Twitter leads social media downloads amid protests, data reveals

Twitter surpassed rivals Facebook and Instagram in downloads earlier this week, according to Apptopia. Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley joins Kristin Myers to discuss.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Now, as protests continue, app downloads have been on the rise. And for more on this, we have our resident tech-spert, Dan Howley. Hey, Dan.

DAN HOWLEY: Hey, what's happening? Yes. App downloads are rising, particularly-- and surprisingly-- Twitter. According to Apptopia, Twitter is outstripping the likes of Facebook and Instagram, its chief rivals in the social media space, during this time of protest. And, obviously, one of the main reasons that they speculate is because it's an easy way to get instant news from large sources. So if there are people who are participating in protests, have protests going on in their area, want to get updates on them, Twitter is really the exact place you would want to go for something along those lines.

Facebook does have, by the way, its livestream capabilities. Instagram has Instagram stories. But if people are looking for something that isn't so algorithmically driven, they may be opting for something like Twitter. And then, of course, there is the bump that they usually get from the likes of President Trump, who uses it as his platform of choice.

This all kind of follows Twitter's spat with him in the news as well as, as far as legislation goes, they previously had hit his tweet referencing "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" and put a correction notice on his tweet about mail-in ballots. And that has led to discussion of whether or not we'll see a repeal of section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which is considered a foundational part of the modern internet. So Twitter really just, I mean, you know-- in this really unfortunate slash good time for the company, they seem to be doing very well.

KRISTIN MYERS: Dan, do you expect that the downloads-- you know, increased downloads or Twitter exceeding Facebook-- again, which is unusual for them, do you that will continue after, you know, the protests die down? Or do you think this is like a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing?

DAN HOWLEY: You know, it's interesting. I think when major news events like this occur, Twitter really is a beneficiary of it because people do want to be able to follow a lot of sources for news at once. And you can look at something like, you know, neighborhood news organizations. You can get those on Twitter and really be up-to-date on them along with national news. So it makes it easier to digest a lot of news at once.

Plus, if you look at what's going on on the ground, you know, there other activists who are actively tweeting while they're walking in their protest. So it's easier to follow what's going on. There's also a lot of sharing going on of different places to donate.

And I think that really speaks to the power that Twitter has to offer versus something like a Facebook or Instagram. Instagram is more about, you know, just showing photos and, you know, the influencer lifestyle. And Facebook is kind of a catch all.

But I think, you know, we're really kind of seeing the offer that Twitter has, perhaps more than we ever have before. Whether or not it sticks around, I'm not entirely sure because this seems to be so driven by the events that have taken place, specifically with the protests related to George Floyd and police brutality at large. So I think it may just be a one-time deal for them at this point.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, Yahoo! Finance's tech-spert Dan Howley. Dan, I really hope they keep that title after.

DAN HOWLEY: I'm going to try to make it official, really.

KRISTIN MYERS: It has to be permanent.