Mobile phone users scrambled over the weekend to prepare for TikTok and WeChat's disappearance. That was before it emerged that the bans on the two China-based social apps had been delayed.
Data from third-party analytics firm Apptopia show a 181% increase in WeChat downloads compared to the prior weekend. Several other competitors in the short-form video space also saw big gains, including L.A.-based apps Triller (4x increase on the previous weekend), Clash and Byte (both over 5x).
Although TikTok was far and away the most popular in absolute terms, its weekly growth was relatively low.
Both WeChat and QQ, which many view as a WeChat replacement, hit all-time highs in U.S. daily downloads on Sunday, according to Apptopia.
Sensor Tower, another 3rd party analytics firm, told dot.LA that according to its data, Triller's rank in the U.S. iOS app store rose from 208 on Friday to 39 by Sunday. Their data also show that a cohort of TikTok competitors – Triller, Byte, Clash, New York-based Dubsmash and Singapore-based Likee – collectively saw a 204% increase in U.S. installs compared to the prior weekend. QQ saw an 850% increase.
Each data firm has their own methodologies to estimate the figures they release.