According to the app tracker App Annie, the four most downloaded apps of the decade are all owned by Facebook.
The four most downloaded apps of the decade are Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. All of these apps are owned by Facebook.
Between 2010 to 2019, the most downloaded app was Facebook followed by Facebook Messenger app. WhatsApp was the third most downloaded app, and Instagram was the fourth most downloaded app. In 2012, Instagram was bought by Facebook for $1bn (£760m). Similarly, WhatsApp was bought by Facebook in 2014 for $19bn.
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It has been highlighted by App Annie how much power and control Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has.
The four main apps ranked have more than a billion users each.
A senior research fellow in computation science at the Oxford Internet Institute Taha Yasseri said, “It is not ok.”
Adding, “One company owns four of the most popular social networking and communication apps, at best, can be described as a data monopoly. Combined, the data from multiple platforms can lead to an extremely high level of precision in modeling our traits and behaviors. This amount of power should be regulated.”
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The UK’s competition regulator said the UK “should tackle the dominance of online giants.”
Concerns were raised by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regarding people using these platforms and not being in control of their own data.
At 5th and 6th place stood Snapchat and Skype followed by TikTok and UC Browser that is owned by China’s Alibaba. At the 9th and 10th place stood YouTube and Twitter.
Out of the 10 apps, 8 are owned by US companies while two are owned by Chinese companies.
Adithya Venkatraman, a market insights manager at App Annie said, “Mobile has been at the heart of major changes in consumer behavior this decade.”
Adding, “Communication and social media apps are consumer favourites, accounting for seven of the top 10 apps by downloads this decade. In terms of consumer spend, video streaming and music apps were well represented, with Netflix, Pandora Music, and Tencent Video all appearing in the top five.”
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