App Annie: Mobile Companies Valued 6X Higher Than Those Without Mobile Focus

Mobile data and analytics company App Annie released its annual report The State of Mobile in 2020, offering a deep dive into the mobile ecosystem in 2019.

The annual report offers a perspective of mobile’s impact across industries and the global economy.

Consumers downloaded a record 204 billion apps in 2019, a 45 percent increase since 2016 and up 6 percent year over year. Downloads were fueled by emerging markets, including India, Brazil and Indonesia.

In developed markets downloads have slowed but still topped 12.3 billion in the U.S., 2.5 billion in Japan and 2 billion in South Korea.

Time spent on apps is up 35 percent over the past two years, with mobile-ﬁrst emerging markets like Indonesia, Brazil and India spending the most time on mobile each day. Mobile users in France, India and Canada spent 25 percent more time on mobile.

Global spend on mobile games hit 56 percent of all game software and is forecasted to top $100 billion in 2020.

“For brands and publishers worldwide, mobile is fueling digital transformation,” said Theodore Krantz, CEO of App Annie. “We uniquely surface both market data and critical advertising insights to optimize monetization and help our customers thrive on mobile.”

Mobile-focused companies, such as Uber and Alibaba, had a combined IPO valuation of $544 billion, or 6.5 times higher than companies without a mobile focus.

The report turned the spotlight on the success of TikTok in 2019.

“Global time spent in TikTok grew 210 percent year over year in 2019, both from expanding user bases and increasing time spent per user,” the report indicated.

In the U.S., Facebook Messenger was the app downloaded most in 2019, followed by TikTok and Instagram. Tinder generated the most revenue in 2019, followed by Netflix, Tencent Video, iQIYI and YouTube.

“Snapchat continues to double down on mobile experiences that help real friends communicate visually,” said Kathleen Gambarelli, Snap’s group product marketing manager for performance. “As our audience has expanded, so have our app’s capabilities.”

Last year, Apple’s ranking of the top downloaded apps indicated Amazon’s Alexa app, which assists users in setting up their devices, was No. 1 the App Store’s free apps list. Other apps in the top 10 included Spotify, Google Home and Netflix. These displaced three different game apps, a tattoo drawing app and Amazon’s mobile app.