Roughly 80% of Filipinos are on social media, according to 2020 data from internet usage tracker DataReportal, once again affirming the country's love affair with the internet.
During the year spent mostly under coronavirus quarantines, there were 152.4 million mobile connections for the Philippines, that's larger than the country's population, meaning there were more connections than people last year.
DataReportal released their Digital 2021 report for the Philippines, which uses data from the Kepios team and partners such as Hootsuite and We Are Social.
Here are the most downloaded apps in the Philippines for 2020:
1. TikTok
Taking first place is video-sharing social networking platform TikTok from Chinese company ByteDance. TikTok boomed during quarantines, with users participating in dance challenges and uploading up to three minutes long videos to while away the time spent at home.
Content is diverse: One scroll sees space shared among make-up routines, interior design makeovers, social commentary, and even the word of God.
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2-3. Facebook and Facebook Messenger
In second place is social networking site Facebook, with accompanying messaging app Facebook Messenger coming in at third place.
A total of 83 million Filipino users utilize the platform for photo sharing, connecting with friends and family, accessing the latest news, and buying and selling in its in-platform marketplace.
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4-5. Shopee and Gcash
With quarantines keeping everyone at home, buying essentials and even splurging to treat yourself moved online. Singaporean e-commerce and online shopping platform Shopee took fourth place, just above Mynt's mobile wallet GCash which enables users to pay for digital and online transactions with virtual credit.
Both apps have made a contactless shopping experience possible during the pandemic, a time when contact should be minimized.
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6-8. Zoom, Google Meet, and ShareIt
Keeping boredom at bay, maintaining connections, and virtual spending took the first 5 spots on the list. Next up on the list are apps used for productivity, virtual meetings, and file storage—essentials for the student attending online classes or the employee working from home.
Video call software Zoom Cloud Meetings took sixth place, just a spot above Google's video telephony program Google Meet. In eighth place is ShareIt, a cross-platform file-sharing app.
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9-10. Lazada and Instagram
In ninth place is Lazada, another e-commerce platform from Singapore. Facebook-owned photo and video sharing social networking app Instagram rounds up the top 10, where its stories, photo timeline, and direct messages functions allow for users to capture their life in pictures both still and moving.
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