competitors Clapper and Flip.
On Tuesday, shares of Likee’s parent company Joyy closed up nearly 3 percent, beating the average gain among Nasdaq peers. Joy doesn’t Likee’s financials have been broken out, but it and some of its sister apps collectively generated about $73 million in sales from advertising and user purchases in the third quarter of last year. Likee did not respond to a request for comment.
Other lesser-used apps, including Clapper and Snap’s Snapchat, rallied to sound double-digit gains in user activity over the weekend. TikTok’s biggest rivals, Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, saw more modest single-digit increases. YouTube and X, meanwhile, experienced little change in usage.
RedNote is another Chinese app that Americans have flowed In protest in the days leading up to the ban, 80 percent more users were added on Sunday than the previous day, according to Sensor Tower. More than 700,000 new users joined RedNote in the first two days of the rush earlier in the week. This was reported by Reuters. The app, known as Xiaohongshu in Chinese, has recently been ranked as the most downloaded free app on the Google and Apple app stores in the US.
TikTok is back online In the US on Sunday, after President-elect Donald Trump promised to temporarily repeal the new law when he takes office the next day. The law, signed last year by former President Biden, effectively bans TikTok by threatening to fine web hosting providers and app stores that work with its parent company, Chinese tech giant ByteDance, unless it divests of ownership. Sensor Tower data shows that users returned to TikTok in droves on Sunday, with daily active users up 17 percent on Saturday.
Monday, Trump signed the order It provides an additional 75 days to resolve the dilemma over TikTok. But the legality of his decree remains in question, and TikTok is still not available in US app stores. But when users search for TikTok, they are greeted with a list of alternatives – Likee, Clapper and others.
