Global Mobile Apps in September|Shopping apps start a shopping spree in India
With the aid of its App Intelligence and other modules, SocialPeta sorted out the top 20 global mobile apps (non-game) by revenue, download, and advertising in September 2022, hoping to be of assistance to more people in the mobile app industry who try to understand the changing trends of global mobile market.
The overall performance of global mobile apps in September:
- Japanese app versions reported growths in revenue, making the Japanese market a "new gold mine"
- Shopping apps [Flipkart] and [Amazon India Shop] started a shopping spree in India
- [Pinterest] had significantly increased creatives; social apps were aggressive in advertising
Top 20 by Revenue
Top apps by revenue on App Store were stable. The Japanese version of [TikTok] was back on the chart with outstanding revenue. The app had a MoM revenue growth of 65% in September and recorded a monthly revenue of $6.06 million on Google Play to occupy a spot on the top 20 charts.
The American version of [LINE] was new on the chart, but also outstanding. It had a MoM revenue growth of 34.9% in September. The app's Japanese version [LINEマンガ] also reported a great revenue, with a MoM growth of 37.8%. It seems no one in the world could resist LINE Friends Brown and Cony.
On Google Play, [DAZN], a sports streaming platform, reported a growing revenue thanks to its broadcasting rights to Serie A, increasing by 34.7% MoM. Before the 2022-23 season, [DAZN] announced that its monthly subscription was 29.99 euros, which was 10 euros higher than the previous subscription cost. It also implemented geo-blocks to restrict users trying to watch DAZN outside their service region. Those implementations led to a surge in subscribers and subscription revenue during the sports season, but also led to growing discontent among its users. How will [DAZN] deal with it after the season? Let's wait and see.
Top 20 by Download
As for downloads on the App Store, [WhatsApp Messenger]'s downloads increased by 32.1% MoM in September. Such a big growth of downloads was enormous even for [WhatsApp Messenger] which had topped the charts for years. It was speculated that the growth was a result of the news announced by Meta in August that Meta and Jio Platforms (an Indian multinational technology company) would collaborate to launch grocery shopping services on [WhatsApp], which would be the first end-to-end shopping experience on [WhatsApp].
On Google Play, there was strong momentum in the downloads of [Flipkart] and [Amazon India Shop], two e-commerce companies occupying nearly 60% of the Indian e-commerce market. [Flipkart] had 6.76 million downloads in September, up 49.2% MoM; while [Amazon India Shop] had 1.22 million downloads, up 9.6% MoM. Both apps started grandly their biggest sales campaigns of the year in September. [Flipkart] also introduced the interest-free installment payment option "Flipkart Pay Later EMI". On the first day of its sales campaign, the app's usage rate increased by 120%, mainly resulting from "Flipkart Pay Later EMI".
Top 20 by Advertising
The greatest growth of creatives on iOS belonged to [We Heart It], an image-based social network. The app had 28K deduplicated creatives in September, up 324% MoM. As early as June, [We Heart It] saw an upward trend in its creatives. Its new ad creatives in the recent month were diversified in content, ranging from photography, food, fashion, etc. The app focused on advertising in America and China's Hong Kong region, with creatives accounting for about 47%.
[Bored Panda] had 11.8K deduplicated creatives in September, up 219% MoM. The app, acclaimed as the social media for artists, was founded in 2009. It was an Internet product combining pioneer art and pop culture. [Bored Panda] mainly released creatives in developed regions including North America, Australia, and England. Its ad creatives released in the recent month were mainly images of cute animals and well-designed architecture. Its main advertising platform was Pinterest.
[Pinterest] had an outstanding performance on Android, with 34.7K deduplicated creatives in September, up 210% MoM. Its lightweight version [Pinterest Lite] released as many as 31.7K creatives, up 245% MoM. But the two apps were different in their advertising platforms. [Pinterest] released its creatives mainly on entertainment media in the past year, accounting for as high as 41% of its total creatives; while [Pinterest Lite] released its creatives on education, puzzle, and arcade apps, each accounting for about 30% of its total creatives.
The social media [Passion] had 20.2K deduplicated creatives on Android in September, up 92% MoM. Over 50% of the app's total creatives were released in the Indian market, and about 46% of its total creatives were videos. In recent 30 days, most of its creatives were videos of Indian pretty girls and dating guide words. The social media [Helo] had 19.8K deduplicated creatives on Android in September, up 58% MoM, mainly released in Brazil and Vietnam. The app had a rating as high as 4.6 on Google Play. Since it was banned in India, [Helo] continued to release more creatives in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Overall, many social apps increased their advertising efforts in September. A few of them remained a high number of creatives for 3 consecutive months. All of that can be interpreted as a sign of a growing social media market.
