In 2004, Andy Puddicombe returned to London from a ten year expedition training as a Buddhist monk. Returning home, he established his own private meditation practice and in 2010 one of his clients, Richard Pierson (CEO), helped him establish Headspace. Headspace was originally an events company, offering prospective clients a way to book Puddicombe. After several clients asked him for material to take come, the team (a few friends of Puddicombe and Pierson) built an app to fill that need. Th...| Business of Apps
The initial spark that showed Calm co-founders Alex Tew and Michael Acton Smith there was a market for meditation was rather simple. Tew, who had become a minor internet celebrity for the Million Dollar Homepage, built a website in 2011 called ‘do nothing for two minutes’, in which a user would stare at a screen and listen to waves on a beach for two minutes without touching their mouse. At the end of two minutes, an email prompt would appear asking people to sign up. In two weeks, over 1...| Business of Apps
This 100+ page report delivers an holistic overview of the video streaming app market, featuring detailed charts on industry trends, financial performance, market share, engagement and benchmarking statistics. It provides valuable insights into the rapid expansion and shifting dynamics of video streaming platforms. What is the market size of the video streaming industry? The video streaming industry generated over $230 billion in 2024, an increase of 17.1% on the previous year. Premium video ...| Business of Apps
This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the education app market, with details on financial performance, market share, user engagement, download trends, and benchmarking statistics. It offers valuable insights into the rapid growth and evolving dynamics of digital learning tools. What is the market size of the education app market? The education app market generated over $6 billion revenue in 2024, with over a third of that revenue coming from online courses, provided by apps like Ud...| Business of Apps
Key Stock Trading StatisticsTop Stock Trading AppsFinance App Market LandscapeStock Trading Revenue by AppStock Trading App UsersStock Trading Users by AppStock Trading App ValuationsLike several other app industries, stock trading and investment saw a huge spike in usage during the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of people stuck at home were able to take advantage of new zero-commission mobile apps to trade shares, indexes and options. Robinhood led the way with zero-commission in the US and ...| Business of Apps
Key Mobile Banking StatisticsTop Mobile Banking AppsFinance App Market LandscapeMobile Banking App RevenueMobile Banking Revenue by AppMobile Banking App UsersUS Mobile Banking App UsersUK Mobile Banking App UsersMobile Banking App ValuationsThrough the use of technology, several operators around the world have been able to set up mobile banking apps, or neobanks, which do away with all the costly physical space that banks use for their myriad of services. Instead, these new mobile banking ap...| Business of Apps
FTX was one of the newer cryptocurrency platforms which have become wildly popular in 2021, with some pegging it as a key competitor to Coinbase in the retail investor market. Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang launched FTX in May 2019, two years after Bankman-Fried founded Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm which specialises in cryptocurrency. It offered derivatives, options, tokenised stocks, leveraged tokens and an NFT marketplace. It has also launched its own utility token, FTT, w...| Business of Apps
What if you could pay people via email? While it has become commonplace for social platforms to offer one-step payment services, in 2013, Square Cash was an innovative solution that did away with the intermediaries. Users only had to connect a debit card and then they could pay people with an email address. It launched Android and iOS apps which simplified the process even further, and added mobile number functionality a year later. In 2015, Square made Cash available for businesses in the Un...| Business of Apps
The future of banking is being pushed by alternate financial startups, which operate outside of the typical banking infrastructure. Chime, which offers a debit, credit and savings account, aims to do this through a commitment to fee-free mobile banking. In the US, several technology companies are building financial platforms which do away with customer fees. Robinhood pioneered zero-commission stock trading and both Venmo and Square’s Cash App have made sending money to friends easy. Alongs...| Business of Apps
FunnelFox launches industry’s first unified web billing to help mobile apps grow revenue with web subscriptions and bypass App Store fees.| Business of Apps
Copilot is the brand name for all of Microsoft’s generative chatbot services, which include its search engine, coding assistant and chatbot. It uses OpenAI’s GPT model, which Microsoft integrated shortly after investing $10 billion into the startup. Copilot started out in the Bing browser, providing generative AI answers to search queries. This led to increased downloads and usage of Bing’s browser, causing Google to work on its own form of AI search integration in the form of Gemini ov...| Business of Apps
Lensa AI is a photo editing app which has shot up in popularity due to the launch of its Magic Avatars, which use a generative image system to create unique digital avatars based on selfies uploaded to the app. Users upload 10 to 20 selfies to the app and for $7.99 Lensa will create a pack of 50 images, with various art styles and backgrounds. The app also offers retouching and other editing services, with subscription fees starting at $35.99 for a year of access. Magic Avatars have drawn in ...| Business of Apps
