The short-form video app Douyin, named Tik Tok outside China, has helped to reveal some of Chinese people’s lesser-known characteristics as it has become the latest mobile internet fad domestically and abroad, hitting the top of the Apple App Store’s global non-game download chart for the first quarter of 2018.

Internationally it was downloaded 45.8 million times between January and March, leaving better-known apps such as Instagram and Facebook well behind, according to app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. YouTube ranked second in the period, with 35.3 million downloads, and WhatsApp third with 33.8 million.
According to consulting firm BigData-Research, Douyin had the most active users among China’s booming short video sector during the first three months of the year, with each user opening the app 4.7 times a day on average.