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TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

(www.businessinsider.com)
298 points elorant | 1 comments | 19 Nov 19 14:09 UTC | HN request time: 0.213s | source
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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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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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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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1. 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...