It became popular anywhere since lots of people hoping to get a lot of money from that coin. Especially that there are teasers regarding on the price also for what they say pi mall which many people look forward since they think they are close to get wealthy if this coin will be listed on exchange. But guess all the hopes of those people who believes falls down as the Pi project or team behind it didn't deliver what they promise to people who follows them.
Tapswaps is not really different since again they create another questionable things which people also expect to much from this project. Maybe people should stop about thinking about money since this one lead to pure disappointments especially if they cannot get something from the project where their expectation to gain is so high.
I believe Tapswap, Hamster Kombat, and Pi found more audience in third world countries than in the rest of the world. They are easy targets because people who are living below the poverty level are not going to research the legitimacy of the project. Their major and only concerns would be if the project is profitable and once they are convinced that they can make money from it (usually word-of-mouth recommendations), everything else doesn’t matter. Nobody wants to miss out on an opportunity to make money even if it means following the herd and doing something you do not understand.