Most downloaded social media app: Tiktok overtakes Facebook

TOKYO: Chinese short-video platform TikTok has overtaken Facebook as the most downloaded social media app in the world.

A global survey of downloads in 2020 shows TikTok, a video-sharing app developed in China, on top of the list of social media providers for the first time since the study was first conducted in 2018, foreign media reported.

As concern for personal privacy grows, Telegram, a messaging app that can delete posts, also ranked high during a year when social media use has been driven up by the COVID-19 pandemic.

ByteDance launched the international version of TikTok in 2017, and has since overtaken Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger -- all of which are Facebook owned

-- in downloads, even in the US. "I enjoy videos by artists who aren't performing live anymore because of the pandemic," said Nina, 37, of Portland in the US.