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    TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

    (www.businessinsider.com)
    298 points elorant | 12 comments | 19 Nov 19 14:09 UTC | HN request time: 1.394s | source | bottom
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    m12k ◴[19 Nov 19 15:00 UTC] No.21573454[source]▶
    "It is the third most-downloaded app outside of gaming this year. Numbers one and two are WhatsApp and Messenger, while four and five are the Facebook app and Instagram."

    Facebook owns 4/5 of the most downloaded apps - just let that sink in for a minute. This space needs competition pretty badly.

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    1. wil421 ◴[19 Nov 19 15:05 UTC] No.21573503[source]▶
    There was competition and FB used their war chest to buy them all, sans messenger. They forced people to download messenger to see FB messages on mobile. They also lied and said you had a message when you really didn’t. Just to force the messenger download.
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    2. mhluongo ◴[19 Nov 19 15:33 UTC] No.21573909[source]▶
    Didn't they acquire Messenger as well? I think it was called Beluga
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    3. wil421 ◴[19 Nov 19 15:54 UTC] No.21574201[source]▶
    I’m not sure about the mobile app itself. I do know they rebranded messages in Facebook to become Messenger. Basically you had to access private messages inside Messenger.
    4. dehrmann ◴[19 Nov 19 16:44 UTC] No.21574999[source]▶
    No, it was split out from the main app: https://www.vox.com/2014/8/7/11629664/facebook-messenger-spl...

    > The move allows Facebook developers to focus more exclusively on features and improvements for each individual app. Of course, it also requires users to download another Facebook property onto their smartphones, a not-so-subtle way for the company to increase app downloads.

    I found this on Beluga, but it smells of an acquihire and rewrite, and predates the split by a few years: https://www.adweek.com/digital/beluga-facebook-messenger/

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    5. skinnymuch ◴[19 Nov 19 17:56 UTC] No.21575946[source]▶
    Beluuga was a pretty basic app. Sure they acquired that. But Messenger is mostly and created by Facebook. Especially because Facebook Chat was already around.
    6. justapassenger ◴[19 Nov 19 18:15 UTC] No.21576182[source]▶
    Instagram was small app for hipsters, and everyone thought Facebook was crazy to pay $1B for it.

    They weren’t a competition by any means, and would (speculation) most likely die if they didn’t tap into Facebook resources.

    WhatsApp was only real big competition Facebook bought so far.

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    7. mgalgs ◴[19 Nov 19 19:50 UTC] No.21577442[source]▶
    I'm forced to use messenger for work but have refused to download the mobile app for this reason. Voting with my download count.
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    8. adjkant ◴[19 Nov 19 20:34 UTC] No.21577973[source]▶
    > They weren’t a competition by any means, and would (speculation) most likely die if they didn’t tap into Facebook resources

    What's your reasoning for that? I think pre-WhatsApp acquisition most people would argue that Facebook would have died if it did not acquire Instagram...

    9. mhluongo ◴[19 Nov 19 21:33 UTC] No.21578547{3}[source]▶
    The article you posted is about how Beluga was turned into Messenger...
    10. farisjarrah ◴[19 Nov 19 22:18 UTC] No.21578917[source]▶
    Ouch, forced to use Facebook for work... Thats rough... My last company ALMOST used Facebook for enterprise like 3 years ago when they were advertising it... So glad it was a flaming pile of garbage when we tested it out.
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    11. mgalgs ◴[19 Nov 19 22:57 UTC] No.21579263{3}[source]▶
    > Ouch, forced to use Facebook for work... Thats rough...

    Yeah the worst part is that I can't tell my boss to screw off because it's my company :D We do some customer support on Facebook because so many of our users are there, otherwise I wouldn't be touching it with a 12 foot pole either.

    12. Lammy ◴[20 Nov 19 04:29 UTC] No.21581094[source]▶
    > They also lied and said you had a message when you really didn’t. Just to force the messenger download.

    I bet the line of reasoning is that the message notification is for the upsell telling you how great Messenger is.