(Subscribe to our Today's Cache newsletter for a quick snapshot of top 5 tech stories. Click here to subscribe for free.)
India has surpassed the U. S. to become Snapchat’s top market for new users. The two countries now make up one-half of the app’s new downloads.
In the month of October, India represented 32% of the app’s downloads, while 18% of the new users were from the U.S., followed by Mexico, Indonesia, and Russia, according to a report by app intelligence firm Apptopia.
India took the top spot in July with 20% of the new downloads coming from the country.
“This was likely because TikTok was banned by the Indian government in late June and Snapchat was ready for the moment,” Apptopia said in the report.
Also Read | India trails Pakistan in 4G download speed, report says
Post July, the app’s market share of downloads in the country has steadily grown. On October 28, India recorded its single largest day of Snapchat downloads with over 4.3 lakh new users downloading the app.
“It has also made smaller deals with mobile carriers to subsidize the use of Snapchat on capped data plans, along with more creative deals, like the installation of a virtual keyboard on Samsung phones that lets people easily share its customizable Bitmoji avatars,” the report explained.
Although, the U.S. still maintains the lead in terms of daily active users (DAU) with about 23% of Snapchat’s DAU from the country. While, India took the second spot from Brazil in August, and now represents around 11% of the app’s DAU.
Also Read | India smartphone market rebounds to record high in a single quarter
Snapchat is growing globally as well, in part because of its recent "Sounds" feature, that enables users to drop music into their snaps, Apptopia noted.