The new App Annie statistics from July show how volatile the global messaging app market is. In just one month, WeChat has soared from No.17 to No.4 on the iOS download chart for non-game apps. No other messaging apps made the top-10 download chart in July. Somewhat shockingly, WeChat has now passed both Instagram and Snapchat in global popularity. It is fascinating that WeChat’s popularity exploded just ahead of BlackBerry Messenger’s upcoming availability for Android and iOS devices… and exactly in markets that BlackBerry depends on.
At the moment, WeChat is a top-5 app in BBM cornerstone markets like Nigeria and South Africa. It is also a top-10 app in Malaysia and top-20 app in UAE, Philippines and Brazil, all important countries for BlackBerry. This success is very recent — as recently as last March, WeChat spent most of the month outside the top-500 in Nigeria.
Interestingly, Vine rocketed from No.19 to No.10, while Instagram held its ground as the fifth most downloaded iOS non-game app. This means that two of the 10 most popular iOS apps in the world right now are anchored by the feature of taking and sharing short video clips. A mere year ago, this would have seemed utterly bizarre.
