India fuels Bitchat's global rise despite takedown order
Bitchat, founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, allows messaging without internet using Bluetooth mesh networks and without mandatory registration or phone verification.
India accounted for 53% of Bitchat's estimated 1.2 lakh global downloads in the 30 days ending July 24, with 65,462 downloads in India.
Daily downloads in India surged from 291 on July 19 to a peak of 28,574 on July 23, and India contributed 84% of global downloads in the final seven-day period.
The app reached No. 7 among iPhone social networking apps in India by July 24, up from No. 46 on July 20, and No. 23 on Google Play.
The Internet Freedom Foundation criticized the government's takedown order as an unconstitutional restriction on access to open-source software, citing transparency concerns.
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