Protests in Madagascar have been followed by a sudden rise in attention for Bitchat, a peer-to-peer messaging tool developed with support from Block CEO Jack Dorsey.
Demonstrations began in the capital, Antananarivo, on September 25 in response to ongoing electricity and water shortages. Some gatherings turned tense, with reports of clashes and looting.
The government dismissed the energy minister and set a nightly curfew to reduce further unrest.
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Search activity indicates a growing interest in the app. Data from Google Trends shows that “Bitchat” reached its highest score of 100 on September 25 in Madagascar.
Related queries such as “Bitchat download” and “how to use Bitchat” also ranked among the top searches and were labeled as “breakout” terms due to sharp increases.
A developer involved in the project, known on X as @callebtc, stated in a post on X on September 28 that downloads were rising in Madagascar. Screenshots of local news coverage were shared along with the post.
While no country-specific figures were released, the overall installation numbers help illustrate the scale. According to Chrome-Stats, Bitchat has been downloaded more than 365,000 times since its launch, with over 21,000 downloads in the last day and more than 71,000 within the past week.
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