How CapCut Became the #1 Video Editor for a Billion Users

TikTok disrupted the social media industry when it debuted in 2016. The ByteDance-owned app gave people exactly what they needed — quick, entertaining videos that fit right into their busy lives. TikTok built its own user base, and before long, the big players like Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook had to jump on the short-form video trend too.

As short-form videos gained popularity, another ByteDance product, called CapCut, entered the scene and quickly became a phenomenon.

If you scroll through TikTok, chances are a lot of the videos were edited with CapCut. The app has racked up over a billion downloads across platforms, leaving legacy software from companies like Adobe in the dust.

In a way, CapCut is the foundation for all the short-form vertical videos on the Internet. But how did it pull that off? And is it really as perfect as it seems? Let’s find out.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. How CapCut Started
3. Why Is CapCut So Popular?
4. CapCut Is A Privacy Nightmare Though
5. The Bottom Line
6. FAQs
7. References

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. How CapCut Started
3. Why Is CapCut So Popular?
Show Full Guide
4. CapCut Is A Privacy Nightmare Though
5. The Bottom Line
6. FAQs
7. References

How CapCut Started

CapCut wasn’t always known as CapCut. It debuted as ViaMaker and was created by a company called Shenzhen Lianmeng Technology. The video editing tool gained significant popularity in China, prompting ByteDance to acquire it, along with its developer, for $300 million in 2018.

Initially, the app was only available in China for Android and iPhone users. In 2020, it was rebranded as CapCut and launched globally. The platform later expanded to include web and desktop versions for Mac and Windows.

The short video editing app quickly became a massive success. By the end of its launch year, CapCut had 50 million active users, a number that soared to 200 million by 2022. In the same year, it became one of the top four most downloaded apps worldwide, racking up 357 million downloads.

In March 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that the CapCut video editor was the second-most downloaded app in the U.S., trailing only the Chinese discount retailer Temu.

As of September 9, 2024, Statista data reveals that CapCut’s global downloads reached 1.4 billion, surpassing ByteDance’s other apps like the Toutiao news app (245.1 million) and Xigua Video (145.63 million), another video-sharing platform.

Why Is CapCut So Popular?

The short answer to why the CapCut app is so popular? It’s a great tool that gets the job done, and it’s free.

But to get the full picture, you need to look at who’s using it and what problem it solves. CapCut is mainly used by people creating content for TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms, with a focus on short-form, vertical videos.

For the average user, making this kind of content would be almost impossible without CapCut’s editing tools. While video editing apps existed before ByteDance launched CapCut in 2020, most were either clunky, hard to use, or aimed at pros, like Adobe Premiere Rush.

CapCut made video editing way more accessible for regular folks who just want to post stuff on social media. It’s packed with social media integrations, like an audio library of licensed sounds and music ready to upload to TikTok.

Plus, it lets you share videos directly to TikTok and save them for posting elsewhere. Lastly, it also brings cross-platform support — you can start editing on your phone and finish on your tablet or MacBook.

While CapCut’s free plan offers enough features for most users, its paid plan takes things further.

As Ruby Helyer, a creative technology author and journalist, told us: “You can do so much with CapCut, even without subscribing.

“However, the tools available under the Pro plan take it to rival the Premiere Pro level at much better prices. It’s also incredibly easy to learn and use, especially from the mobile app.”

Afreen, a budding lifestyle content creator with nearly 300K monthly impressions on Pinterest, told Techopedia she was drawn to CapCut because of its simple interface and popularity with other creators. The whole app is “very user-friendly and ergonomic,” she said.

All these factors have definitely helped CapCut grab a big chunk of the amateur and prosumer video editing market, but being owned by ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, doesn’t hurt either.

ByteDance uses TikTok to push CapCut to its billion-plus users, which is basically the exact crowd for which CapCut was built.

CapCut Is A Privacy Nightmare Though

CapCut, like many apps, collects user data, but its privacy policy raises eyebrows due to the sheer volume and types of data it gathers.

Some level of data collection is expected for functionality. For example, a social media app accessing your camera, microphone, or media makes sense because it’s tied to features like posting content, video calls, or live streaming. However, with CapCut, the justification for certain data collection feels murky.

Take location tracking via SIM cards and IP addresses, which the app says it uses for “personalized content.” That feels like a stretch. What’s even more concerning is its handling of email addresses. CapCut doesn’t just collect your email when you sign up. It collects the email addresses of your contacts, too.

So if you’re on CapCut, the app might already know your mom’s email, your partner’s email, and anyone else in your contact list.

The app also collects face and body feature data for “recommendations” or “moderation”. CapCut says this data is not retained or shared with third parties. However there is no clarity on how long the collected data is retained. For example, while face and body data is “deleted” after applying effects, it doesn’t address retention timelines for other sensitive data.

A 2023 lawsuit claims that CapCut fails to notify users about its data practices and does not seek their consent. The lawsuit alleges that the app collects not only users’ photos and videos but also their location, gender, and birthday. It further claims that this information is used to create a “data bank,” which fuels targeted advertising.

The lawsuit also points fingers at ByteDance for embedding capabilities that harvest technical information from users’ devices. This includes everything from the device’s MAC address to identifiers like IMEI, MEID, ICCID, and even the SIM serial number.

The Bottom Line

There’s no doubt that CapCut is one of the best video editing apps for creating short, vertical videos. It’s packed with features, completely free, and seamlessly integrates with social media.

However, its ties to ByteDance and China raise some eyebrows, and its privacy policy is downright alarming.

FAQs