TikTok launched a new social app earlier this month called WheyAn Instagram-like service for taking photos to share with friends. Like Instagram, Whee also supports the use of photo filters and includes messaging. However, the company’s plans for Whee are unclear, as the app has relatively few downloads and has not yet advertised itself through Apple’s Search Ads, according to new data from app intelligence firm Appfigures.
Without marketing support, new apps remain largely invisible on today’s app stores. This appears to be the case with Vue, which quietly launched in 71 countries around the world on June 18. Due to the lack of promotion, Vue did not find a place in the top free apps chart on Apple’s App Store, nor did it immediately become one of the top 500 social apps in its supported markets, although that later changed.
Whis is linked to TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based Bytedance, but according to its app store listing, it is published by TikTok itself, not its parent company.
As of Tuesday, Whee had a total of 13,000 downloads on iOS and over 10,000 on Android, according to Google Play data. It’s also clear that it’s not being sold in the US at the moment, as its top markets on iOS include Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Peru, and Indonesia. Still, these countries are only contributing a small number of downloads.
For example, No. 1 market Malaysia had 2,400 downloads while Indonesia ranked fifth with just 800 installs. Due to the low numbers, these are likely downloads by people who came across Vue while searching the app store. In smaller markets with fewer apps, Vue made it into the top 500 social apps, although it never reached the top 10 and mostly stayed in the top 50.
In addition, AppFigures says ByteDance has not yet tried to advertise Vue through Apple’s Search Ads, which help apps rank higher when App Store users search for apps using specific keywords. The firm found no Apple Search Ads activity associated with Vue yet. Furthermore, user feedback from those searching for Vue is also quite weak, as the app has an overall rating of 3.6 out of 5 globally across 31 App Store ratings, of which only 10 are reviews.
ByteDance has not commented on its plans for Whis, but the timing of the app’s launch has raised eyebrows, as President Biden has officially said TikTok ban signed into law After the House at the end of April Amended bill passed Due to which either TikTok had to be banned or it had to be sold. (Since then TikTok filed a suit on (The US is expected to block the law from taking effect, which would delay the ban at least for a while, until its legality is decided in court.)
The arrival of Whis could be a kind of Plan B that allows ByteDance to maintain a social presence in the US even if the ban on TikTok remains in place.
This is not the first time ByteDance has tried to generate interest in other social apps besides TikTok. Earlier in 2023, the company had secretly tried to generate interest in other social apps besides TikTok. Launched another app like Instagram, Lemon8 in the US and UK, and Even TikTok influencers were paid to post about the app Seed its starting material. Those efforts didn’t yield any immediate results.As of November 2023, US downloads of the app on iOS had only reached 2.5 million — a very good number for a new startup, but nothing near the size of TikTok, which exceeded 1.5 million in 2023. one billion monthly active users, including the 170 million However, Lemon8 may be a slow-growth endeavor. Today, it’s the No. 2 lifestyle app in the U.S., with about 7.7 million iOS installs in that market.
ByteDance also operates another popular video app, Capcut, which is often used to create TikTok videos. Rival of BeRealtiktok now, Although he closed down Less than a year later.
Whether Whee will work as well as Lemon8 remains to be seen. But if your favorite TikTok influencer starts talking about Whee randomly in the future, be aware that they may have been paid to do so.
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