Consumer Spending on Mobile Games Drops 5% Despite Record Breaking Downloads

The mobile gaming industry seemed unstoppable after ten years of nonstop growth, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, the coronavirus pandemic threw a wrench into the works. This created inflation as well as widespread economic turmoil that made growth far more difficult than might have been the case otherwise. Furthermore, user targeting became harder than ever before, which decreased the value of mobile gaming companies around the world.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that mobile gaming downloads just reached an all time high of 89.7 billion. However, despite the record breaking number of downloads, consumer spending on mobile gaming apps decreased by 5% year over year. This seems to suggest that consumers aren’t spending as much money as they used to on mobile games, even though they are downloading them with a higher level of frequency.

One thing to mention here is that the pre-pandemic highs still pale in comparison to 2022’s totals. Back in 2019, consumer spending on mobile games hovered at around $86 billion. On the other hand, gaming apps earned approximately $109.5 billion in 2022.

While this is still roughly half a billion dollars lower than the numbers seen in 2021, it is still a massive $23 billion increase from 2019 with all things having been considered and taken into account. Additionally, a number of individual games such as Genshin Impact are setting new milestones in terms of earnings. Genshin Impact’s lifetime in-app purchases crossed $3 billion in the second quarter of 2022.

Gamers are clearly willing to spend billions on the games of their choice. What’s more, much of the growth in downloads was driven by hyper casual games which are not known for in-app spending from consumers because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up driving away users.

It will be interesting to see if this minor dip continues through to the next year. Even if that occurs, the gaming app industry seems fairly secure in its prospects.

Read next: New Research Says Consumers Are Downbeat About The Economy With 91% Reducing Their Spending
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Here Are the Top Trending Google Keywords for 2023

Marketers need to be aware of all sorts of things because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing them to implement more effective marketing campaigns. Search trends on Google can be instrumental in making marketing campaigns obtain a wider reach than might have been the case otherwise, which is why advertising companies often put a lot of effort into learning as much as they can about them.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that SimilarWeb recently did a deep dive and ascertained which keywords were trending most heavily in 2023 so far. Interestingly, the keyword that topped the charts wasn’t even in English!

Instead, it was the Chinese word for “three body”, and that is all thanks to the upcoming adaptation of the iconic Chinese sci-fi trilogy called the Three Body problem. This keyword was used nearly 320,000 times in January of 2023, which is a whopping 21,000% increase month over month.

Coming in second was the name of US politician Kevin McCarthy who had a really rough time getting elected as the leader of the House of Representatives. His name was searched for over 6.2 million times, which is up 3,459% from the 492,000 times it was used around a month ago. Much of the traffic surrounding Kevin McCarthy went to CNN, with the American news agency receiving a huge boost in hits thanks to their coverage of the political goings on.

Moving on, entertainment related keywords continued to dominate the list of most searched queries. Apart from The Three Body Problem, the HBO series The Last of Us saw a huge uptick in searches as well. Based on the popular videogame, the TV series received well over 25 million searches in January.

Much of this traffic went to Wikipedia, since this is a useful source of information that can tell searchers all they need to know. The fourth entry on this list, which is yet again mass media related, also directed a lot of traffic to the online encyclopedia.

The keyword coming in fourth place was “m3gan”, which is the name of a sci-fi TV show that is currently taking the world by storm. This just goes to show how big of an impact mass media can have with all things having been considered and taken into account. M3gan has been used as a keyword approximately 10.6 million times in January of 2023 alone. That is up 1,160% from search volume seen in December of 2022.

The rise of ChatGPT should have put it in first place, but in spite of the fact that this is the case the AI chatbot only ended up reaching 5th place. That might be due to a lack of widespread awareness, although that still resulted in “chat gpt login” becoming the 5th most widely used keyword in January 2023.

All in all, these search trends can tell marketers a lot about how they should strategize. Using these keywords and targeting them in ad campaigns can help marketers to reach the widest possible audience and potentially bring some traffic to their own sites as well.

Read next: What Are the Most Frequently Searched Terms on Google?
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

New Data Proves Number Of Kids Using TikTok And Snapchat Is Increasing

TikTok and Snapchat are growing in popularity and new regularity data prove how both these leading apps showed an alarming rise in younger audiences.

The statistics were compared by top media regulator Ofcom who showed significant differences in figures when surveying the UK population.

Nearly 50% of the users were between the ages of 3 and 17 and they made use of the app TikTok and Snapchat vigorously when compared to other leading social media platforms.

The figures collected were a part of the regulator’s yearly survey that involved both kids and their parents’ attitudes when using the web.

Moreover, we saw the study notice a small rise in both platforms’ popularity in 2022. And today, TikTok proved that 53% of kids are using the app while the figure is slightly less at 46% for kids. Both these platforms witnessed a rise from the previous years.