Google Gemini is a chatbot developed by Google as a director competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Using all of the power and capabilities of Google in artificial intelligence and search, it has been quickly embedded into almost all Google products. Launched in March 2023 as Bard, the chatbot did not have the best start to public life. Within hours, users had found lots of embarrassing holes in the technology, from the typical hallucinations to racist image results. Google has ridden the criticis...| Business of Apps
A chatbot from Chinese AI lab DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the market in January, due to its ability to perform mathematics, coding and reasoning at a similar level to ChatGPT and other top-tier chatbots while costing far less and using fewer resources. The chatbot launched globally on the 20th of January and quickly brought in a lot of users, with claims of it matching ChatGPT in performance luring in AI testers. The underlying model, which is in its third iteration, has been worked on b...| Business of Apps
Character.ai is one of the many AI chatbots to explode in popularity, as the success of ChatGPT has led millions of people to find alternative chatbots offering different experiences. In character.ai’s case, it has built a library of personalities, each with their own distinct way of interacting with users. This can come in the form of a purpose, such as a trip planner or language teacher, a famous dead person such as Albert Einstein or Elvis Presley, or as an interactive story, like a dete...| Business of Apps
Our AI App Report is the most comprehensive piece of research on the AI app market, with detailed forecasts on the generative AI market and breakdowns of growth by type. We also cover funding for AI apps, usage and installs by app, demographics data and industry benchmarking statistics. What is the market size of the AI app industry? AI apps generated $4.5 billion in 2024, a 136% increase on the previous year. This industry is expected to grow rapidly over the next half a decade, with revenue...| Business of Apps
Artificial intelligence has taken over the app world, with thousands of apps integrating AI and the top AI app developers receiving hundred billion dollar valuations. Generative AI, in the form of intelligent chatbots, AI-enabled search engines and image creators have been the focus of significant public attention since 2023, leading more companies to invest heavily in AI innovation. OpenAI made waves with its GPT-powered chatbot ChatGPT, which launched in November 2022 and gained 100 million...| Business of Apps
Appfigures offers an all-in-one platform with analytics, insights, and optimization tools to help app makers acquire more users organically. The Analytics platform allows developers and marketers to zoom in and analyze downloads, revenue, and ad campaigns across all stores and countries. Coupled with an ASO platform which provides rank monitoring (hourly updates), indispensable keyword insights such as popularity and competitiveness, as well as Explorer, a market intelligence platform for res...| Business of Apps
When Jet.com sold to Walmart in 2016, commentators remarked that there was no space for new ecommerce apps, in a market with Amazon and eBay. Two years later, ecommerce platform Wish was the most downloaded shopping application worldwide and the third largest e-commerce marketplace in the United States. Wish was originally founded as wishlist app, in which users could create lists of their favourite products. To help monetise the site, Wish added a similar products feature and began partnerin...| Business of Apps
Meta Platforms, the operator of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, was responsible for 60 percent of all social app revenues in 2024. The company| Business of Apps
Uncover the latest CPI data and factors that influence mobile app user acquisition cost. Includes the latest research from industry leaders.| Business of Apps
Apple App Store Key StatisticsApps & Games in the Apple App StoreApps in the Apple App StoreGames in the Apple App StoreMost Popular Apple App Store CategoriesPaid vs Free Apps in Apple App StoreAverage App Price in Apple App StoreGoogle Play Store key statisticsApps & Games in the Google Play StoreApps in the Google Play StoreGames in the Google Play StoreMost Popular Google Play Store CategoriesPaid vs Free Apps in Google Play StoreAverage App Price in Google Play StoreOutside of China, App...| Business of Apps
Expedia was one of the many .com travel websites launched in the mid-1990s, the brainchild of internet entrepreneur Rich Barton, who would go on to found Zillow and Glassdoor. Barton was working for Microsoft at the time and incubated the project inside the tech giant, launching in 1996. Three years later, Expedia was spun off by Microsoft into a public company, with Barton as the CEO. With the dotcom crash of 2000, many recent IPOs fell victim to huge drops in stock market value. American ho...| Business of Apps
In 2007, a cash-strapped Brian Chesky came up with a shrewd way to pay his $1,200 San Francisco apartment rent. He would offer “Air bed and breakfast”, which consisted of three airbeds, breakfast, WiFi and a desk to work, to attendees of the Industrial Design Conference, who needed a place to crash over the weekend. After an initial period of uncertainty, in which the founders sold Barack Obama and John McCain cereal to sustain the business (seriously), the company received $20,000 in see...| Business of Apps
NuBank is the largest neobank in the world, with over 90 million customers in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. Built as an alternative bank without the extortionate fees Brazilian’s regularly faced, NuBank quickly drew a large community of unbanked customers. Co-founder David Vélez had worked as a partner at Sequoia Capital and co-founder Cristina Junqueira was previously employed by the largest bank in Brazil. In the first few years, NuBank struggled to meet the demand, with a waiting list of...| Business of Apps
