- App Overview
- App Audiences
- App User Habits
- Top & Fast-Growing
- Content Categories
- Social & Entertainment Apps
- App Ads & Monetization
Key Takeaways
- Mobile app usage is exploding as it becomes the #1 means of digital media consumption. But it’s not coming at the expense of desktop or mobile web.
Confluence of factors is driving the huge uptick in app usage time, and apps are overtaking other media in importance. However, it’s also important to recognize the others haven’t gone away and the opportunity lies in multi-platform engagement. - App usage is a reflexive, habitual behavior where those occupying the best home screen real estate are used most frequently.
Publishers must place more value on this real estate if they don’t want to lose out in the transition to mobile. A small slice of app users can contribute a lot of usage. - Publishers must look to Millennials’ app habits to win in mobile long-term.
Millennials are the heaviest app users and they spend a lot of time on social media and other platforms. Publishers must have a well-developed platform strategy to get mobile traffic and find ways to convert app users.
App Overview
Growth in Digital Media Time Spent
Digital media usage time is exploding right now, and it’s predominantly being driven by mobile apps. Over the past two years, total digital media usage has grown 49% with mobile apps having grown 90% and contributing to 77% of the total increase in time spent. Mobile browser is also seeing very strong growth at 53% and even desktop is still rising.
Smartphone App Share of Platform Time Spent
Smartphone apps are eating up the digital universe and are now close to being a majority of all digital media time.
Share of Digital Media Time Spent by Platform
Mobile now represents almost 2 out of 3 digital media minutes, and mobile apps alone now constitute a majority.
Share of Growth in Total Digital Time Spent: June 2015 vs. June 2013
Smartphone apps have driven most of the growth in digital media usage in the past 2 years.
Average Monthly Hours per App Visitor by Age
App usage time is being driven heavily by Millennials on smartphones, while older segments skew on tablet apps.
Share of Time Spent on Mobile: App vs. Browser
Apps dominate mobile web in time spent. But these stats only tell part of the story, especially when looking at driving audiences…
App Audiences
Avg. Monthly Audience for Top 1000 Properties for Total Digital, Mobile, and Desktop
Multi-platform digital audiences are getting much bigger on average, and it’s all because of mobile.
Average Monthly Audience: Top 1000 Mobile Apps vs. Top 1000 Mobile Web Properties
And mobile audience growth is being driven more by mobile web properties, which are actually bigger and growing faster than apps.
Top 1000 Mobile Web Properties: Average Audience and Time Spent Trend
But mobile web audiences also tend to be a mile wide and an inch deep. As audiences increase, average time on mobile web declines.
Number of Mobile Apps That Reached Unique Visitor Milestones
Nevertheless, app audiences are growing. And the number of apps reaching 5/10/20 million monthly visitors has jumped.
Number of Web Properties vs. Mobile Apps That Reached Unique Visitor Milestones
But, it’s still much easier to build a large audience on the desktop and mobile web because of more fluid linking of content.
Top 1000 Mobile Apps vs. Top 1000 Mobile Web Properties
Establishing app audiences is harder, but their real value is in their loyalty. They spend 18x more time on apps than mobile web visitors.
App User Habits
Smartphone App Discovery Method as a % of Users
Smartphone users rely most on the app store for app discovery, and more Millennials seek out apps across all methods of discovery.
Which factors, if any, influence your decision to move any of your apps to your home screen?
Smartphone home screen real estate is scarce, and frequency of usage determines which apps get promoted to this screen.
Where is the mobile app you use most often located?
3 in 4 smartphone users keep their most used app on the home screen and fully in view, outside the confines of an app folder.
Share of Time Spent on Apps Across Ranks
Half of all time spent on smartphone apps occurs on the individual’s single most used app. And it’s almost 60% on tablets.
% of Smartphone Users by Age Segment Who Only Operate Phone with Two Hands
Your Dad’s not the only one who operates his smartphone with two hands – it’s a generational thing.
Agree/Disagree: The ease with which I’m able to reach an app with my thumb when
operating my phone affects where I have positioned that app on my smartphone?*
One-handed smartphone users consciously decide on where apps are positioned on their phones based on “thumb reach.”
