After declining by 2% in 2022, consumer spending on mobile applications increased to a new high of $171 billion in 2023, a 3% annual growth.
By 2023, the app store and mobile ad spend combined will have generated roughly $1.5 billion daily, making the mobile app economy a half-trillion dollar industry.
According to data.ai’s “State of Mobile 2024” report, this featured $362 billion in mobile ad expenditure, an 8% YoY increase.
Not only did revenue show remarkable increase to new all-time highs in 2023, but downloads and time spent also showed impressive development.
Spending reached a peak of 5.1 trillion hours (a rise of more than 6%). At 257 billion downloads, however, they did not increase by more than 1%.
The report stated that the “The uptick in app store spend is particularly notable given the unprecedented decline in 2022, which was largely driven by mobile gaming,”
Games were surpassed by apps, which propelled the 11% YoY increase in consumer spending to $64 billion, more than six times the amount from 2016.
By enabling content creators to “tippe” their work, TikTok created the foundation that allowed it to surpass $10 billion in lifetime spending.
In 2023, generative AI grew seven times faster than any other industry, giving rise to new industries like AI chatbots and art generators.
The report highlighted, “This AI growth also fueled embedded features across virtually all mobile sectors, paving the way for a fresh wave of digital innovation. Notable Generative AI apps include ChatGPT, Ask AI and Character AI,”
By late 2023, monthly consumer spending on generative AI apps also exceeded $10 million.
According to the research, “mobile ad spend is projected to reach $362 billion, an 8% increase, fueled by short-form video and video-sharing apps.”
Double-digit growth was seen in social and entertainment applications, with users spending up to 10% of their income—$29 billion—and using up to 12% of their time—3 trillion hours.