Starling Bank is one of the three main “challenger banks” in the U.K., which have made inroads into the banking ecosystem with fee-free services, no physical branches and alternative features. In comparison to Revolut and Monzo, Starling Bank has marketed itself as a proper banking institution, albeit without any physical branches. It has been named Britain’s Best Bank at the British Banking Awards four years in a row. Originally launched in 2014, Starling was the first of the three mai...| Business of Apps
N26 is one of a several neobanks that launched in the mid-2010s, which were aimed at breaking up the monotony of banking with well zero-fee services and well designed mobile apps. Founded in Munich as one of the many startups incubated by Rocket Internet, N26 originally operated as the frontend interface which was backed by Wirecard. In 2016, it received a banking license from the financial regulator in Germany to operate on its own. Since becoming a bank, N26 has added other services, such a...| Business of Apps
This in-depth report delivers a complete overview of the finance app market, highlighting detailed charts on market trends, performance metrics, market share, engagement rates, and benchmarking comparisons. It offers valuable insights into the growth and changing dynamics of the finance sector. What is the market size of the payments app industry? The mobile payments industry generated over $20 billion revenue in 2023, a 13.6% increase on the previous year. The vast majority of revenue in thi...| Business of Apps
The financial sector has not been adverse to technology, however the monumental push by startups in the mid-2010s to disrupt financial sectors, spurred on by governments slackening regulations, forced established players to modernise its services to meet the demands of a new generation of customers. Everything from banking to investment to insurance has been modernised, utilising the power of the internet and mobile to improve speeds, reduce costs and improve customer service. In 2009, fintec...| Business of Apps
Like so many apps, Revolut was built with the intent purpose of fixing a personal issue. Nikolay Storonsky (co-founder and CEO) travelled a lot and was wasting hundreds of pounds on foreign transaction fees, which he understood as an employee at Credit Suisse to be ridiculously excessive. After failing to find a bank that would cover multiple currencies, Storonsky and Vladyslav Yatsenko (co-founder and CTO) left their jobs at Credit Suisse to solve this issue. They started working on Revolut ...| Business of Apps
Klarna is one of the leading fintech companies offering buy now, pay later services, which let consumers pay (BNPL) for things in a series of instalments instead of all upfront. Launched in Sweden in 2005, Klarna had intentions of being the Swedish PayPal, by making online payments simpler for the consumer and merchant. It was somewhat successful in this, but it wasn’t until it launched its BNPL feature in 2016 that Klarna gained international recognition and usage. BNPL is another form of ...| Business of Apps
With the introduction of zero-commission stock trading apps, a whole new class of investor joined the stock market. While some apps have shied away from adding tools to inform and help, eToro built its app from the ground up to be beneficial to inexperienced investors. It did this through its social investment platform, which allows anyone on the app to follow and copy the best performing investors on the network. Through this, inexperienced traders can learn what to watch for and how to mana...| Business of Apps
The hunt for the next evolution of the search engine has been ongoing for over a decade, but nothing has been able to even nudge Google’s dominance. The latest attempt and by far the most conceivable alternative is generative AI chatbots, which take all of the relevant links and data from the web and simplify it to a single answer. Perplexity is one of these chatbots aiming to be the next Google. Launched in August 2022, Perplexity was one of the first to use up-to-date data from the web, a...| Business of Apps
In 2008, Milda Mitkute was moving house in Lithuania and wanted to give away some clothes. So Justas Janauskas built a website to distribute clothes to friends, and Vinted was founded. Four years later a mobile app was launched which allows users to buy, sell or swap clothing and communicate on forums. The company quickly expanded into Germany and is now available in 20 countries, with plans to reach Finland later in 2023. It now has more than 1200 employees headed by CEO Thomas Plantenga. Or...| Business of Apps
Ecommerce marketplace app Shopee started life out as a customer-to-customer marketplace, in the same vein as eBay, but over the past few years has remodelled itself as a b2c marketplace. That switch to a b2c hybrid model has netted Shopee a lot of customers, especially in the Southeast Asia region where it is the most popular ecommerce platform by some margin. It also offers services in East Asia and Latin America. Shopee has managed to surpass Amazon and other ecommerce marketplaces in this ...| Business of Apps
Shein is, by some measures, the largest online only fashion company, which may be a surprise to those who have never heard of the app. Originally a portal to buy wedding dresses, Shein branched out into general womenswear in the early 2010s and to all types of fashion by the mid-2010s, although the vast majority of its customers are still women. It is now the leader of a new generation of fast fashion that puts Zara and H&M to shame, producing thousands of new items to match the current trend...| Business of Apps
