Due to the coronavirus pandemic, people began to spend more time and money on mobile apps. In this article, we’ll analyze how exactly the COVID-19 has impacted the sector.
When the pandemic broke out, people started to spend more time online. They began to download more apps and use them much more frequently to get in touch with others, work, have fun, buy things and take care of their health. From this article, you’ll get to know which app categories have managed to make the most of COVID-19. Plus, you’ll discover informative numbers that reveal the success level of the most popular apps.
App Categories That Have Been Enjoying the Largest Demand During the Pandemic
The first three months of 2020 witnessed the highest customer spend ever in app stores. In total, people from over the world spent over $23.4 billion on such platforms and downloaded over 31 billion apps. The demand for Android and iOS app development services has increased dramatically because many businesses wanted to jump at the opportunity. Mobile app developers reported a 366% popularity rise in the demand for their services.
This is the rating of app categories whose popularity has skyrocketed especially significantly:
- Web conferencing — 627%
- Telemedicine — 613%
- Electronic signature services — 511%
- Remote desktop — 281%
- Video platforms — 265%
- Webinar — 226%
- Web portal — 199%
- Live chat — 194%
- Mobile app banking — from 35% to 85%
The following app categories witnessed a usage increase of up to 126%: Gaming, Social Networking and Sharing, Health and Fitness, Online Orders and Delivery, Logistics, Religion, Media and Entertainment. The teams of eCommerce apps state that consumers became 30.6% more likely to order goods and services on the Internet after offline stores had to temporarily shut down.
The Apps That Got a New Chance Thanks to the Pandemic
The true sensation of the lockdown period was ZOOM, a video conferencing app. At the end of 2019, it had just 10 million daily users — but due to coronavirus, this figure has reached 200 million.
In the entertainment segment, YouTube occupied the first position in the rating of streaming apps whose users spent the most money inside the app: $110 million. Netflix was installed more than 59 million times during the first three months of 2020. In mid-March, the number of Disney+ installations grew by 46% week over week.
In mid-Spring, people downloaded music apps 21% more often and the total usage of entertainment apps grew by 25%. The same month, 40% of app users said that they played mobile app games more often. Each week that users could not meet face to face with others, travel and visit offline events, they downloaded 858 million gaming apps. Apart from playing actively, people eagerly watched third-party streams: Twitch gathered nearly $20 million in client spending and became one of the most downloaded apps worldwide.
As for social networks, Instagram recorded a 48% rise in the number of installations in February. In March, Snapchat had 49% more new app installs and TikTok had 32%. Pinterest witnessed an x125 increase in search of family movies and an x128 increase in search for simple meals ideas for children.
Online orders and delivery apps predictably had to cope with an immense workload. At the very beginning of spring, GrubHub, DoorDash, Uber Eats and Postmates had 60% more downloads than usual. In the US, Instacart reported a 650% increase in new clients between the first two Spring months.
Since people couldn’t attend religious events offline, they downloaded apps that enabled them to participate in online services. Around 600,000 users would virtually gather in Churchome for a regular Wednesday night service. On Easter, 40.6 million individuals used Bible apps.
We won’t focus on logistics, eLearning, health and fitness apps in this article. The demand for them has also risen significantly and their owners have managed to make very good money.
Apps from the transportation, hospitality and consumer services sectors, on the contrary, had (and some are still experiencing) tough times. Yet their users will gladly come back to them once the coronavirus is over.
Finally, we should say a few words about Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps. In this case, it would be tricky to share any uniform statistics because such apps are very different. On average, the sector has been trying to cope with a 40% slump in sales and accounts being put on hold. Some businesses manage to survive thanks to free trials and discounts that they offer to attract more clients. Others go to great lengths to retain their clients.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you found this article informative and it helped you to better understand how the coronavirus impacted the mobile apps industry. Some apps managed to make a breakthrough during the pandemic and get a large loyal audience. Others, such as apps from the transportation and hospitality sector, have been struggling to retain their customers. Entertainment, telemedicine, remote work and learning, health, religion, online orders and delivery apps have been enjoying the highest popularity since the pandemic broke out.
