Global app economy slows for first time: Consumer spending on apps in 2022 fell 2% to $167 billion.
In 2021, growth had been 19%.
At the same time, downloads increased 11% year-on-year (but not in the last quarter, the Christmas quarter), driven in particular by emerging markets.
The annual report published by data.ai provides an overview of the situation.
While an analysis by Sensor Tower shows that Instagram is first followed by TikTok.
The first analysis shows, in particular, that in the fourth quarter of 2022 - that of the Christmas holidays and leisure time, factors that generally push the app ecosystem - there was a slowdown in the growth of downloads.
"For the first time, macroeconomic factors are holding back the growth of mobile spending," noted data.ai CEO Theodore Krantz.
Spending on games also fell 5% to $110 billion in 2022, while spending on non-gaming apps increased 6% to $58 billion, the latter driven by streaming subscriptions, dating apps and short video app.
According to Sensor Tower's analysis, Instagram has overtaken TikTok to leap to first place and the other Meta apps all have a place in the top 10 most downloaded apps (Facebook in third, WhatsApp in fifth, Messenger in eighth and WhatsApp Business in ninth place).
CapCut of ByteDance, an extension of TikTok, is number 4. In sixth place is Snapchat, followed by Telegram, Spotify is tenth.
Twitter, which has been owned by Elon Musk since last October, is thirteenth, Netflix fifteenth.