In 2015, IIT Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal launched a fashion app startup called Fashnear, featuring on-demand delivery from local shops. Take-up was slow, and the founders resorted to picketing potential buyers outside of shops. The startup failed, but the following year Aatrey and Barnwal revived the platform and renamed it Meesho. Meesho has an emphasis on social media use, particularly Facebook and WhatsApp. The company realised that small retailers were already using t...| Business of Apps
Key Ecommerce App StatisticsTop Ecommerce AppsEcommerce App RevenueEcommerce App Revenue USEcommerce App Sales vs Total Retail USEcommerce App Sales vs Total Retail UKEcommerce App Market Share USEcommerce App Market Share UKEcommerce App Market Share IndiaEcommerce App Downloads by RegionIn the past two decades, the ecommerce industry has shifted from a wide array of websites specialising in a single category, think Amazon (books), Zappos (apparel), Newegg (electronics) and Stubhub (tickets)...| Business of Apps
Key Ecommerce App BenchmarksEcommerce App Retention RateEcommerce App Conversion RateEcommerce App Conversion Rate by CategoryEcommerce App Conversion Rate by RegionEcommerce App Conversion Rate by DeviceEcommerce App Cart Abandonment RateEcommerce App Add-to-Cart RateEcommerce App Average Order ValueEcommerce App Usage by DeviceEcommerce App Total Hours SpentMobile ecommerce is a huge and growing industry, responsible for over $3 trillion in global revenue. The apps that underpin this indust...| Business of Apps
Depop is a social ecommerce website that is primarily used by people selling worn, vintage or repurposed clothing. It has built out a loyal customer-base of 18 to 25 year olds in the UK and US. Launched in Italian startup incubator H-farm by Simon Beckerman, Depop became successful through word of mouth. Its first break was in the UK in the late-2010s, with vintage clothing shops already seeing more foot traffic than at any point in the past. Depop designed its app to be an Instagram for shop...| Business of Apps
Key China Ecommerce App StatisticsTop China Ecommerce AppsChina Ecommerce App RevenueAlibaba RevenueJD RevenuePinduoduo RevenueChina Ecommerce App GMVAlibaba GMVJD GMVPinduoduo GMVChina Ecommerce App UsersAlibaba UsersJD UsersPinduoduo UsersChina's ecommerce industry is the largest in the world, with some estimates placing it at three times the size of the United States and responsible for approximately 50 percent of all spending on retail apps. Part of this is due to China's enormous mobile ...| Business of Apps
Pinterest is an image search platform, which functions somewhat like an online mood board. Users pin images they like to boards. Images are uploaded by users, and can then be re-pinned by others. Pinterest was launched by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp in 2010. Silbermann had previously worked in the advertising department at Google. Prior to Pinterest, Silbermann and Sciarra launched an app called Tote, which failed to gain traction. Launched on March 2010 to family and friends,...| Business of Apps
When Zillow was founded back in 2004, it was intended to revolutionise the real estate industry. Frustrated with his home buying experience, Microsoft executive Rich Barton hoped to improve the process through online home value estimates and accessible listings. His solution was to launch a modern real estate website. Barton was no stranger to shifting industries online – along with Lloyd Frink, Spencer Rascoff, David Beitel and Kristin Acker, he already had the successful launch of Expedia...| Business of Apps
Vrbo in its current form is a combination of dozens of websites and apps that were under the HomeAway brand until 2020, when Expedia decided to consolidate all short-term rental brands under a single Vrbo website and app. Originally created by David Clouse as a website to book his Breckenridge Ski Resort condo, the website took off for its simplistic (at the time) booking system, which attracted other homeowners who wanted to list their properties for short-term rental. The agreement with hom...| Business of Apps
Like a lot of websites launched in the 2000s, the inspiration for TripAdvisor came to co-founder Stephen Kaufer after a frustrating experience. In his case, it was attempting to plan a family vacation using the tools available at the time. Designed as a comparison website for the entire travel experience – from accommodation to flights to experiences – TripAdvisor quickly became a favourite in North America and Europe. It wasn’t long before American holding company IAC acquired the bran...| Business of Apps
The online travel booking industry was one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with some apps reporting more than 70 percent less traffic and bookings than 2019. It took two years for most online travel agencies, hotels, and airlines to see a return to form, although for some the levels of revenue and occupancy are still below 2019 figures. Booking Holdings and Expedia Group are the two juggernauts of the online travel booking industry, and account for about 60 percent of all trav...| Business of Apps
Every year away from the pandemic seems to be a blessing to the travel app industry, which was struck with declines of up to 70 percent in revenue and usage in 2020. Travel apps, which were popular pre-pandemic, have exploded in popularity with many customers using them for the first time in the last four years. For app marketers, this is a key time in the travel app industry. The boon from the end of Covid restrictions is over, but the changes in consumer behaviour between 2019 and 2021 have...| Business of Apps
In a wave of entrepreneurship in the early 2010s, in which every industry was to be transformed through the deployment of technology, Uber and Lyft were born. The two companies are a product of the terrible taxicab ecosystem which existed in California before 2010. People could order cabs over the phone or on the internet, but operators would dispatch them based on their position in the queue, meaning someone could be waiting an hour for the cab to arrive from the other side of town. And if t...| Business of Apps
