As per the latest report by data.ai, TikTok by ByteDance became the first app to in have surpassed $10 billion in cumulative consumer spending. In a year when the revenue from games was down, this helped power mobile app sales to a new high.
While Games Take a Hit, Video Streaming becomes a Hit
In the year 2023, there was a rise in consumer app sales like video-streaming platforms like TikTok and Disney+ by 11%. This happened while the games industry dealt with a double-digit sales decline in China which eventually dragged global sales down 2%.
As per the market research, the in-app purchases of credit in TikTok can used to tip favored creators and live streamers accounted for the bulk of its income, and further unlock the secret to monetization on mobile.
Lexi Sydow, director of corporate marketing and insights at data.ai said that the “Social apps and the creator economy pioneered new pathways to monetization beyond advertising”.
She further added that “TikTok laid the groundwork through its content creator tipping mechanism. In 2024, direct consumer monetization in social apps through in-app purchases is set to grow 150% to $1.3 billion as competition ramps up.”
Apps saw more spending than games and that can be attributed to increased spending on streaming, user-generated content and dating apps.
The biggest of all revenue driver still remained the advertising, which accounted to two-thirds of mobile sales and saw a rise of 8% in 2023.
The battle to attract as well as retain user attention shall become paramount since the estimates of data.ai reveal that the year 2024 shall see $402 billion in global mobile ad spending.
Increases Time Spent on Smartphone & Increased Consumer App Spending
Time spent on smartphones has increased by the consumers, with Indonesia ranking the highest. An average Indonesian is estimated to spend over 6 hours per person per day. When it came to the top 10 countries with people spending maximum time on smartphones, the average of top 10 is 5 hours of daily app usage. Not just that, but also the spending in apps increased by 3% in 2023.
As per the data, when it comes to the consumer app spending, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey all hit 25% growth or more.
Shein and PDD Holdings Inc. Temu saw an increase in the download rankings by 140%. Temu leads the downloads in 125 markets.
And since post the pandemic, the travel and tourism sector revived the popularity and spending for in-person events and experiences boomed.
With AI and in that, GenAI taking the center stage in technology, it attracted new users and the Generative AI apps like AI chatbots and art generators saw the monthly consumer spending surpassing $10 million in monthly consumer spending by late 2023.
The report said that “This AI growth also fueled embedded features across virtually all mobile sectors, paving the way for a fresh wave of digital innovation”.
