Joe Biden Seeks To Ban TikTok...But Top 4 Most-Downloaded Apps In US Are Chinese-Owned

Despite TikTok facing increasing scrutiny as lawmakers prepare to ban it, four out of the top 10 most-downloaded apps in the U.S. are owned by Chinese companies. 

What Happened: Last week, the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, said that the popular Chinese-owned short-form video application is facing a “pivotal” moment as U.S. lawmakers prepare to ban it. 

Interestingly, despite concerns about Chinese-owned apps, American users are increasingly downloading apps owned by China-based companies. 

See Also: Conflict Of Interest? Congress Members Who Own META, GOOG, SNAP Shares Could Benefit From TikTok Ban

According to data shared by Axios, in the past 30 days, four out of the top 10 most-downloaded apps in the U.S. across Apple Inc.’s AAPL App Store and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL Google Play Store, are owned by Chinese companies. 

These apps are: 

Temu: It is an online retailer that shares a marketplace with Amazon and Walmart. 

TikTok: It is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese company ByteDance that hosts user-submitted videos. 

CapCut: It is a video editing app owned by ByteDance and can be used to optimize short-form videos to post on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. 

SHEIN: It is a B2C fast fashion e-commerce platform and is among the most downloaded e-commerce apps in the U.S.

Meta Platforms Inc.’s META WhatsApp and Instagram were in fifth and sixth position, respectively, while Snap Inc.’s SNAP Snapchat came tenth. 

Why It’s Important: Earlier, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to grant President Joe Biden the power to ban TikTok in the country.

Biden’s administration reportedly demanded that TikTok’s Chinese owners divest their stake in the app. 

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