Q: How often do you agree to an app’s request to allow push notifications?
Smartphone users are as likely to accept push notifications as reject, indicating a need to balance utility with intrusiveness.
Q: Agree/Disagree: I am comfortable with apps accessing my geographic location information.
Smartphone users are more comfortable sharing location info than receiving notifications. Privacy less of a concern than annoyance?
Top & Fast-Growing Apps
Top 25 Mobile Apps by Unique Visitors (000) with Y/Y Growth
The list of Top 25 mobile apps is dominated by the leading digital media companies and tends to concentrate within a few categories.
Facebook’s Rank Among its Smartphone App Users
Facebook ranks as the #1 smartphone app by total time spent for almost half its user base – an astounding number.
Selected Smartphone Apps: Visitor Penetration vs. % Home Screen Incidence
Location, location, location. Apps occupying valuable home screen real estate tend to have the most visitors.
Starbucks vs. Dunkin’ Donuts App: Unique Visitor Trend
Habits can be powerful drivers of app usage, particularly when daily behaviors are involved. Like getting your caffeine fix.
Select Retailer Apps: Unique Visitor Trend
Some leading retailers have experienced recent app success by leveraging their customers’ routines of visiting their stores.
Tinder: Unique Visitor & Avg. Daily Visitor Trend
Tinder, whose 2x growth in the past year is dominated by Millennials – particularly college kids – is transforming the dating landscape.
Fitness Apps on Smartphone: Unique Visitor Trend
Fitness is another daily habit for many Americans, and several apps have seen big growth with their personal health tracking features.
Ride Service Apps – Unique Visitor Trend
Accessing on-demand services has also become habitual for many people, and Uber & Lyft lead the way for on-demand transportation.
Content Categories
Share of Mobile App Time Spent
Social media and entertainment account for the six top app categories and drive two-thirds of total time spent on apps.
Selected Content Category Share of Time Spent on Mobile & Apps
Mobile usage lives and dies by the success of apps. Categories with strong app usage are more likely to shift from desktop to mobile.
Mobile App Share of Total Digital Time Spent for Selected Content Categories
Certain content categories’ usage is now driven almost exclusively by apps, with Photos and Instant Messengers leading the way.
% of Smartphone Users Who Use App Folders
Younger smartphone users are significantly more likely to use folders to organize their apps into categories.
Social Media & Entertainment Apps
Average Monthly Time Spent Per Mobile App User on Social & Entertainment Categories
The average mobile user spends a whopping 26 hours per month on social apps. For Millennials, it’s 16% higher than the total audience.
Average Monthly Hours Spent Among 18-34 Year-Olds on Social Networking Mobile Apps
Facebook still wins the battle for the app attention of Millennials but other social platforms also drive very high engagement.
Millennials’ Top Apps by Share of Total Mobile App Time Spent
Millennials’ app usage time is dominated by social, video, music and communications.
Top 20 Apps* with Highest Concentration of Millennials (Age 18-34)
The vast majority of the apps skewing most heavily toward Millennials are social in nature.
Snapchat Smartphone App Penetration by Age
A strong majority of college kids use Snapchat every month, and the popular app is picking up traction among older Millennials, too.
Timehop: Smartphone App User Growth
Timehop has recently asserted itself as one of the fastest-growing and most oft-used apps with a majority of users accessing daily.
Facebook Messenger & WhatsApp – Smartphone App Unique Visitor Trends
Facebook’s unbundling of FB Messenger has helped drive massive growth and kick-started the emergence of messaging in the U.S.
YouTube: Average Hours Per Visitor by Device
The YouTube mobile app’s explosion in engagement on smartphones and tablets highlights the rapid shift to mobile video.
Q: How often do you listen to podcasts using your smartphone?
Podcasting looks poised for lift-off as more than 4 in 10 Millennials now listen on smartphone apps at least once a month.
App Ads & Monetization
Percentage Point Lift in Brand Metrics for Desktop and Mobile Ads
Mobile ads not only work, but they work much better than desktop ads on average – particularly at the bottom of the funnel.
Brand Lift of Native Mobile Video
Mobile native in-app video ads can be very effective, especially when adapting ad creative for short-form viewing.
Summary & Key Findings
Key Takeaways
