The owner of TikTok, China’s ByteDance, is racking up users for its music streaming service Resso while it expands its international presence despite ongoing pressure from the United States. The app was launched in India and Indonesia formally last March. According to Sensor Tower, the app has already reached 15.2 million total installs on the App Store and Google Play.
Beginning August until the end of the month, the app had approximately 3.6 million installs from first-time users worldwide. This record is increased by 64% from the 2.2 million installs the app garnered from July 1 to July 30.
India is Resso’s most extensive market, which accounts for 65% of its total installs. Indonesia follows this record with 34% of the app’s total installs. The remaining percentage of the downloads was from Brazil. There was a launch presentation held earlier this month.
It is undetermined how many of those installs have brought about paying and returning users. ByteDance did not immediately comment on the topic when contacted by CNBC.
ByteDance proceeds to push for international business growth, despite the pressure it has encountered from the United States government. This pressure threatened to ban TikTok if it does not cater to an American company by September 20.
TikTok has chosen a bidder with the duo of Microsoft and Walmart, and a separate contender Oracle, as the front liners, according to people familiar with the situation.
With China proceeding with updates on its list of technologies subject to export restrictions, the deal has become complex. China’s updates include a provision requiring ByteDance to acquire a license from Beijing before exporting TikTok-associated technology. ByteDance mentioned on Sunday that “the company will strictly abide” by the laws.
Washington has quoted TikTok a “national security threat” and argues that the company could pass American user data on to China. Tiktok denied the mentioned allegation repeatedly. The TikTok crisis has seen Kevin Mayer, the former CEO who led TikTok’s international expansion, resign after just a few months.
ByteDance hopes that Resso can aid the company to regain momentum in India after the ban. The fast rate of Resso’s installs seems to be comparable with its contender, Spotify. According to Sensor Tower, in the five months after Spotify launched in India in February 2019, it had 10.5 million installs compared to 9.8 million for Resso. In Indonesia, where Spotify launched in March 2016, the company had 1.2 million installs in the first five months. Resso has made more with 5 million installs in the five months after its availability.
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