More users choose digital formats for entertainment and everyday tasks. The popularity of mobile apps is increasing at a fast rate. Sensor Tower predicts that user spending on in-app purchases and subscriptions will grow at a rate of 19.5% over the next five years to reach $270 billion.
Long-term factors for further growth of the mobile apps market
Sensor Tower predicts that user spending on in-app purchases and subscriptions will grow at a rate of 19.5% over the next five years to reach $270 billion.
Long-term factors drive further growth of the market:
- They are changing consumer behavior towards mobile-first and prioritizing online channels. Today, users spend more than half of their time on the Internet using mobile gadgets. Each application must be optimized for the maximum number of devices for developers. In Russia, 60% of users make online purchases. Of these, more than half use a smartphone for this.
- We are increasing the number of mobile devices and high-speed Internet penetration in all regions. According to We Are Social and Hootsuite, the increase in smartphone users over the past year was 2.4%. By 2023, more than 70% of the world’s population will have a mobile connection. Cisco analysts suggest that in two years, almost the same number will have access to the Internet – in 2019, only one in two had this opportunity. The connection speed will increase by about 50% due to the introduction of 5G.
- Consolidation of acquired habits. During the pandemic, many users have discovered new app categories (e-com, health, entertainment, education, work, etc.). For example, in Europe alone, downloads of various planners, trackers, and other business applications increased by 132%, while spending on mobile health and fitness apps jumped by a record 70%.
Top consumption trends in apps
More people will pay for subscriptions.
Today, mobile app development companies’ revenue from paid features ranks second in terms of earnings after advertising and accounts for 30% of the total volume. On a global scale, the yield of the subscription model for 2020 increased by 56%.
Going forward, the subscription model is likely to be adopted by most applications. So, most PicsArt features are free for users to view ads. Subscription models aim to offer more and more user benefits: access to all platforms, loyalty programs, subscriber-only content, etc.
Non-gaming apps will earn more for the first time.
According to the State of Mobile 2020 report, games account for 70% of app user spending. However, Sensor Tower analysts suggest that as early as 2024, the revenue of non-gaming products in the App Store will overtake the competing sphere – $86 billion vs. $73 billion, and in 2025 the gap will reach almost $30 billion.
The most profitable category that works according to the Freemium model (basic functionality for free, advanced for money) can be called applications from the Health and Fitness series.
The growing popularity of the subscription model, the consolidation of new habits, and the further development of global trends will provide the basis for the growth of the capitalization of some non-gaming categories over the next five years:
Entertainment (10%)
According to the McKinsey study, the practice of social distancing is likely to continue after the epidemic’s end. This is one of the reasons why applications focused on online entertainment will grow, to which the generation of zoomers, in one way or another, gravitates.
First of all, this applies to streaming services like Twitch and TikTok, which overcame two billion downloads during the quarantine. Not only will they retain their younger audience, but they will also continue to engage older generations.
Photo/video (8%)
To maintain an image on the web, you need tools to create and process creative photos and videos. The capabilities of modern graphics applications allow not only to apply a quick makeover for online calls and conferences but also open up opportunities for bold creative projects.
In the coming years, graphic applications will develop under the influence of the digital fashion industry and artificial intelligence.
Social networks (7%)
Over the past year, the number of social media users has increased by more than 13%, with each user spending an average of 3.7 hours daily looking at photos and reading friends’ posts. Thus, despite the popularity of other types of applications and the record growth in their profitability, most smartphone users often use social networks.
In the future, there will probably be more than one hybrid project that will dilute the classics in the face of Facebook. Moreover, social networks are gradually turning into promising sales channels. The social commerce market, according to ResearchAndMarkets, will increase over the next seven years, at 30% per year, and will exceed $600 billion by the end of the period.
Lifestyle (5%)
This group includes applications that help solve vital tasks: from healthy eating to dating and organizing personal leisure. Self-care, a bright global trend of recent years, should become even stronger in the post-COVID world.
Social distancing and the general trend to shift communication online will be the key to the continued growth of dating apps. Last year, the audience of services increased by 7.5% to 320 million people. The primary trend in this category is the ever-increasing requirements for the safety of participants.
Redistribution of spending geography
Digitalization and the development of the Internet are global. Still, Cisco believes that over the next five years, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa markets will grow faster than China and North America on both platforms. The backlog of past years will be rapidly compensated.
According to Sensor Tower, by this time, Europe will become the leader in user spending growth, where 11 countries will generate $ 42 billion in revenue, that is, about a sixth of the global market. This should be considered by startups initially focused on foreign markets or planning expansion in their development strategy.
Top 10 mobile apps with the increasing popularity
Notion
Notion is a popular application that allows you to collaborate effectively between different teams. Notion allows anyone to create documents, dashboards, websites, and more – all with drag and drop.
To-do lists and corporate knowledge in one program help teams keep track of the overall status of tasks, helping teams stay focused on valuable context.
Notion users can enjoy an extensive collection of community-created templates, resources, and integrations.
Some teams even use it as a task manager, but this seems to us not very convenient with many tasks. At one time, we also built the company’s knowledge base inside it, but ultimately, we decided to transfer it to the task manager.
