The vast majority of the money spent in mobile app stores went to games, as did most of the time spent on phones and most of the advertising revenue. In 2019, more than $ 86 billion was spent on games on the mobile app, making the sector larger than the rest of the gaming industry combined. This revenue represented 72% of all App Store expenses, according to data from the analytics firm AppAnnie, in its report on the status of Mobile 2020.
THE IN-APP SUBSCRIPTIONS THAT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
On iOS, in-app subscriptions account for 97% of non-game spending within apps (one-time in app purchases, typically "unlocks" for full versions or content downloads, made up for the other 3 %), while non-gaming subscriptions overall grew to represent 28% of the app store spend. This growth is largely driven by some very successful subscription-based apps. Among these are Netflix, the Chinese Tencent Video and Tinder, which was the highest-grossing mobile app in the world last year and the second highest in the past decade. Of the 250 best shopping apps, 94% are monetized through in-app subscriptions.
Not all aspects of the mobile economy are covered by the report. Spending via e-commerce apps, which is not charged through in-app purchases, cannot be counted; nor subscriptions, like those for most major news apps and Spotify, purchased through a web browser instead of through the subscription tools provided by Apple and Google. Developers have good reason to look for alternative ways of earning revenue. Both Apple and Google charge substantial fees for in-app payments, reaching a peak of 30% for the iOS App Store.
THE OPPORTUNITIES AND THE GREAT SUCCESS OF TIKTOK
The report highlights a number of other areas of opportunity for the coming year. Among these are travel sharing apps, where the UK has the most concentrated market among those analyzed, with Uber occupying the vast majority of businesses. Do not forget the financial apps that have provided single-service feature sets, from payments to security. The growth of TikTok shows no sign of stopping, with the overall time spent in the app that has tripled during 2019. But it was a little-known anonymous Q&A app called Yolo which experienced the highest growth in both the United Kingdom and the United States compared to last year. In all the markets analyzed, people spend three hours and 40 minutes every day on their phones, a 35% increase compared to 2016, while the average "Zoomer" - a member of Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012 - spends nearly four hours a month on each of the top 25 non-gaming apps and more on mobile games.
