Tencent’s WeChat App Sees Record Downloads Before U.S. Ban

China based Tencent’s messaging app WeChat has experienced a spike in its downloads in the U.S. and had its biggest one-day download numbers in almost two years on last Friday before the Sunday ban which was later halted by a US judge.  

WeChat is having a hard time in the United States due the executive order President Donald Trump signed on August 6 preventing US transactions with its owner company Tencent. 

The order requires tech giants Google and Apple to remove WeChat from the Play Store and App Store due to national security reasons. The app was set to be banned last Sunday but saved by a federal judge at the last moment.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in California issued a preliminary injunction blocking Trump Administration’s WeChat ban. 

While the future of WeChat in the US still remains unknown, it’s getting record downloads since last Friday, according to Sensor Tower.  

Between Friday and Saturday, WeChat was installed nearly 54,000 times, which is 28 times more compared with the week before when it generated 1,900 downloads during the same two-day period. 

As well as WeChat, Tencent’s office collaboration app WeCom is also getting record downloads in the United States.

Sensor Tower data shows that WeCom was installed almost 58,000 times in the US between Friday and Saturday, 193 times more than the week before when it got 300 downloads.