Panic over the US ban on TikTok has increased usage and downloads of a host of alternative social media apps, including Texas-based and Chinese-owned Clapper. Red Noteand Likee, a little-known platform of Singapore with an AI-powered video feed similar to that of TikTok, according to a new market study.
People in the The United States was unable to access TikTok for about 14 hours Saturday night and Sunday after a federal law aimed at curbing China’s alleged influence over the app took effect and sparked an unprecedented incident of internet censorship in a country that values freedom of expression. About 63% of American teenagers and a third of American adults use TikTok, according to Pew Research Center.
Among the places where some of them found refuge was Likee, a TikTok clone launched by the successful Singaporean tech company Joyy in 2017. Likee had around 33.9 million monthly users as of November, most of whom were located outside the United States. But on Saturday, Likee saw 143% more downloads and 37% more usage in the United States than the day before, according to Sensor Towerwhich estimates numbers by collecting data from a sample of devices. The trend continued on Sunday, when Likee usage increased 11% from the previous day.
Estimates from Apptopia, another company that studies the app industry, show that for months Likee had fewer than 10,000 downloads per day in the United States before climbing to nearly 167,000 on Sunday and about 286 000 Monday. Apptopia also estimated similar increases for TikTok competitors Clapper and Flip.
On Tuesday, shares of Likee’s parent company, Joyy, closed up about 3%, outpacing the average gain of its Nasdaq peers. Happy don’t do reveal Likee’s financial results, but it and some of its other sister apps collectively generated about $73 million in sales during the third quarter of last year through advertising and user purchases. Likee did not respond to a request for comment.
Other less busy apps, including Snap’s Clapper and Snapchat, saw increased interest over the weekend due to a double-digit increase in user activity. TikTok’s biggest rivals, Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, saw more modest single-digit starts. YouTube and X, meanwhile, saw little change in usage.
RedNote, another Chinese application available to Americans flocked to in protest in the days leading up to the ban, added 80 percent more users on Sunday than the day before, according to Sensor Tower. During the first two days of rush earlier in the week, more than 700,000 new users joined RedNote, Reuters reported. Known as Xiaohongshu in Chinese, it ranked in recent days as the most downloaded free app on the Google and Apple app stores in the United States.
TikTok came back online in the United States on Sunday after President-elect Donald Trump promised to grant a temporary reprieve from the implementation of the new law when he takes power the next day. The law, signed by former President Biden last year, effectively bans TikTok by threatening to impose fines on web hosting providers and app stores that work with its parent company, the Chinese tech giant ByteDance, unless it sells its stake in TikTok. Users returned to TikTok in droves on Sunday, with daily active users up 17% from Saturday, according to Sensor Tower data.
Monday, Trump issued executive order providing an additional 75 days to resolve the TikTok dilemma. But the legality of his executive order 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 many others.