Temu was the most-downloaded iPhone app in the US in 2023

techcrunch.com:

Temu, the Chinese e-commerce company whose app is now attracting longer engagement times than Amazon, is Apple’s most downloaded free app in the U.S. for 2023. The Cupertino-based tech giant today released an App Store feature that showcases the top iPhone apps of the year, free and paid, as measured by app installs — its proxy for overall popularity. This year, apps from Chinese-based companies have taken over spots previously held by U.S. tech giants like Meta and Google, as CapCut and TikTok, which hail from Beijing-based ByteDance, came in at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively.

Meta, which last year held the No. 3, No. 4, and No. 9 spots with WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, respectively, showed up in the top 10 this year with a slightly different mix. Gone from the charts is Facebook, while Meta’s new app Instagram Threads was the No. 3 app by U.S. downloads. Instagram and WhatsApp followed at No. 6 and No. 9, slipping in position from their ranking last year.

Google, meanwhile, had dominated last year’s list with the No. 2 app YouTube, just behind TikTok, as well as No. 5 Google Maps, No. 6 Google Search and No. 7 Gmail. In 2023, however, Google’s only two apps in the top 10 by downloads included No. 7 Google Search and No. 8 YouTube, both also slipping in ranking from last year.

The shift in downloads could represent that U.S. tech giants are nearly at a market saturation point, where their apps aren’t as in demand as they were in previous years because many already have them installed. It also points to the growing demand for apps from Chinese firms, like ByteDance, which are attracting younger users’ attention along with government scrutiny, with TikTok being banned froma number of government devices over concerns