We all know that – ‘’Mobile is Eating the World’’. In recent years, we have seen mobile has disrupted every industry, every country, and it is continuing to break its own records year after year. According to Flurry Analytics – overall app use in 2013 posted 115% year-over-year growth. Every app category including wearable, mCommerce, Augmented and Enterprise mobility has shown steep growth. In the chart below, we have shown on the categories of interest to most. As adoption of smartphones and tablets has increased, utilities and productivity apps have shown 150% growth in use year-over year, apps such as Evernote and Quip, gained popularity and adoption rate. Even mobile gaming section, which industry experts and skeptics were expecting to reach saturation levels in year 2013, showed 66% year-over-year growth in use.
The app category that showed the most surprised growth in year 2013 was messaging and chat apps. Apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, KakaoTalk, LINE, Facebook Messenger and SnapChat have received high attention and rapid adoption. The most surprising fact was that the rate of growth was almost tripling year-over-year which outpaced other popular categories. This growth could be seen through the high valuation that Facebook has given to very popular app especially among teens Whatsapp by acquiring it.
However, some of the social apps like Korea-owned and Japan-based LINE, are happily enjoying great revenue growth and success. But, industry experts and skeptics are still in a debate about whether these apps are just the experiences or more of a platform.
Year 2013 saw a few instances where social apps are becoming trend and are more of the latter. In March of 2013, just three months after its launch, game distribution platform, LINE announced that it had delivered over 100m downloads to its users. To demonstrate the potential of WeChat, Tencent’s has conducted an experiment with China’s one of the emerging device manufacturers Xiaomi, which shown WeChat as an m-commerce player. In that experiment, Xiaomi launched a new smartphone to WeChat users. And the result was overwhelming: Just in 10 minutes, 150,000 new smartphones through a messaging app WeChat.
Many other instances including Facebook’s efficacious entry into paid mobile app market have shown the potential messaging and social app shave. In the year 2013, social apps shown promising anecdotes, coupled with an over 200% year-over-year growth. And, that made this segment as a lucrative business model for businesses and brands. 2014 was also a crucial year for these categories and determined that messaging and social app market will flourish and will remain independent and will become killer mobile platforms and distribution channels in the communication industry. Many news, PR sites and analytics gems have already started talking about this segment – TIME magazine has placed its bets on its adoption. Flurry too is fascinated by its growth, the retention rate, the reach and high frequency rate for this category. We have seen the potential for what it has become, which says that that mobile is all about messaging apps. However, that is also true that mobile world is an unexpected space, where any segment can boom and any can diminish.
2014 – Another explosive growth year in mobile has passed. A new year has begun, and if the first two months of year are any indication, the mobile space is looking at another major growth year and yes we hope mobile will continue to eat the world. And, similarly mobile app development companies will continue delivering ground-breaking social mobile apps. Parangat Technologies is one of the leading mobile solution providers, which has delivered some exceptional mobile social apps that has not helped startups and leading brands gain visibility but also earn value and revenue, both. To know more visit here
Sahil Gupta
With roll up the sleeves, dive in and get the job done approach, it was year in the year 2010 when Sahil started Parangat Technologies. Emphasizing on a healthy work culture and technology driven company, he has successfully created a workplace where people love to work and live. He is a software engineer and a passionate blockchain enthusiast.