Live-streaming, creator economy and TikTok changing social apps’ landscape
Live-streaming, TikTok and the rise of the “creator economy” are fueling the boom in social media app usage and rapidly changing the landscape, a new study finds.
App Annie’s ‘Evolution of Social Apps’ report looks at how social media usage trends have evolved over the last decade, highlighting the rise of live-streaming, the increasing focus on social commerce, and the growth of TikTok, among others.
Key findings at a glance:
- 74 billion social apps have been downloaded to date. Social apps are still in high demand – 4.7 billion downloads in H1 2021 alone.
- $22.2B have been spent in social apps to date. Spending in social apps is booming – $3.2B in H1 2021 alone, up 50% YoY.
Social app spending projected to reach $78 billion by 2025
According to App Annie, consumers have already downloaded this year more than 9.2 billion apps and are expected to spend 740 billion hours on them. That includes an estimated 548 billion hours of them live streaming – in apps including TikTok, Twitch and Instagram.
But probably the biggest highlight of the report is the rise in consumer spending within social apps, with cumulative spend already at $3.2 billion in the first half of 2021.
The broader adoption of social media apps in Asian markets has pushed in-app spending to new heights, with App Annie projecting that in-app spend will hit $6.78b this year. That’s expected to continue to rise at an annual growth rate of around 29%, which App Annie projects will see social app spending reaching $78 billion by 2025.
The rise of live-streaming
The report also looks at how exactly users are looking to spend in social apps, with live-streaming leading the way.
Total time spent in the top 5 social apps with an emphasis on live-streaming are set to surpass half a trillion hours on Android phones alone, outside of China in 2021, a 3-year compound annual growth rate of 25% compared to 15% for chat and photo & video apps.
But it’s not just viewing live-streams, it’s spending in broadcasts as well. Social apps that offer live streaming as a prominent feature account for $3 of every $4 spent in top 25 social apps in H1 2021, according to App Annie.
TitkTok has upended the streaming & social landscape
The report also looks at the growth of TikTok, which, according to App Annie’s data, has now surpassed YouTube in both the US and the UK in terms of average monthly time spent in-app, per user.
Rise of in-app purchases - fueled by creator economy
App Annie notes that a large element of this growth has been virtual “gifting”, with content creators generating big dollars from in-stream virtual gifts.
While many social apps have included in-app purchases in the past, many were one-off items like sticker packs purchased from the company. Now, in-app purchases fueling the social market spend are often tied to “gifting” content creators during live-streams.
For example, on Twitch, ‘Bits’ are a virtual good that give viewers the power to “cheer” and support streamers financially and ‘subs,’ monthly channel subscriptions, allow viewers to access exclusive benefits from their favorite creators such as custom emotes and subscriber badges.
In Bigo Live, they are beans, and in TikTok they are virtual coins which the viewer uses to buy virtual gifts that they send to the streamers.
Generally, the content creators can exchange in-app currency for funds paid out to them. Creators are encouraged to give shout outs to gifters, which creates a positive feedback loop.
App Annies estimates that consumer support for live streamers and content creators is set to supercharge monetization of social media apps to reach $17.7 billion in annual spend in 2025 – 5-year CAGR of 29%.
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