Macro Mobile Trends 2021

Sportheca
3 min readApr 22, 2021

--

Like most areas of the digital market, the use of mobile apps has also accelerated in 2020. Some of the changes were analyzed in the State of Mobile 2021 report. The report was produced by App Annie, a company that studies data from the mobile market worldwide, delivering insights for the most diverse areas.

In the last year alone, 218 billion new apps downloads were made, about 7% more than in the previous year. As App habits are not fully formed yet, this number will tend to increase in the coming years. It is at this moment that opportunities arise to attract new users and start a relationship with users directly through this channel.

Considering the amount of money spent on these platforms, consumers handled US$ 143 billion, an increase of 20% compared to 2019. This behavior shows that people are increasingly used to spending their money on digital media, leaving aside physical stores. This trend will also be of value when stadiums start to welcome fans again, who will be more likely to use their cell phones as a purchasing tool.

Still on users, the report shows the average number of hours that people spent in apps, which is about 4 hours and 10 minutes. When we take an overall look at the ranking by countries, Brazil appears in the second position, close to 5 hours of daily use. Other highlights are Indonesia, which leads the ranking, India, Mexico and Argentina.

Analyzing only the United States market, the survey pointed out that the time using mobile applications is 8% greater than the hours a person spends in front of the television. This helps to explain the growth of new forms of content, such as short videos and highlights, much more suited to the mobile format than live games. News and gaming, elements present in Sportheca’s SuperApp also fit into this increasingly valued format.

When we mention innovations and changes in the behavior of society, we usually link these facts with Generation Z. However, still on the time spent on mobile apps topic, people in the 25 to 40 age groups, millennials, and 55 to 75 years old, baby boomers, are also using these channels more. Knowing this audience’s, the favorite apps can help clubs and institutions to deliver products and services that reach all ages.

Source: State of Mobile 2021 Report — App Annie

Another important topic in App Annie’s report was the investments made in the mobile market. For in-app ads, US$ 240 billion was spent. In addition, the Mobile Tech market received US$ 73 billion in investment from Venture Capital, indicating that it is an early-stage sector, but with a lot of revenue potential. In both cases, the growth was about 26% when compared to the previous year.

Some sectors led investments in the area: financial services, transport, trade and health were the segments that benefited the most from the 27% growth previously mentioned. Features involving geolocation, cloud services and artificial intelligence have helped boost these areas. Based on that, startups and entrepreneurs who have solutions in this area, need to be attentive to also reach the mobile market, either with the product itself, or in partnership with another startup, whether from the sports vertical or any other.

The report data collaborates with some of the ideas presented in our SuperApp. A new form of contact with fans, encouraging them to access the app during their routine to follow the news, videos and other exclusive content of their club, in addition to purchasing official products, experiencing increasingly personalized experiences and many other features and news that are coming.

--

--

Sportheca

Sportheca was born to encourage the transformation of the sports industry through the production of innovation and technology at scale.