Snap: China’s TikTok Could Pass Instagram In Growth

TikTok, with its gamut of quick dance and lip sync videos, could become even bigger than rival Instagram, said Snap Inc. Chief Officer Evan Spiegel.

Spiegel, speaking at the annual Digital Life Conference in Munich on Sunday, said he loves TikTok — and he’s not alone.

The app, made by Chinese giant ByteDance Inc., has about 400 million daily users, according to estimates from Niko Partners. In 2019, TikTok was right behind Instagram in the number of daily users, according to app analytics company App Annie.

Instagram reached the 1 million subscriber mark in 2018.

But that could change. TikTok has been heavily advertising on Facebook, which owns rival Instagram, and it has essentially been buying users away from its competition’s platforms. Spiegel, at the Digital Life Conference’s “Bavaria” stage, thought it bodes well for the app’s future.

App purchases soared at the end of 2019, with a 5 percent annual increase in the total number of downloads off Android and Google’s app stores from the previous year, according to a report by App Annie.

TikTok was among the top of the crop, though it was beaten out by Facebook’s triptych of the regular site app, Facebook Messenger and Facebook’s WhatsApp Messenger.

TikTok, Instagram, SHAREit, Likee, Netflix and others were not far behind on the list.

Overall, 2019 saw a record-breaking 120 billion apps downloaded. And 2020 is expected to expound upon even that high, with a projected $30 billion to be spent on apps and $80 billion on game downloads, according to App Annie.

TikTok sees massive popularity with teenagers. But there have been security concerns, as Israel-based security firm Check Point noted when it pointed out the numerous flaws that could allow for hacking and malware.

According to CheckPoint, vulnerabilities in TikTok’s security could allow people to send links that, when clicked, would let attackers take over the user’s account and gain access to their information.

TikTok said they found out about the issues late last year and fixed them all before the year’s end.