By Mango
•
May 5, 2020
Stuck Inside: Personal App Usage on the Rise. For all this time spent in the digital-world, who benefits? AppsFlyer, mobile market analysts, stated that organic downloads of mobile applications increased by nearly 15%. This shows that the app market has grown significantly as people are spending more time, and giving more time to installing apps on their mobile devices. For example, Italy, a country that has been impacted heavily by the virus, has seen a 39% increase in organic mobile application installations. This further establishes the correlation between app-usage increase and Covid-19’s rate of contamination. To elaborate, the app categories that are experiencing the most downloads are News, Health and Fitness, Music and Shopping apps. [1] Business as Usual… Thanks to Apps! With the virus originating in Wuhan, a Chinese manufacturing city, the amount of time spent on mobile devices increased by 30% in the country in February. Furthermore, with the severity of the situation increasing and cities locking down one after the other like dominoes, business and educational app downloads soared! In the same month, the average quantity of mobile gaming applications downloaded increased by 80% relative to last year’s numbers. This is similar to Italy’s first week of march, with an 85% increase in downloads of business apps. [2] According to the New York Times, the video conference app, Zoom, which is used mostly for business and educational purposes, has seen 600,000 downloads in a single day last week! [3] Apps for Streaming and Entertainment Usage Increasing Entertainment apps such as social media apps and streaming service apps are experiencing a huge increase in usage as well. Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon prime, YouTube, and Instagram are just a few of the many entertainment apps that have surged in the past few months due to the recent confinement. For example, Netflix’s extension, “Netflix Party” has existed since 2017, but it has found recent popularity given the emerging virus. Conclusion Although Covid-19 is negatively affecting most people, some are benefiting. This includes most mobile application developers, sellers and owners. To be more specific, business apps, educational apps and entertainment apps (social media & streaming) have seen huge increases in usage. Thus, as the utility of mobile applications increases, and Covid-19’s end is not anywhere in the foreseeable future, it is most probable that the net value of app usage post-coronavirus will show increases relative to that of the pre-coronavirus app market. All in all, users are benefiting from mobile applications more than ever, and as demand is rising, there is no better time to launch your app! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. https://www.businessofapps.com/news/organic-installs-of-apps-jump-15-amidst-coronavirus-pandemic/ 2. https://www.businessofapps.com/news/coronavirus-leads-to-surge-in-business-app-downloads-and-30-more-time-in-mobile/ 3. https://www.vox.com/2020/3/21/21185750/how-to-group-chat-watch-movies-games-netflix-discord-zoom-coronavirus-internet