Launched three years after Uber, Lyft was originally a long-distance car-pooling business, launched by Logan Green and John Zimmer. While Zimride, named after the transportation culture in Zimbabwe (the co-founder’s last name is a coincidence), was the largest app of its type, both co-founders quickly started looking for ways to improve daily engagement. The solution was to begin offering shorter rides in cities, with passengers and drivers connecting. It wasn’t long before the Zimride se...| Business of Apps
Travel recommendation app Hopper might be considered the new kid on the block, with downloads and usage growing rapidly in 2021 with the introduction of fintech products aimed at providing more flexibility and security to customers. While it has gained traction in the past year, Hopper has actually been around for close to a decade. It started as travel tool similar to TripAdvisor, in which users could search for a place or activity and check out reviews from the web. The team working on Hopp...| Business of Apps
Booking is one of the oldest online travel agencies still active today, originally launched in 1996 by Geert-Jan Bruinsma as Bookings.nl, which was then merged with Booking.com at the tail end of the dotcom bubble in 2000. At the same time, Priceline.com was falling headfirst into bankruptcy, after declaring a $1.1 billion loss in 1999 and seeing its stock tank from $974 to $7 a share. Somehow, it survived while many other .com websites failed, and in 2006 acquired Booking.com. When the acqui...| Business of Apps
With the apparent self-implosion at Twitter, Instagram-parent Meta launched into the microblogging scene with Threads. Aimed at users and advertisers fed up with Twitter’s handling following the Musk takeover, it made a large splash in the first week with over 100 million sign-ups. This was helped along by Twitter announcing it had temporarily limited the amount of tweets users could view in one day. Threads works in a similar way to Twitter, where a mix of short posts from accounts followe...| Business of Apps
The finance app market has been one of the areas that has seen the most app-focused activity from both incumbents and new startups. This has come in the| Business of Apps
Venmo started out in 2009 as a way for founders Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail to pay each other without having to exchange cash or write a cheque. The first prototype worked over SMS, Andrew and Iqram would send notes alongside the cash to keep track of payments. While SMS functionality died with the app launch in late 2010, the social element of Venmo remains one of the app’s core features. In early demos, Venmo founders proposed it as a way for musicians to sell songs and merchan...| Business of Apps
Before Robinhood, anyone who wanted to invest in stocks would be charged between $5 to $10 a trade. They also needed to invest a minimum of $500 to open an account. Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt (co-founders) had previous experience building these systems and saw the extraneous costs as little more than gatekeeping people out of investing. “We are not setting any account minimums, which we think unlocks a market of investors who couldn’t do this before,” said Bhatt to CNBC at launch. ...| Business of Apps
In the late 90s, paying for things online still had a stigma attached to it. There wasn’t any assurance that goods would be delivered or that faulty payments would be recovered. It was wild west and PayPal was one of the first payment solutions to try and civilise it. PayPal was formed when two companies, Confinity and X.com, merged. Elon Musk, of Tesla and SpaceX fame, was CEO of this combined company for a time. As he would in the future, he zoned in on the vision of PayPal’s future and...| Business of Apps
Challenger banks in the UK took flight in the mid-2010s, accelerated by legislation from the EU and UK government which welcomed new competition in the industry. In a two year period, Revolut, Starling and Monzo were launched, with an aim to win customers through better mobile experiences. At the time, mobile banking in the UK was a nightmare, some banks were still struggling with the web. Starling Bank was the first on the scene in the UK, launched in 2014. Tom Blomfield, the founder of Monz...| Business of Apps
The finance app industry is a multi-sector behemoth with thousands of businesses new and old trying to make financial processes easier on mobile. In the past decade, we have seen in the introduction of payments through near-field communication, commission-free stock trading, the birth of cryptocurrency and buy now, pay later apps. On top of that, many of the old financial institutions have integrated their systems onto mobile. Almost every bank has a mobile app nowadays, and has implemented n...| Business of Apps
Cryptocurrency has been in development since the 1980s, but the launch of Bitcoin in 2009 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto was the first bit-currency to catch on outside of academic circles. At its core, cryptocurrency is a decentralised digital currency, which is usually backed by a public ledger (blockchain) to verify transfers, mint new coins and secure individual coin ownership records. For the first few years, Bitcoin enthusiasts mined the currency and tried to get it accepted ...| Business of Apps
Coinbase has led the way for cryptocurrency since its inception in 2012, as the largest exchange in the United States by volume. While known primarily as an exchange and storage service for Bitcoin, Coinbase also offers a wide range of other crypto and fiat currency exchanges. In a time before Bitcoin ballooned in value, Coinbase integrated its payment processing capabilities into Stripe, Braintree and PayPal, alongside merchant partnerships with Dell, Expedia and Time Inc. 2017 was seen as a...| Business of Apps
