Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2023-02-08
The Key Trends and Opportunities for Apps in 2023 — Lexi Sydow, data.ai
data.ai Head of Insights Lexi Sydow on the 10th State of Mobile report: how its model-based estimates are built, and 2022's first-ever decline in app store spend (-2% to $167B), driven by games (-5%) while subscription-led non-game spend grew 6%. Country breakdowns show strong non-game growth outside the US (Brazil +30%, Mexico +26%, Norway +23%; US +16%), China's ~quarter of spend on third-party Android, and subscriptions topping category charts. Also data.ai's own report marketing: interactive cuts, quarterly updates, webinars and a free keyword-list offer.
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Numbers mentioned
| Who | Metric | Value | Context | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| marketGlobal app store consumer spend (iOS, Google Play and third-party Android in China) | market size | USD 167,000M/year estimate | 21:54 | |
| marketGlobal app store consumer spend | growth rate | +-2%/year approximate | First-ever year-over-year decline | 21:54 |
| marketGlobal mobile game consumer spend | market size | USD 110,000M/year estimate | Down 5% year-over-year | 21:54 |
| marketGlobal mobile game consumer spend | growth rate | +-5%/year approximate | 21:54 | |
| marketGames' share of global app store spend | share | 66% approximate | 21:54 | |
| marketGlobal non-game app consumer spend | market size | USD 58,000M/year approximate | Up 6% year-over-year, driven by subscriptions | 21:54 |
| marketGlobal non-game app consumer spend | growth rate | +6%/year approximate | 21:54 | |
| marketGlobal app downloads and daily time per user | growth rate | up (both downloads and daily time per user) approximate | 26:33 | |
| marketShare of China app store spend on third-party Android stores | share | 33% approximate | Host's restatement; guest corrected it to about a quarter | 33:24 |
| marketShare of China app store spend on third-party Android stores | share | 25% approximate | The rest is iOS and Google Play; third-party Android has much lower spend per device | 34:19 |
| TikTok | share | 33% approximate | Share of TikTok consumer spend (coins/tipping) coming from the US; US overtook China (Douyin) as the biggest contributor | 31:56 |
| marketUS non-game app consumer spend | growth rate | +16%/year approximate | Year-over-year; the US ranks #2 overall for spend | 35:08 |
| marketCanada and Australia non-game app consumer spend | growth rate | +15–20%/year approximate | Both over-index on non-game spend relative to population | 35:08 |
| marketSouth Korea non-game app consumer spend | growth rate | +20%/year approximate | Gaming-heavy market: #4 overall but #8 when ranked by non-game spend | 35:08 |
| marketMexico non-game app consumer spend | growth rate | +26%/year approximate | Ranked ~16th by non-game spend | 36:00 |
| marketNorway non-game app consumer spend | growth rate | +23%/year approximate | Norway and Sweden rank ~19th and 20th by non-game spend despite small populations | 36:16 |
| marketBrazil non-game app consumer spend | growth rate | +30%/year approximate | 10th largest market for non-game spend | 36:16 |
| marketUS share of global dating app spend | share | can be half of all spend approximate | In some sectors like dating the US is about half of global spend | 29:43 |
| marketChina vs US: population and app store spend | share | 3-4x the US population but only ~1.2x the spend estimate | Cohost's rough recollection, used to argue China has spending headroom | 30:21 |
| Google One | rank | 1 | #1 by consumer spend in its sector (utility/productivity) in 2022; usually in the overall top 10 | 40:47 |