 "App usage grew 115 percent in 2013 thanks to rise of WhatsApp, WeChat and Co")
If you think the world raving about apps being the next big thing is so 2012, think twice. New data shows app usage grew by a staggering 115 percent in 2013, easily surpassing the growth rate in 2012. But you’d be surprised by the ones that have thrived the most. Over the last 12 months, mobile app usage in pretty much every single category has more than doubled, compared to 2012. Mobile firm
Flurry
, which released the study pegs the rise of mobile apps down to the burgeoning popularity of messaging applications. The one stand-out category in the overall study was Messaging and Social. The segment posted a year-over-year growth of a staggering 203 percent, which Flurry notes was
no surprise
. [caption id=“attachment_209216” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]
Messaging propels app usage (Image credit: Getty Images)[/caption] The 2012-2013 period saw Utility and Productivity applications rising by 150 percent in use year-over-year as more and more users turned to their smartphones and tablets to chalk out their day, set reminders and tasks, and even work on documents. The study notes that applications like Evernote and Quip have gained adoption owing to this need to go mobile when it comes to productivity. Gaming, a segment that was feared to hit saturation in 2013, managed to post a healthy 66 percent year-over-year growth for smartphones and tablets. Comparatively, Lifestyle and Shopping and Music, Media and Entertainment have done better, posting 77 and 78 percent year-over-year growths, respectively. The Sports, Health and Fitness segment showed a growth of 49 percent, while News and Magazines, despite all the updates to the Flipboards and Google News Stands of the world remained at a low 31 percent. [caption id=“attachment_209217” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]
Messaging apps show a staggering 203 percent growth[/caption] While the rise of messaging apps may not have been surprising to all, the breakneck speed at which it has grown, compared to the 2011-2012 period, is remarkable. The likes of WhatsApp, WeChat, Line, KakaoTalk and even Viber have been spoken about more and more in the past year. Moreover, as the younger generation of mobile and social users realised that Facebook and Twitter were now attracting older users, they took the conversation back to the place where it boomed first – instant messaging. Today, messaging apps is where the party is at, and apps like Twitter and even Instagram are trying to get
a piece
of
this pie
in their own way. The report also points out that this growth of the messaging segment is probably the reason behind tech world’s newest favourite app, Snapchat, being valued at $3 billion. Lastly, the Flurry report has also revealed that on December 31, 2013 at 11:59 pm, the firm’s analytics tracked a record 4.7 billion app sessions in a single day, for a total of 1.126 trillion sessions for the whole year. With numbers like these and with much more of the world yet to experience smartphones, it’s safe to say that apps are only just getting started.
Intrigued by all things social, Nishtha will invariably tweet about you. When not tweeting or writing about the next viral video, you will hear her proclaiming her love to Metallica, James Hetfield, Opeth, Akerfeldt and all bands that go 'growl'. She also obsesses about ACP Pradyuman and South Park and you will always find her moving around with a book. Her focus is on all the happening stuff in the tech domain, and she won't hesitate to take a shot at some of the oddball devices that make their way to our labs.