Demand for mobile apps accelerated last year but consumer spend shrank, research from mobile data analytics provider data.ai shows.
Its annual State of Mobile 2023 Report analysed 250,000 apps categorized under data.ai’s industry-first Game and App IQ taxonomy.
While downloads grew to 255 billion (+11% YoY), and hours spent peaked at 4.1 trillion (+9% YoY), consumer spending across all app stores slipped by 2% YoY to $167 billion as economic headwinds impact discretionary spending.
Theodore Krantz, data.ai. chief executive officer said: “For the first time, macroeconomic factors are dampening growth in mobile spend.
“Consumer spend is tightening while demand for mobile is the gold standard. In 2023, mobile will be the primary battleground for unprecedented consumer touch, engagement and loyalty.”
Short-form video apps, led by TikTok, dominated consumer attention in 2022. Users of these apps streamed a whopping 3.1 billion hours of user-generated content daily, up 22% YoY, and spent $5.6 billion, up 55% YoY, fueling the creator economy.
Mobile ad spend is set to hit $362 billion in 2023, driven by growth in short-form video and video-sharing apps like TikTok and YouTube.
Spending on other apps (non-gaming) increased by 6% YoY to $58 billion, largely driven by subscriptions and purchases in OTT (over-the-top) apps such as Netflix and Disney+ which grew 12% YoY to $7.2 billion, dating apps, and short-form video apps.
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