Q1 2019 ‘Most Lucrative Quarter Ever’ for App Spend

Scott Harvey 1st May 20191st May 2019

New data from App Annie has suggested that Q1 2019 was the most lucrative quarter on record for app companies.

Consumer spend crossed the $22 billion mark during the period, an increase of 20% year-on-year. Downloads were up to 30 billion, a 10% rise versus Q1 2018.

Google Play saw around 70% of the total downloads, with large figures coming in from markets including India and Brazil. Egypt and Pakistan also began to emerge as important app economies.

The App Store saw more download growth in mature markets. Consumers in the USA, Germany and South Korea were behind the uptick in spend, while downloads slowed in China.

Significant industries across operating systems include mobile games, which now account for over half of all gaming revenue worldwide, and mobile entertainment, which is slowly eating up consumer attention from traditional mediums like TV and film.

Food and drinks apps saw impressive growth year-on-year, with UberEats and similar services driving the trend. Fast Food apps, such as KFC China and Starbucks USA, also made the top ten in this category.

Tinder was the top non-gaming app by consumer spend in Q1 2019, overtaking Netflix after the video giant moved away from the App Store as a distribution channel.

Facebook Messenger was the top non-gaming app by downloads, followed by the core Facebook app and WhatsApp. Tik Tok took fourth place, while Facebook-owned Instagram landed in fifth.