Meta says a Russian group known as “Doppelganger” continues its efforts to undermine support for Ukraine using fake accounts on social media – Copyright AFP Kirill Kudryavtsev
According to a new study, the most popular app banned in multiple countries is Facebook, which has 3.05 billion monthly users.. As a result, TikTok stands out as a possible app that could be banned in the US for its 170 million users.
PUBG Mobile rounds out the rankings as the only game to be on the list of most popular banned apps.
Researchers at Linkee.ai conducted a study to rank the most popular apps that are currently banned in other countries. Information on global and US monthly user numbers and revenue was collected from Statista.. For additional context, a Google search in the United States was added.
The final ranking was based on monthly user numbers.
Apps | type | Monthly users | US users | 2023 Total Revenue | Revenues (US) 2023 | Prohibited |
Social Media | 3.05B | 175M | $134.9 billion | $61.2 billion | China, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uganda | |
Messaging Apps | 3.03B | 98M | $1.24 billion | $40 million | China, North Korea, Syria, Qatar, UAE | |
YouTube | Video Sharing | 2.7 billion | 239M | $31.5 billion | $18 billion | Partial ban in North Korea, Germany, China, North Korea, Thailand and Malaysia |
Social Media | 2B | 133.5 million | $50.58 billion | $60.3 billion | China, Vietnam, North Korea, Türkiye | |
Search engine | 1.5 billion | 276M | $305.6 billion | $256 billion | China | |
Messaging Apps | 1.3 billion | 4M | $16.4 billion | $71.4 million | Partial ban in India, Canada, UK, New Zealand (Government Devices) | |
TikTok | Social Media | 1B | 170M | $120 billion | $16 billion | Partial bans in India, Nepal, New Zealand, Taiwan and Indonesia |
Social Media | 335.7 million | 76M | $3.4 billion | $1.75 billion | China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Turkmenistan | |
Baidu | browser | 667M | 7.5 million | $14.57 billion | 164M | India |
Spotify | Music Services | 602M | 100 million | $13.2 billion | $1.43 billion | China, Ethiopia, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, Cuba, Venezuela |
From the above table, we can see that Facebook is the most popular app with 3 billion monthly users worldwide and is banned in other countries. Facebook is currently banned in countries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, but it brought in over $130 billion in revenue last year.
Whatsapp comes in second on the list of most popular banned apps, closely trailing Facebook with 3.03 billion monthly users. The popular messenger is also banned in China and North Korea, but also in Syria, Qatar and the UAE. Although Whatsapp has fewer users in the United States than Facebook with 98 million, it receives more searches for it online, attracting over 5 million queries per month.
Youtube comes in third with 2.7 million monthly users worldwide. Youtube is the most searched app downloaded online with over 10 million queries, and is the second most used app in this ranking after Google. Currently, Youtube is only banned in North Korea, but it also faces partial bans and content restrictions in China, Thailand, Malaysia, and even Germany.
Instagram comes in fourth with 2 billion monthly users, 1 billion fewer than WhatsApp and Facebook. Instagram is expected to generate $60.3 billion in revenue in 2023, of which $45 billion will come from US users. Though hugely popular in the US, the app is banned in Vietnam, North Korea, China and Turkey.
Google ranks fifth in the ranking of the most popular apps banned in other countries, with 1.5 billion monthly users. The popular search engine has the most users in the ranking, with 276 million monthly users. Google is the largest revenue earner, earning over $305 billion last year. Currently, Google is only banned in China.