TripActions
With TripAction, business trips, corporate cards, and expense reports are combined into a single solution. This allows you to plan and approve trips quickly. Also, in the application, you can manage travel expenses.
TripActions reimagines travel, corporate cards, and spend management. The application provides small companies with technology previously only available in large multinational enterprises.
TripActions allows users to manage corporate cards, travel bookings, and accountable expenses. The app relies on an extensive list of bookings and local travel agents and claims to have some “artificial intelligence” features.
With TripAction, business travel, corporate cards, and expense reporting come together in a single solution, making it easy for travelers, administrators, and senior management to plan and approve trips quickly and manage travel spending through dashboards and compliance rules.
Postman
The Postman platform has a complete set of tools for the entire API life cycle, including design, sandbox testing, documentation, and builds, to full sharing of completed and thoroughly tested APIs.
You have probably not heard of Postman if you are not a developer. And if you have listened to it, you know it can be a real salvation.
Developers often interact with APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). An API is how programs allow developers to interact with them through code, such as getting or writing data.
APIs can be complex when they are opaque or poorly documented (and they often are). Postman solves this problem: It provides an API platform for creating and using APIs. This allows developers to access a vast network of APIs and share what they make with developers from anywhere in the world.
The Postman platform includes a complete set of tools for the entire API lifecycle – design, sandbox testing, documentation, and mocking- to share ready-made and thoroughly tested APIs.
Postman also allows developers to create and distribute API libraries and associated metadata that can be published to all levels of your business. These libraries can be fully enriched with search, notifications, security warnings, and reports.
Figma
Figma offers a web-based vector graphics editor and prototyping tool that allows anyone to access simple yet powerful design tools.
The application also provides real-time collaboration between remote employees.
Software users place ever-increasing demands on how applications look and feel. As a result, successful companies are increasingly adopting a “design first” approach.
This is where Figma comes to the rescue. It is an online design solution built for collaboration. Figma allows you to quickly create designs and prototype ideas, involving all team members in the development process.
Figma offers a web-based vector graphics editor and prototyping tool that allows anyone to access simple yet powerful design tools. It also provides live collaboration that keeps people in sync, whether working from home or the office.
In short, Figma brings everyone involved in the design process together, allowing people to create better products and release them faster.
Miro
Remote work seems to have become the norm. This approach is excellent for working on the beach but can make it difficult to generate ideas together. Unless you have Miro…
Miro is a full-featured whiteboard and mind-mapping tool that can be used with anyone, anywhere, for real-time collaboration. If you have used this app, you know its user-friendly interface’s impressive. Miro also offers easy Slack login and hundreds of templates.
This allows for brainstorming and practical discussion of ideas even at a distance and dramatically simplifies the work of those who are used to finding brilliant solutions through co-creation.
Curiosity
Curiosity is a productivity app that provides a single space to search for all your downloaded files and apps. This allows you to save time and get more done. Unlike other search apps, Curiosity keeps your data secure and never sends it to the cloud.
Curiosity connects to the tools you already use, including local folders and cloud apps like Google Drive or Slack. You can use the command bar with shortcuts for quick access and the file browser for deeper searches with advanced filters.
Curiosity is available for free for Windows and Mac. You can also get a free 2-week trial of Curiosity Pro (unlimited sources/file content search).
Keeper
Keeper is a suite focused on IT and data security. It is based on a password manager where you can securely store logins, passwords, and financial data. It also includes a password generator, MFA (multi-factor authentication), and cross-device sync.
However, Keeper is more than just a password manager: the company offers a range of corporate security products and services, such as gateways, ransomware protection, and more.
Airtable
This is another novelty that you have probably seen. Airtable is like a database with a web interface. To put it even more simply, it is similar to the web version of MS Excel with flexible links and interfaces.
Functionality includes importing information, creating relationships in data, and viewing information from different perspectives. This allows you to discover and act on previously unseen connections and resources.
In addition, you can develop and implement automation in Airtable that fires notifications, eliminate redundancy, combine tools, run code, and so on.
Airtable also allows you to design interfaces that present information and allow people to perform predefined actions.
Fivetran
Fivetran makes it easy for organizations to build data pipelines. For data retrieval, the application provides secure connections to data resources using a large selection of fully managed and well-documented connectors. For large companies, this is very important.
Fivetran also provides tools for end-to-end management of data pipelines and workflows.
Fivetran provides secure connections to data resources using a large selection of fully managed and well-documented connectors for data retrieval. Fivetran also provides tools for end-to-end management of data pipelines and workflows.
Monday
Monday is an online project management and task coordination tool. It offers a flexible yet powerful way to bring teams, resources, processes, and agencies together to achieve organizational goals and provides much flexibility regarding structure and visualization. This makes it easy to manage activities and projects for different teams, such as creative and design teams, software developers, marketing, CRM, project management, sales, and so on.
Conclusion
Some apps are famous; while others are less visible but very successful, there is a growing trend in the popularity of online collaboration applications. They occupy almost half of the top. Obviously, this trend has accelerated since the pandemic, but for many people, the web space has become as much a part of life as offline. Therefore, we think that even in the absence of viruses, work would also shift online.
