The longest down in the history of Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram has meant for many a abrupt change in the online routine . For some it was an evening of panic, for others an opportunity to resume activities away from the screen, while still others simply sought an alternative to vent their social needs . The latter were probably the majority given the numbers recorded by the rivals of Facebook & c. According to the data reported by Sensor Tower, in fact, the one who earned the most from the October 4 blackout was Snapchat, which saw its users grow by 23% ) compared to the previous week.
Among other social networks, users increased the time spent on Twitter by 11% , while on TikTok by only 2% . A similar fate has happened to pure messaging applications such as Telegram (+ 18%) and Signal (+15%) .
On the other hand, the downside are the obviously negative numbers recorded by Instagram ( – 38% of connected users), WhatsApp (-25%), Facebook (-24%) and Messenger (-20%) . However, we must not think that this is the signal of a definitive change indeed, already in the past these apps have shown to be flexible and to be able to quickly recover the lost ground.
If instead of thinking about time spent analyzing the scenario for active users , the figures shift, but the positions remain substantially the same. So, as you can see from the graph below, rival apps have all gained ground, with the exception of TikTok, which curiously drops by 1% compared to the previous week.
The absence of social media has made itself felt, but as we said it may not have lasting consequences. Different speech instead for the messaging apps that just last October 4 saw an exponential increase in new subscribers. Here the preliminary data from Sensor Tower show a sudden increase with the new users who on Signal multiplied by 12 (from 74,000 on 3 October to 881,000 on next day. Less strong but still very consistent increases were also recorded by Telegram ( + 530% equivalent to 6.3 million new accounts) and Viber ( + 630% , going from 137,000 installations to approximately 1 million in 24 hours).
However, the numbers of the base remain deeply distant: despite everything WhatsApp collects about 6 billion users worldwide , while Telegram and Signal respectively only reached 1 billion and 113 million . The analysis concludes with a note on the fact that the interest triggered by the down could have unexpected consequences in the coming weeks / months , consequences that will be analyzed over time, but which are not yet evident.
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