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, responsible for several trillion dollar crypto volume every year. It was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, who previously worked for Blockchain.info and as CTO of OKCoin. Launched in Hong Kong, it quickly became one of the leading exchanges, but from the get-go faced increasingly restrictive regulations which forced it to migrate servers and headquarters to Malta. Binance has one of the widest selections of alt-coins available on ...| Business of Apps
eBay is an e-commerce platform, at first only providing customer-to-customer auction services, expanding into business-to-consumer shortly afterwards. In the 2000’s, eBay went on a spending spree that saw it taking ownership of PayPal, Skype and Stubhub, although it has since relinquished ownership of all three businesses. It is one of the few success stories of the dot-com bubble, which eBay fought through after going public in September 1998. By 2001, it was considered the world’s larg...| Business of Apps
Sensor Tower is the leading, trusted source of enterprise-grade market intelligence and performance metrics in the mobile app ecosystem. Sensor Tower’s innovative mobile performance, trend insights, and ad network products offer enterprise-level data on the global mobile app economy. From mobile-first startups to blue-chip companies and financial institutions, Sensor Tower provides quality insights and leading customer support at every step of the mobile journey. Website screenshot Source: ...| Business of Apps
Signal, formed through a merger of RedPhone and TextSecure, is the flagship app of the Signal Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to open-source privacy technology. The software which underpins the Signal app has been imported onto WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype and Google Allo, although end-to-end encryption is not offered by default on these platforms. It launched the Signal app in 2015 for iOS, Android and desktop, which came with end-to-end encrypted messaging. Signal has since added ...| Business of Apps
Over three billion people have used messaging apps in 2021, making them one of the most popular app types. For most people, mobile messaging consists of two platforms: Facebook and WhatsApp. Collectively, over 2.5 billion people use one of these two platforms, in some markets the two apps hold over 90 percent marketshare. This dominance has led to alternative messaging communities which look to be the opposite of Facebook. Telegram and Signal were both founded with strong pro-encryption ideal...| Business of Apps
LINE is a Japanese instant messenger app, produced by the eponymous corporation. In Asia, the most popular instant messenger apps have evolved to become platforms in their own right. On these, users can play games, send money, shop and much more. WeChat in China is perhaps the most prominent and diverse example. Across the Sea of Japan, LINE offers a similar service. The app was originally developed as an emergency solution for company (then known as NHN Japan) employees during the Tōhoku e...| Business of Apps
Today, influencer marketing has become crucial to improve an app’s user acquisition strategy. Influencer marketing plays a vital role in raising brand awareness and improving market reputation. There is a reason influencer marketing continues to get more practical and popular in the digital marketing space. Marketers believe it is the perfect way to attain and retain your target audience. So, if you plan to scale up your app’s user acquisition strategy, you can leverage influencer marketi...| Business of Apps
Key Apple App Store StatisticsApple App Store App and Game RevenueApple App Store Gaming App RevenueApple App Store App RevenueApple App Store App and Game DownloadsApple App Store Game DownloadsApple App Store App DownloadsApple App Store Download DistributionApps and Games in Apple App StoreNumber of Publishers on Apple App StoreMost Popular Apple App Store CategoriesTop Grossing Apps on Apple App StoreMost Popular Apps on Apple App StoreBefore the launch of the iPhone, Apple's then CEO Ste...| Business of Apps
In the ever-evolving landscape of App Store Optimization (ASO), Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as a multifaceted tool. Numerous companies are fervently developing and proudly showcasing the potential of AI. Before we all run and jump on the bandwagon, it’s crucial to assess the advantages and drawbacks of AI in ASO. Knowing the when and how of incorporating AI into ASO is a prudent step in navigating this transformative landscape. AI’s harmonious role in App Store Optimization: ...| Business of Apps
Chinese discount ecommerce app Temu has taken the United States and United Kingdom by storm, as the newest Chinese-based challenger aiming to saturate the market with products at under half the price of similar items on Amazon and other ecommerce stores. Temu, which is owned by Chinese ecommerce giant Pinduoduo, launched in the US in 2022 and in select European countries in 2023, offering a megastore of almost every conceivable item at a fraction of the cost. Like Wish and other discount stor...| Business of Apps
Facebook probably needs no introduction; nonetheless, here is a quick history of the company. The world’s biggest and most-famous social network was launched by Mark Zuckerberg while he was a student at Harvard University, in early 2004. TheFacebook, as it was then known, was originally intended to serve a digitised version of the ‘face books’ held by Harvard’s various colleges, which were paper directories containing images and personal information about students. Initially limited t...| Business of Apps
