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Houseparty adds 50 million new sign-ups during coronavirus pandemic
Videoconferencing service Houseparty is claiming it has gotten 50 million sign-ups in the past month thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and is also claiming to be the No. 1 app in 82 countries.
Owned by Fortnite maker Epic Games Inc. through subsidiary Life on Air Inc., Houseparty was little-known before coronavirus. But now average conversation time per user is said to be more than 60 minutes with Houseparty, thanks in part to its appeal to younger users since it integrates with apps such as Snapchat.
The company told TechCrunch that “increased consumer demand has also seen the app topping the mobile app stores’ charts in a number of markets.” It also claims it’s the most popular app in the U.S. Apple App Store and Google Play and got as high as No. 2 in the world.
The hype from the company doesn’t stop there. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Sima Sistani went as far as comparing what the company is doing to curing cancer.
“I used to always tell people, like, ‘hey, we’re not curing cancer here,’” Sistani told Bloomberg. “This is the first time where I feel like, wow, we have such a responsibility and an obligation right now to maintain this service because people need it. It’s critical for them right now.”
Because allowing people to video conference online is somehow comparable to curing cancer or finding a cure for COVID-19. The problem with the company’s claims is that they don’t all stack up. Zoom Video Communications Inc. is the most popular videoconferencing service of the pandemic and all the charts say it is.
Not once could SiliconANGLE find a single day in which Houseparty was the most popular app in April in the U.S. across iOS and Android on multiple app tracking sites. Every day the result is Zoom.
To be fair, Houseparty is claiming to be a “social networking app.” In that regard, it actually topped U.S. charts, but comparing what is mostly a videoconferencing app to Facebook rather than Zoom only makes sense if you’re trying to make your service appear more popular than it actually is.
Image: Houseparty
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