Both firms continue to face increased amounts of pressure regarding user safety in the past few months. The issue is alarming as so many governments around the globe are banning the app from devices owned by authorities. There is a great level of anxiety linked to the relationship it holds with China.

On the other hand, Snap was criticized for failing to remove underage users from its app.

This annual report by Ofcom also surveyed the online attitude of kids and parents regarding other leading apps such as YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp. But it was proven how the figures remained steady when compared with stats from the previous years,

Moreover, it was also interesting to note how there was a decline in popularity when looking at Meta’s Facebook app which went down from 40% to just 34% in a year’s time.

Kids of all ages were observed to watch the content of a dramatic theme in various mediums like television shows and even movies, the report continued to mention. Similarly, the regulator explained how there was a proportion of both 3 and 4-year-olds utilizing Snapchat and that had gone up to 17% in the year 2022. This is again up by 12% when compared to the previous year.

A representative from TikTok explained how the government’s bans were linked to a lot of fundamental misunderstandings regarding how the app functions and what safety protocols it has in place.

Moreover, one representative from Snap delineated how criticism regarding its records of younger audiences loving the app was misrepresenting the app’s efforts. It meant that the company has been working long and hard to block and remove countless attempts of young UK-based users to make accounts on Snapchat each month.

The situation is alarming because new studies have gone on to speak about how both of these apps and so many others are influencing the minds of youngsters in a negative manner.

Therefore, such platforms are advised to introduce policies that would help curb the exponential growth in viewership of such underage audiences.

Read next: Global App Market Displays Signs Of Resiliency Despite Economic Headwinds, New Research Proves
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Instagram Allows Users To Make Dedicated Collections With Friends And Enables Sharing Of Stories In Highlights

Instagram is introducing some exciting new changes for its users and here’s what you can expect from the leading social media app soon.

The company says it's rolling out a new endeavor where users can allow dedicated ‘Collections’ while collaborating with those they consider as friends on the app.

This Collections feature is not entirely new. We saw it get launched at the start of 2017 and it’s a great way to highlight posts on the platform. Moreover, it’s also ideal when you want to store content that you adore in a more organized and neat manner.

A post was sent out by the company on Twitter where they shed light on how users can make use of collaborative collections to link with one another over a series of common interests.

The collection gets saved in the group chats and you can now communicate one on one through DMs. In this manner, users get the chance to store an array of posts and share those with each other. With time, users get the option to include more posts and similarly, they can remove any posts that they don’t like from the collection when they want to.

The app hopes to make this feature a more customizable ordeal by allowing users to add labels to the collection along the way too. Instagram says every time a user shares such collections with another, recipients get the chance to include more posts for that collection. This can be taken from their respective feed, DMs, Reels, or the Explore tab.

Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri went public with the news recently and shared more updates on this endeavor through his Updates Channel. For now, the feature is not getting expanding to all at this moment in time. But as revealed by TechCrunch recently, it should be out in no time.

Mosseri elaborated further on the endeavor by claiming the feature is availed by new options that give rise to collaborative collections arising when you save items from your newsfeed or from a DM. Once it’s shared with your respective friend, you can begin to include Reels content or others seen across Instagram’s features to that collection.

Last month, Instagram went public with its Channels project that gives creators greater chances to showcase content to bigger audiences with ease. Those gaining access to capabilities can share different kinds of content like videos, polls, and others with followers.

If you don’t want to, creators can also restrict the audience so only subscribers witness the content, provided they have an Instagram subscription. For now, the service is getting rolled out on mobile phones.

In other pieces of news, Instagram says it’s making way for added convenience for users by enabling Story Shares on Highlights directly.

This means when shared, the story enters the account holder’s Highlights section and will only be visible over there.

This development was spotted by social media expert Alessandro Paluzzi, and his discovery means the platform is working on making the feature live soon.

Read next: Instagram to Allow Group Post Sharing in Meta's Latest Test
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

iPhone 13 Conquers China With 37% of Sales

Apple’s growth rate over these past few years has been nothing short of spectacular, with the trillion dollar tech juggernaut making massive inroads into China among many other emerging markets. It turns out that the latest iteration of Apple’s flagship phone, namely the iPhone 13, was the best selling smartphone in Mainland China with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Overall, the iPhone 13 comprised 37% of Apple’s total sales in China, and 6.6% of the total number of smartphone sold in China. Coming in second is yet another Apple product, namely the iPhone 13 Pro Max, which comprised 2.2% of all smartphones that were purchased in the Chinese mainland, followed by the iPhone 13 pro with 1.9%.

All in all, just under 10% of all of the smartphones that Chinese consumers bought in 2022 were made by Apple, allowing the American company to utterly dominate the top 10 list. In spite of the fact that this is the case, the next 7 companies in this list are all Chinese in origin.

