2020 is the year of global mobility (as ironic as it sounds)
This year was very different for everyone. Someone was sitting at home all the time, while others could not afford to leave work for weeks. As 2020 draws to a close, Cloud4Y offers interesting statistics on what humanity has in common in terms of mobile usage.
Have you caught yourself thinking that you have been hanging on your phone too often lately? Maybe even spent the whole year like this? Statistics claim that in 2020 people spent 1.6 Trillion Hours Looking at Mobile Screens…
However, do not rush to reproach yourself for this. This is all covid, ubiquitous digitalization and the impact of new technologies. At least that’s how we comfort ourselves. On the other hand, there are pluses here. More people began to work from home, take online courses, and shop online. There are fewer situations when people concerned about their health think whether it is worth shaking hands with a colleague when they meet and whether a pack of antiseptic wipes is enough for a day.
Seriously, Cloud4Y takes a responsible approach to the health of employees and partners. Therefore, at the beginning of the year, our company switched to work from home, and helped many other organizations to quickly and painlessly switch to remote work. So we have actively contributed to the growth of “gadget addiction”, so to speak. We made you more mobile in this strange year, one of the most sedentary periods in human life. It’s funny that forced staying at home has helped people become more mobile!
But let’s get back to mobile devices. Company App Annie reported that in the first 6 months of 2020 alone, we spent 1.6 trillion hours on mobile devices. eMarketer calculated that adults (those who are already 18 years old) spend an average of 3 hours 50 minutes on smartphones. That is more than on TV!
In the browser, we spend an average of 25 minutes, in applications – 3:35 minutes.
Smartphone habits
Due to quarantine, self-isolation and the growth of remote work formats, people have a more urgent need to use mobile devices for work, ordering food, paying for communal services, education, entertainment, etc. This is partly why laptops have been very much in demand all year round. But smartphones dominate. According to Statista, 4.8 billion people used phones in 2019, 6.95 billion in 2020, and is expected to grow to 7.1 billion worldwide in 2021.
Our houses / apartments are likely to remain the epicenter of our social and work activities in the future. And 43% of home activities are somehow related to the use of mobile devices.
And what can Apple Store and Google Play people tell you about the activity of people in 2020? In short, both platforms show that almost everyone has played.
Are there those among you who have never launched something from the gaming category in 2020? We’re 99.9% sure not, because this category is the leader in terms of downloads. Whether it’s an adventure game, arcade game, educational game, sports or strategy game, almost everyone has tried to relax with online games in an app or browser. As a result, mobile playtime increased by 62% in 2020 (GameAnalytics, 2020). The world’s best gaming apps by download: Among Us, Subway Surfers, Join Clash 3D, Garena Free Fire, Genshin Impact, and more.
Pay attention, the category “Education” is also among the leaders. This proves that we are living in the information age, when distance learning does not seem to be something unnatural or strange. World’s Leading Educational Apps: Google Classroom, YouTube Kids, Duolingo-Language Lessons, Photomath, Brainly-Homework Help App, and Kahoot. Also worth mentioning are popular video conferencing platforms: Microsoft Teams, Google Meets, and Zoom.
Note
No detailed data could be found for Russia. There is a rating of games and applications in Googleplay and AppStore., as well as such statistics:
How did people use all the free time they suddenly had? After a good game and / or study, they, of course, gave their attention to applications from the “Entertainment” category. The world’s best entertainment apps: Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Prime Video, Apple Music, Twitch, TED, Google Play Books, and TuneIn.
Another interesting metric: 66% of Internet users have used apps for shopping on their mobile devices, 57% of them are between the ages of 25 and 34. The world’s most popular shopping apps are Wish, SHEIN, Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Joom, Alibaba and Pinduoduo.
Most Popular Apps of 2020
Facebook… Social networks were actively used for remote communication. When you consider that the Facebook ecosystem includes Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, it’s no surprise that he has become a leader.
TikTok… As of Q3 2020, TikTok ranked 2nd among non-gaming apps in terms of user spending. In 2020, the number of active users on TikTok has skyrocketed, almost three times more than in 2018. Most likely, in 2021, TikTok will not only gain the coveted spot in the club with 1 billion monthly active users, but also gain 1.2 billion.
ZoomThis app is definitely one of the most outstanding new products of 2020, along with several other video conferencing apps. Zoom reported over 30 million daily visitors in April 2020 and had 2.13 million daily downloads in March 2020. And yes, numerous vulnerability scandals and hooligan attacks during meetings did not stop the application from becoming popular.
Whatsapp… The app is far from new, but it has about 2 billion downloads. This figure shows how large the audience of the messenger is.
Instagram… The photo and video sharing app is one of the most popular among Gen Z and millennials. Instagram is actively used by marketers. The app provides companies with many options to interact with their audience through IGTV, Instagram Lives, Stories and Reels.
Google meet… As with Zoom, downloads have skyrocketed at Google Meet. In May 2020, the app was downloaded over 50 million times, and users who work from home turned to the service. During the pandemic, Google Meet became even more popular because it was free.
About money
Users downloaded 33 billion new apps in Q3 2020.
Google Play downloads rose to 25 billion, up 10% year on year, while iOS downloads rose to nearly 9 billion (20% year on year).
Non-game apps accounted for 55% of all downloads on GooglePlay, while on iOS this figure was marginally higher at 70%.
Users spent a record $ 28 billion on apps in Q3 2020.
On iOS, spending rose 20% year-on-year to $ 18 billion in Q3 2020; spending on Google Play grew 35% year over year to over $ 10 billion.
On Google Play, people spent most of their money on apps from the games, social, and entertainment categories. On iOS, the situation is similar, where the leaders were games, entertainment, and photos and videos.
So we come to the end. Let me summarize the content briefly:
We spent 1.6 trillion hours on mobile in 2020;
6.94 billion people use telephones;
People loved to play games throughout the year, so play time increased by 62% in 2020;
People loved e-commerce;
The most popular apps in 2020 are Facebook, TikTok, Zoom, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google Meets, and YouTube.
Consumers downloaded 33 billion new apps and spent $ 28 billion on app stores.
Benefit from the age of technology, stay healthy and happy, enjoy the holidays with your loved ones, and maintain a positive mindset. And Cloud4Y will continue to help you work comfortably, even if all company employees are at home. Thanks for attention!
What else is interesting in the blog Cloud4Y
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→ How to configure SSH-Jump Server
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