Not just TikTok, Americans hooked on Chinese apps

[beijingwalker]

Not just TikTok, Americans hooked on Chinese apps​

March. 27 2023

The standoff between the U.S. government and TikTok underscores a growing problem for policymakers: Chinese apps are booming in America, but most U.S. apps aren't able to operate in China.

Why it matters: Mobile apps are one of the most powerful vectors for expanding trade and exporting soft power, given how widely accessible they are, how much time is spent on them, and how little regulatory oversight there is online.

• Chinese companies are able to "leverage China’s one billion internet users to test user preferences and optimize their AI models at home, then export the tech overseas," The Wall Street Journal notes. But given censorship demands in China, American tech firms can't reciprocate.

Driving the news: In the past 30 days, four of the top 10 most-downloaded apps in the U.S. across Apple's iOS store and the Google Play store are owned by Chinese companies.

1. Temu, an online retailer, has quickly become one of the fastest-growing apps in the U.S., giving marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart a run for their money. The company is based in Boston and owned by PDD Holdings, a multinational commerce company that's publicly traded on the Beijing stock exchange. PDD is also parent to Chinese social commerce company Pinduoduo.
2. TikTok continues to gain traction in the U.S., even amid calls for a possible ban. TikTok was by far the most-downloaded app in the U.S. and globally last year.
3. CapCut, a video editing app owned by TikTok parent ByteDance, is also gaining ground in the U.S. as a vehicle for young users to optimize their short-form video posts on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
4. SHEIN, a fast-fashion giant based in Singapore but founded in China, has long been one of the most-downloaded e-commerce apps in the U.S. The company was founded by Chinese entrepreneur Chris Xu, and most of its suppliers are in China.

Yes, but: While an increasing number of Chinese apps are becoming popular to download, these apps still struggle to provide American users with the same sense of daily utility as those made by U.S. companies.

• Case-in-point: TikTok is the only app in the top 20 most-visited apps in the U.S. last month, per Comscore. Eight of the top 10 are owned by Google or Meta. The vast majority of the top 20 are owned by those two firms, Amazon or Apple.

Be smart: Last week's Congressional hearing showed how much bipartisan angst there is around TikTok's growing footprint.

• TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was grilled for hours by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, making for a contentious event that was broadcast live to millions of people globally online, on television, and of course, on TikTok.

In China, state media called the hearing an "embarrassment," per The Washington Post.

• The Chinese Foreign Ministry argued that a ban, if TikTok is not sold to a U.S. firm, would constitute “unreasonable suppression” of the app.
• Online in China, Chew is being described as a "punching bag" for American lawmakers and praised as a hero.

The big picture: The tension between China and Washington has come to a head over the national security risks that U.S. imports of foreign technology could pose.

• To date, lawmakers have mostly taken aim at hardware and enterprise technology firms like Huawei and ZTE. TikTok is the first major consumer app that lawmakers are publicly threatening to ban.

Americans hooked on Chinese apps

Four of the top 10 most-downloaded apps in the U.S. over the past month are owned by Chinese companies.

www.axios.com

 

[大汉奸柳传志]

top 4 are all Chinese LMAO. soon enough they will be banning every Chinese app in a butthurt manner, like India.

 

[beijingwalker]

Where TikTok Is the Most Popular With Adults​

TIKTOK USAGE​

by Florian Zandt,
Mar 28, 2023

On March 23, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared before Congress to answer lawmakers' questions surrounding the popular social media app's connections to China and the potential risks of collected data being provided to the CCP. While some observers categorized the hearing as little more than individual representatives airing their personal grievances with TikTok, the impact and importance of the app in the United States can hardly be understated.

As a report from DataReportal shows, the U.S. had the biggest adult addressable ad audience out of all the countries analyzed, with advertising reaching around 113 million users aged 18 or older at the end of 2022. Looking at the ad audience numbers by region, Southeast Asia comes out on top with 272 million users, 200 million of which were reached in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines alone. Important to note: These numbers only give perspective on the impact of the app. They do not represent all registered accounts since TikTok can be used by anyone older than 13, and the ad audience aged 18 and older may be smaller than the total number of adults on the service.

Interestingly, many of the world's biggest economies are not included in the top 8, although the absences of China and India in particular are easily explained. China has a domestic version of the app called Douyin, which means Chinese residents are less likely to install the international variant of the app. The latter put out a ban on a slew of Chinese apps in the summer of 2020, including TikTok, to curb the alleged influence of the People's Republic amid rising geopolitical tensions.

When it comes to the opinion of some European and U.S. legislators, India won't be the only country with a blanket ban on the Chinese social media app in the future. The United States has already banned the app's usage on work devices in some states and for many federal government workers, threatening a wholesale ban if TikTok isn't split off from parent company ByteDance and rebuilt as a U.S.-based social media provider.

This would most likely not change its modus operandi, only who has access to the data of its users. Big tech companies like Meta or Alphabet operate on the same business model as the much-maligned TikTok, storing large quantities of sensitive user data and using it for advertising and other purposes. This is one of the chief reasons for critics of TikTok being under increased scrutiny by lawmakers labeling the recent proceedings as latently sinophobic and one of many symptoms of a new Cold War.

Infographic: Where TikTok Is the Most Popular With Adults

This chart shows the countries with the estimated highest number of TikTok users aged 18+.

www.statista.com

 

[nahtanbob]

Not just TikTok, Americans hooked on Chinese apps​

March. 27 2023

View attachment 922388​

I have never downloaded youtube app. I use it all the time. I will let @beijingwalker figure out the logic

 

[dbc]

Chinese app in a butthurt manner

is butthurt the reason western apps are banned in China?

 

[Yaoudelizard]

is butthurt the reason western apps are banned in China?

They are allowed as long as they adhere to Chinese laws and standards. They chose to exit the Chinese market by not adhering to Chinese law, they can come back whenever they adhere to these laws.

 

[dbc]

They are allowed as long as they adhere to Chinese laws and standards. They chose to exit the Chinese market by not adhering to Chinese law, they can come back whenever they adhere to these laws.

sure, but then why is it not ok for the US to apply the same laws and standards to Chinese apps?

 

[K_Bin_W]

I switched from ebay to Temu even though they do not sell brand names their service is much better..

 

[大汉奸柳传志]

I have never downloaded youtube app. I use it all the time.

like how? on your phone browser?

is butthurt the reason western apps are banned in China?

no but I guess none of them have succeeded in China to raise eyebrows the way tiktok did in the US. I'm using whatsapp just fine tho.

 

[beijingwalker]

sure, but then why is it not ok for the US to apply the same laws and standards to Chinese apps?

I guess it's ok, but US should stop accusing others of monitoring or censoring social media as if US itself doesn't do it as well.

 

[dbc]

I guess it's ok, but US should stop accusing others of monitoring or censoring social media as if US itself doesn't do it as well.

it's night and day when you compare US Government influence over social media to the CCP's influence over Chinese media. No one in the US disappears for posting an image of Winnie the Pooh on twitter.

 

[nahtanbob]

like how? on your phone browser?

The youtube app was always pre-installed

 

[James David]

so I am using Tiktok, and I like Chinese take out. so I'm hooked? Frak I'm movin my *** off to China! Lot's of noodles and dimsum there!

 

[大汉奸柳传志]

The youtube app was always pre-installed

I always redownload those bundled software myself, they could have been tempered with by the phone companies

 

[Olympus81]

I don’t think there is room for whataboutism.

American apps have been banned in China for a very long time.

Now, Chinese apps are being banned in America.

The US will continue its policy to limit imports from China, move US factories away from China, essentially do anything and everything to limit China’s rise.

All fair game.