When Triller filed an S-1 form with the SEC earlier this month as part of its plans to go public, that S-1 form boasted some impressive user numbers.
But are those numbers actually accurate?
According to data from Apptopia, they might not be.
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Triller’s S-1, filed Aug. 2, claims the TikTok competitor has gotten 550 million user signups since launching in 2015. Apptopia alleges the real number is closer to 73 million–an 87% discrepancy.
Now, Apptopia’s figure does come with a bit of a caveat. Apptopia is a mobile-only data firm, meaning it can only catch user signups done within Triller’s app on mobile devices. So, any users who signed up via the web and/or desktop aren’t counted. Does that theoretically mean Triller’s made-for-mobile platform could have gotten 477 million signups via web/desktop, and this explains the discrepancy? Sure. Theoretically.
Reached for comment about Apptopia’s allegations, Triller said the numbers in its S-1 were accurate.
As TechCrunch points out, this is not the first time Triller’s internal performance metrics have been questioned. During its first attempt at going public in 2021, Triller reported having 50 million monthly active users (MAU). Sources familiar with the matter told Billboard it actually had around 25 million.
At the time, Triller CEO Mike Lu responded by telling Billboard “there is no legal definition of MAU/DAU. Triller’s value is in monetizing users, not MAU or DAU. In the past, the press has had a hard time understanding this.”
Apptopia’s data also showed that users spend about 11 minutes per month per device on Triller. Triller told TechCrunch that figure “is not something that has any relevance to our business model.”
If Triller’s S-1 is approved, it will debut as a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ILLR.
