Tag: helo app

App downloads increases during COVID-19 lockdown; TikTok became the most downloaded app

Chinese video-sharing app TikTok has become the most downloaded app among social media applications in India during the lockdown period.

Chinese video-sharing app TikTok has become the most downloaded app among social media applications in India during the lockdown period.

TikTok’s #GharbaithoIndia campaign, launched in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, generated over 4.6 billion views. Instagram’s live views grew more than 60 percent during the first week of 21-day lockdown.

Besides ByteDance‘s video app, WhatsApp, Facebook, Helo, Instagram and VMate were the most downloaded social networking apps on iOS or Google Play.

India and Brazil were the two largest markets by downloads on Google Play in Q1 2020.

As working from home becomes the norm, and more schools and gyms begin to close, we’ve seen an increase in downloads of apps that allow consumers to maintain normality while staying at home. Conferencing and collaboration tools such as ZOOM, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Teams have seen strong adoption.

It is suggested that the number of downloads on both Android and iOS devices has increased by up to 20% (around 49 million downloads) when compared to the number of downloads in January. In terms of app spends, Tinder took the top spot. It was followed by video-streaming apps YouTube, Netflix, IQIYI, and Tencent Video.

In its latest Global Market Index, App Annie reveals that users spent a record $23.4 billion on mobile apps in Q1 2020. This period also saw new downloads crossing 31 billion, growing 15 percent over Q4 2019.

And all this is because consumers are exploring newer avenues of recreation and relaxation during the lockdown to keep themselves busy.

Local startups face competition from Bytedance’s TikTok and Helo

Bytedance made entry with apps like ‘TikTok’ (formerly Musically) and ‘Helo’ in India.

Bytedance made entry with apps like ‘TikTok’ (formerly Musically) and ‘Helo’ in India. Till early 2018, local startups like Clip App (video) and ShareChat (social networking) were blossoming.

TikTok started mushrooming quite well and to counter ShareChat, ByteDance cloned the former’s model and launched ‘Helo’ in early 2018.

TikTok started disintegrated the market share of Clip App. Struggling to retain acquired users and match marketing budgets of $75 billion valued Chinese group, Clip App finally struck an acquihire deal with ShareChat.



ShareChat has been witnessing intense competition from Helo which continues to burn anywhere between $15-18 million every month over the past six months. Backed with an aggressive approach, Helo has been gaining market share quickly while ShareChat userbase is witnessing its daily active users plateau over the last quarter of 2018.

Helo had 10 million downloads in the last month. On the other hand, ShareChat numbers of install stood at 7 million.

“Everyone in vernacular content space in India is raising capital. And you are competing with Bytedance, a continuous inflow of funds anyway becomes necessary”, said one of the startup’s founders on condition of anonymity.

ShareChat has been in talks with Tencent to rake in about $200 million with the help of the Chinese MNC and others. The deal if materialises would value ShareChat in the range of $600-700 million.

If Tencent takes on the responsibility to financially help ShareChat in its fight against ByteDance’s Helo, both might stay in the game for a long run. Still, in case there is no progress towards profitability, it is all big money down the drain.