As 2023 begins, open up the most-downloaded charts for free apps on iOS and Google and you’ll find TikTok where it usually is: on top. The video-centric social app currently ranks No. 3 overall in both stores, trailing only a shopping app and mood diary (on Android) and a to-do app and video editor (on iOS). That video editing app is CapCut, by the way, and it is also developed by ByteDance; CapCut is an app for making TikTok videos.
Downloads are a crude metric for capturing an app’s…