Indians Are Spending More Time On Mobile Apps Than Ever Before; TikTok & Tinder Are Popular Globally

Mobile app usage on Android phones and the Apple iPhone, around the world, remains high as more people are working from home and connecting with friends, colleagues, and families online owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the data analytics firm App Annie, monthly time spent on mobile apps grew 25 percent year-over-year in Q3 2020, in excess of 180 billion hours each month of July, August and September. In India, the monthly time spent on mobile apps in the third quarter of 2020 surged 30 percent year-over-year, while apps’ usage surged 15 percent in the U.S. and 40 percent in Indonesia for the same period. Globally, TikTok remained the most downloaded app; however, consumers spent the most time on the dating app, Tinder. TikTok has since been banned in India.

The report by App Annie further reveals that consumers downloaded roughly 33 billion apps in the third quarter of 2020 where Google Play Store downloads grew by 10 percent to 25 billion while iOS downloads increased by 20 percent to nearly 9 billion. Interestingly, India and Brazil accounted for the most number of downloads on the Google Play Store, while the U.S. and China were the two largest markets for app downloads on iOS.

It is not just an increase in usage and downloads in the last quarter of 2020 but also a surge in in-app purchases. The Q3 2020 was the largest quarter yet for mobile app consumer spend with revenue amounting to $28 billion (roughly Rs. 2.04 lakh crore). Most of the purchases came from gaming apps, while non-gaming apps accounted for 35 percent on the Apple App Store and 20 percent on Google Play Store for consumer spend. The report states that consumer spending was highest across Games, Social, and Entertainment categories on Google Play Store while iOS users spent most on categories such as Games, Entertainment and Photo and Video.

“By consumer spend, it is notable that Tinder was ranked 1, up to one position quarter-over-quarter — indicating strong demand and use of dating apps and a testament to their resiliency throughout social distancing measures and lockdown policies due to COVID-19,” says the report. In terms of monthly active users, Facebook dominated the charts, claiming the number 1 spot, followed by other Facebook-owned apps like WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram.

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