In this guide, we will explore the world of mobile app retargeting—from benefits and challenges to the most effective retargeting strategies.| Business of Apps
Welcome to Business of Apps' guide to in-app purchases. From benefits and challenges to the most effective strategies, we've got you covered.| Business of Apps
In 2013, Tinder revolutionised the online dating industry with a simple system, swipe right if interested, left if not. Instead of having a matchmaker rifle through thousands of profiles to find someone unique, users are allowed to decide whether they like someone based off a few photos. In comparison to the services which had come before, Tinder made dating simple, but it also, as studies have found, made it less about lasting connections and relationships and more about casual hook-ups and ...| Business of Apps
When Discord launched in 2015, it pitted itself against two deep-seated apps: Skype and TeamSpeak. Neither were excellent, which is one of the reasons Discord generated so much traffic and praise from the get-go. Inevitably, this led to several server crashes, as the company struggled to meet demand. Jason Citron, the founder of Discord, had come off a $100 million acquisition of his previous social gaming technology, called OpenFeint. He knew that by taking a modern approach to communication...| Business of Apps
Etsy is an e-commerce platform focused on small businesses and artisans which sell handmade or vintage items. It started life in Brooklyn, New York and quickly expanded throughout the US and into Europe. In a competitive US e-commerce market with Amazon and eBay, Etsy separated itself with the uniqueness of items sold and the focus on quality. Etsy’s editorial team in the early days also focused on highlighting artistic work, rather than commercially-made items. That has led to Etsy’s boo...| Business of Apps
Amazon is one of the most recognisable brands in the world, and the third largest by revenue. It was the fourth tech company to reach a $1 trillion market cap, and a market leader in e-commerce, cloud, advertising, video streaming, and music streaming. Originally launched as an online bookstore in 1995, Amazon spent its first few years as a brokerage for other sellers, similar to eBay. However, founder Jeff Bezos always envisioned it would be an “everything store” and quickly added other ...| Business of Apps
App Revenue Key StatisticsMobile Ad SpendApp and Game RevenuesiOS App and Game RevenueGoogle Play App and Game RevenueGaming App RevenuesiOS Gaming App RevenueGoogle Play Gaming App RevenueApp RevenuesiOS App RevenueGoogle Play App RevenueApp Revenue by RegionSubscription App RevenueiOS Subscription App RevenueGoogle Play Subscription App RevenueThe mobile app industry has been active for over a decade now, generating billions of dollars in revenue for Apple, Google and thousands of mobile ap...| Business of Apps
Twitch is a livestreaming platform focused on video games. It was founded by Justin Kan in 2011, originally as a spin-off of Justin.tv. The latter started life in 2007 as a single channel, broadcasting Kan’s life live around the clock, pioneering the concept of ‘lifecasting’. The website attracted interest from others who were more interested in broadcasting their own lives than viewing that of Kan’s, which had nonetheless served as great exposure for Justin.TV. Acting on this interes...| Business of Apps
BeReal is the newest social app to make its mark, coming at a time when many were disillusioned with Instagram and its focus on algorithmic content. In 2022, it broke out in the US and UK with millions switching to the app, but has struggled to retain those users long term. Built by ex-GoPro employee Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau and launched in late 2019, the basic premise of the app is to take a photo with the back and front camera at a random time each day. The impromptu nature of the...| Business of Apps
WhatsApp is a messaging app for smartphones created in 2009 by two former Yahoo employees, Brian Acton and Jan Koum. It was Koum who saw the potential of operating through the Apple App Store after purchasing an iPhone in early 2009. The app initially focused on statuses; Koum later revealed that part of his motivation was to stop missing calls while he was the gym. Users quickly came to use this as an instant messaging service, planting the seed for what the app would become. WhatsApp 2.0 i...| Business of Apps
Uber kickstarted the evolution of the taxi market in the early 2010s, when it launched an app which easily connected drivers with riders. In California where the app launched, ordering a cab was a nightmare, so much so that co-founder Garrett Camp had established his own fleet of black cabs to pick him up from bars and clubs. Camp recognised the value of this service, which was less temperamental than waiting on the sidewalk for a cab or waiting more than an hour for someone to pick them up. ...| Business of Apps
Zoom is a video conferencing app, geared towards business usage. It was founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan, and launched in January 2013. While gathering considerable popularity and coming to run profitably in the following years, Zoom truly entered the public consciousness during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. It was to Zoom that users across the world turned to stay in touch during the lockdown effected to stop the spread of the virus. Prior to founding Zoom, Yuan had helped to build WebEx, in...| Business of Apps
Snapchat is an image and video messaging app, developed by Stanford University students Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown in 2011. Its unique selling point was that photos and videos sent to friends would only be viewable for a set duration of 1 to 10 seconds, although Snapchat has removed these limitations. A number of additional features have also been added, the first of which was Stories. This allowed users to post photos and videos to a feed for 24 hours. The feature was notor...| Business of Apps
