Last month we reported that the Coronavirus quarantine appeared to be driving a global TikTok download boom.
In the United States alone, the ByteDance-owned short form video sharing app saw a 18% week-on-week uplift in downloads for the week of March 16-22, according to estimates provided to MBW by respected analytics firm Sensor Tower.
TikTok was downloaded 2 million times in the US that week, compared to 1.7m the prior week (March 9-15).
Now, amid the on-going global COVID-19 crisis, TikTok has reached another huge milestone.
The app has been downloaded more than 2 billion times globally (on the App Store and Google Play), according to new Sensor Tower estimates.
The news of TikTok’s 2 billion downloads comes just five months after it was estimated to have surpassed 1.5bn.
Not only was TikTok downloaded around 500m times in the five months since that last significant milestone, but according to Sensor Tower, Q1 2020 saw the app accumulate the most downloads for any app ever in a quarter.
TikTok generated more than 315m downloads across Google Play and the App Store in Q1 2020.
Looking at total downloads on a country by country basis, India is the No.1 market for TikTok downloads, according to Sensor Tower.
The country has been responsible for generating 611m lifetime downloads to date (30.3% of the total).
China, meanwhile, is the No.2 country for downloads, accounting for 9.7% (196.6m) of all downloads to date for the Chinese version of the app, Douyin.
Sensor Tower states that this figure does not include third-party Android store installs in China.
The United States saw the third most downloads to date, having racked up 165m (8.2%) there.
Google Play has accounted 75.5% (1.5bn) of installs to date, while 495.2m downloads (24.5%) were generated by Apple‘s App Store.
In addition to hitting the 2 billion lifetime download milestone, Sensor Tower reports that lifetime user spending in TikTok has risen to $456.7 million, which is more than two-and-half times higher than the $175m generated by the time it reached 1.5bn downloads, five months ago.
Of that $456.7m, $331m, or 72.3% of total revenue, was generated by TikTok users in China.
The US ranks No.2, with a total spend of $86.5m (19%).
Coming in at No.3, TikTok users in the UK contributed $9m, or 2% of total revenue.
Interestingly, despite only accounting for 24.5% (495.2m) of total downloads, Apple’s App Store accounted for most of the revenue, contributing $435.3m, while Google Play generated $21.4m, according to Sensor Tower estimates.
TikTok recently launched ‘Donation Stickers’ that allow creators to raise funds for charity through their videos.
Following last month’s news of TikTok’s $10 million donation to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Solidarity Response Fund, the company announced earlier this month that it is committing a total of $375m across various COVID-19 relief initiatives.Music Business Worldwide
