Many social apps are seeing gains in the wake of Twitter chaos, new data shows
The Twitter drama following the Elon Musk acquisition has seen some users looking for an exit. In recent days, alternative social apps and microblogging platforms have seen solid gains, including, most notably, Twitter's open-source decentralized alternative, Mastodon. The service's founder and CEO recently announced that Mastodon has surpassed one million monthly active users, after more than half a million users have joined the network since the Twitter deal closed on October 27. But Mastodon isn't the only app to benefit from Twitter's upheaval.
In a new report, app intelligence firm Sensor Tower analyzed the growth of social apps after Musk's takeover.
It was noted that Mastodon saw approximately 322,000 new downloads from US app stores in the 12 days following the Twitter acquisition (October 27 to November 7), more than 100 times the 3 000 that it had recorded in the previous 12 days. Globally, the app grew 657% to reach 1 million installs during the same period from October 27 to November 7, up from 15,000 in the previous 12 days.
Other third-party Mastodon clients also saw increases, with Metatext and Tootle both growing from less than 1,000 installs to 19,000 and 7,000, respectively, between the two periods.
But Mastodon isn't the only network seeing an increase in app installs, actually.
Tumblr also saw app installs in the US increase by 96%, from 47,000 to 92,000 between the two periods. Additionally, its global installs grew by 77%, from 170,000 to 301,000.
Image credits: detection tower
In addition, alternative social app CounterSocial grew 2,300% to 24,000 installs in US app stores within 12 days of acquisition, and 3,200% globally, with 33 000 installs, according to the report.
Another app intelligence company, data.ai, sliced the data in a slightly different way. It looked at the global download growth of various social apps over a seven-day period following the acquisition (October 27 to November 2), and then compared it to the previous seven-day period.
>Its data, shared exclusively with TechCrunch, also confirmed the huge gains made by Mastodon and CounterSocial in terms of global installs growth between the two periods. Mastodon installs jumped 2200% and CounterSocial installs jumped 1200% according to its analysis.
But Data.ai took a closer look at app store charts and found that a number of other social apps were experiencing bumps, beyond direct Twitter alternatives.
These include David's Disposable (up 83% in both periods), nFollowers (up 50%), CocoFun (up 46%), Substack Reader (up 24%), Tribel (up 11%), Tumblr (up 7%) and Pinterest (+2%). Substack, in particular, has marketed itself as a social community following the acquisition of Twitter, even launching a new chat feature that allows writers and their audiences to engage in threaded discussions. Dispo had fun chasing the mayhem of Twitter in a few tweets and memes, like one celebrating Musk not owning the Dispo app.
The Twitter drama following the Elon Musk acquisition has seen some users looking for an exit. In recent days, alternative social apps and microblogging platforms have seen solid gains, including, most notably, Twitter's open-source decentralized alternative, Mastodon. The service's founder and CEO recently announced that Mastodon has surpassed one million monthly active users, after more than half a million users have joined the network since the Twitter deal closed on October 27. But Mastodon isn't the only app to benefit from Twitter's upheaval.
In a new report, app intelligence firm Sensor Tower analyzed the growth of social apps after Musk's takeover.
It was noted that Mastodon saw approximately 322,000 new downloads from US app stores in the 12 days following the Twitter acquisition (October 27 to November 7), more than 100 times the 3 000 that it had recorded in the previous 12 days. Globally, the app grew 657% to reach 1 million installs during the same period from October 27 to November 7, up from 15,000 in the previous 12 days.
Other third-party Mastodon clients also saw increases, with Metatext and Tootle both growing from less than 1,000 installs to 19,000 and 7,000, respectively, between the two periods.
But Mastodon isn't the only network seeing an increase in app installs, actually.
Tumblr also saw app installs in the US increase by 96%, from 47,000 to 92,000 between the two periods. Additionally, its global installs grew by 77%, from 170,000 to 301,000.
Image credits: detection tower
In addition, alternative social app CounterSocial grew 2,300% to 24,000 installs in US app stores within 12 days of acquisition, and 3,200% globally, with 33 000 installs, according to the report.
Another app intelligence company, data.ai, sliced the data in a slightly different way. It looked at the global download growth of various social apps over a seven-day period following the acquisition (October 27 to November 2), and then compared it to the previous seven-day period.
>Its data, shared exclusively with TechCrunch, also confirmed the huge gains made by Mastodon and CounterSocial in terms of global installs growth between the two periods. Mastodon installs jumped 2200% and CounterSocial installs jumped 1200% according to its analysis.
But Data.ai took a closer look at app store charts and found that a number of other social apps were experiencing bumps, beyond direct Twitter alternatives.
These include David's Disposable (up 83% in both periods), nFollowers (up 50%), CocoFun (up 46%), Substack Reader (up 24%), Tribel (up 11%), Tumblr (up 7%) and Pinterest (+2%). Substack, in particular, has marketed itself as a social community following the acquisition of Twitter, even launching a new chat feature that allows writers and their audiences to engage in threaded discussions. Dispo had fun chasing the mayhem of Twitter in a few tweets and memes, like one celebrating Musk not owning the Dispo app.
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