The Honor X30 came in 4th with a 1.8% share, followed by the Oppo A56 5G with 1.7%. Honor entered the again with its Play 30 Plus in sixth place with a 1.6% share which was almost equaled by the Y33s 5G made by Vivo. The Honor 60 received a 1.5% share, the VivoY76s came in 9th place with 1.4%, followed by the Honor Play 20 with just under 1.4%.

Honor’s 6.3% overall share of Chinese smartphone sales is impressive, but it still falls well short of Apple. This seems to indicate that Apple is starting to maintain a firm grip on the Chinese market, since barely any Chinese company is able to compete with it in terms of pure sales.

This is interesting because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up indicating a shift in Chinese purchasing habits. Flagship phones are becoming more prominent, and Apple as always been a major player in that arena. This just goes to show that Apple still has what it takes to dominate the global premium smartphone industry.

H/T: CPR
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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Consumer Spending on Mobile Games is 29% Higher Than Pre-Pandemic Statistics

The global pandemic wreaked havoc with a number of economic sectors and industries, but in spite of the fact that this is the case some sectors such as mobile apps and games managed to grow a fair bit. Widespread lockdowns gave gaming apps a boost because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up helping people pass the time.

Many assumed that this growth rate would be a brief boost that would even out and potentially even get negated once the pandemic was over. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that consumer spending on gaming apps is still as much as 29% higher than what it was prior the pandemic!

Based on a report compiled by DataAI, gamers are downloading upwards of 1.2 billion titles on a weekly basis with all things having been considered and taken into account. They are also spending approximately $1.63 billion each and every week, which is a massive increase from the approximately $1.2 billion that was spent weekly in the first quarter of 2020.

One thing to note here is that these numbers are far short of the highs that were seen during the heyday of the pandemic. However, it is still much higher than pre-pandemic levels, which seems to suggest that gaming apps still have a lot of life left in them and that the pandemic highs are not going to go away anytime soon.

A major difference can be seen with respect to iOS apps when compared to Android apps. The Play Store received 29.1 billion downloads in the first quarter of 2023, up 1% year over year. Meanwhile, downloads from the App Store sat at around just 9.1 billion.

• Also read: Global App Market Displays Signs Of Resiliency Despite Economic Headwinds, New Research Proves

That’s a 12% increase from the same quarter last year, but it’s still well short of the quantity of downloads that the Play Store tends to obtain. However, it should also be mentioned that iOS apps, both gaming and otherwise, outstrip Play Store apps in terms of consumer spending. Consumer spending on Play Store apps increased by 4% year over year to reach $12.3 billion.

That’s an impressive number, but consumer spending on iOS apps increased by 6%, which widened the gap between the two and allowed App Store apps to net developers $21.8 billion in the first quarter of 2023 alone.

This seems to indicate that iOS apps earn more, even though they have a lower quantity of downloads overall. With South Korea becoming an ever greater source of consumer spending, all eyes will be on East Asia to drive the industry forward.

Read next: Global Consumer Spending Grows Thanks to Entertainment Apps
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Instagram to Allow Group Post Sharing in Meta's Latest Test

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is reportedly testing a unique segment on Instagram that allows users to share content within private groups. The update, called "Group Post Sharing," was recently highlighted by Pururaj Dutta, on Twitter.

According to him, it allows users to share content with specific communities of people, rather than their entire followers' index. This would enable consumers to share more personal content with a selected group of friends or family, rather than broadcasting it to everyone who follows them.

The attribute is currently in the testing phase and is not yet available to all Instagram users. It is unclear when or if the feature will be rolled out to the general audience globally.

While Instagram already allows consumers to share posts through direct texts, the capability to communicate posts within private communities could be a game-changer for users who prefer to keep their content more private.

The move is part of Meta's ongoing actions to prioritize privacy and user control. Further, according to Mark Zuckerberg, the company is focusing more on privacy and working on several new features that may grant customers more control over their data and online experiences.

The new feature also aligns with Instagram's recent push to emphasize community and connection. The social media platform has been testing multiple unique features in the past months, including a "Close Friends" segment that allows members to share posts with a select group of followers and a "Favorites" feature that lets users curate a list of their favorite accounts.

While the Group Post Sharing update is still in the testing phase, it could have a significant impact on how users interact with the platform. By giving users more control over who sees their content, Instagram may be able to increase user engagement and loyalty.

However, it could also raise concerns about privacy and the potential for private groups to be used for malicious purposes. Instagram will need to carefully balance the benefits of the new feature with the potential risks.

To sum up, the new feature by Instagram is a promising development for Instagram users who value privacy and control over their online experiences. If it is successful in testing, it could be a valuable addition to the platform and a step forward for user-centric social media.

This new feature is just one example of Meta's recent efforts to provide consumers with more control over their social media experiences. With this option, they can enjoy a more targeted and personalized approach to content sharing with the people they choose to connect with on Instagram.

Read next: Global App Market Displays Signs Of Resiliency Despite Economic Headwinds, New Research Proves
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World