YouTube was launched in 2005. It was founded by three PayPal employees: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who ran the company from an office above a small restaurant in San Mateo. The first video uploaded to the platform was “Me at the zoo”, featuring Karim. By the years end, YouTube was hosting over two million videos per day on its website and was averaging over 20 million daily active users. It wouldn’t be long before Google scooped up YouTube, acquiring the startup for $1.65...| Business of Apps
App Download Key StatisticsApp and Game DownloadsiOS App and Game DownloadsGoogle Play App and Game DownloadsGame DownloadsiOS Game DownloadsGoogle Play Game DownloadsApp DownloadsiOS App DownloadsGoogle Play App DownloadsDownloads by CountryHours Spent by CountryApp Usage by AgeThe iOS App Store launched in 2008 with 500 apps. Today, there are over four million apps available across iOS and Android platforms, extending to a wide range of sub-genres and niches. These apps have come to play a ...| Business of Apps
Apple is one of the most influential and recognisable brands in the world, responsible for the rise of the smartphone with the iPhone. Valued at over $2 trillion in 2021, it is also the most valuable technology company in the world. Originally known for desktop computers, Apple was one of the first companies to switch to the graphical user interface (GUI) and saw success with the first Macintosh. Steve Jobs, the founder and CEO, was one of technology’s first “rockstars”, able to sell ha...| Business of Apps
Mobile payments apps are used by more than two billion people globally, with millions more coming online each year. In India, South-east Asia and South America, some of the younger generation skipped the usual process of owning a credit or debit card, in favour of using mobile apps. Adoption of mobile payments is weakest in developed nations, such as Germany and France, which are finding it hard to ditch cash and cards. Even in the United States, adoption rates trail developing nations by a c...| Business of Apps
Fortnite refers to a video game series, set in a post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested world. It is produced by Epic Games, and uses the company’s signature Unreal Engine. At present, there are two games that fall under the Fortnite umbrella: a team-based survival shooter called Fortnite: Save the World and Fortnite: Battle Royale, which as the name suggests is a last-person-standing game. The former was released in a paid-for early access version in July 2017. A free-to-play version was antici...| Business of Apps
Android Key StatisticsAndroid OverviewAndroid Version Market ShareAndroid Vendor Market ShareAndroid vs iOS Market ShareAndroid UsersAndroid ShipmentsAndroid is the most popular operating system in the world, with over three billion active users spanning over 190 countries. Created by Andy Rubin as the open-source alternative to iPhone and Palm OS, Android quickly became the favourite operating system for most mobile manufacturers in the early 2010s. With titans of the industry such as Samsun...| Business of Apps
In this guide, we will explore the art of mobile app retention—from benefits and challenges to the most effective retention strategies.| Business of Apps
WeChat was launched in 2011 as Weixin, Mandarin for ‘micro-message’. As the name suggests, it originally functioned as a simple messenger app, a Chinese equivalent to WhatsApp in essence. WeChat was developed by and belongs to Chinese tech behemoth Tencent, one of the most valuable companies in the world. Other names in the Tencent stable include QQ Messenger and Tencent Music. Though it started as a simple messenger platform, WeChat has become far more than that. Through its mini program...| Business of Apps
In a second attempt to be one of the first inductees of the startup incubator Y Combinator, University of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian built Reddit, which they labelled “the front page of the internet”. The site functionality remains much the same as it was back in 2005. Users write posts, upload photos, videos and link to other parts of the internet. To organise the content, Redditors upload to specific subreddits. If the post receives a lot of attention, it may be...| Business of Apps
Netflix was conceived in 1997 by Reed Hastings (the current CEO) and Marc Randolph. Both had previous ventures in the West Coast tech scene, Hastings was the owner of debugging software firm Pure Atria, while Randolph had co-founded and then sold MicroWarehouse for $700 million. Originally a DVD-rental service, in the same vein as Blockbuster, Netflix broke ground with its mail order service. It introduced a subscription model at the turn of the millennium, which allowed subscribers to rent a...| Business of Apps
When Microsoft announced Teams in November 2016, it entered a market firmly controlled by Slack, which had popularized business text chat as a convenient solution to email. From day one, Slack made it known it did not like Teams. But the rivalry could have been an acquisition in another timeline. According to multiple reports, Microsoft planned an $8 billion bid for Slack, but co-founder Bill Gates argued that Microsoft should make use of Skype to build a competitor. Instead of Skype, Microso...| Business of Apps
TikTok, known as Douyin in its home market, was launched in China in September 2016. It quickly started to gain traction in China and parent company ByteDance launched an international version the following year. Originally launched as a short-form video sharing platform, primarily for lipsyncing and dancing videos, TikTok has grown into a fully-fledged video service, with content available for all types of viewers. ByteDance had prior experience on running wildly popular apps, as the operato...| Business of Apps
