If you want to understand social media platforms’ latest updates and maximize your social media marketing efforts, it’s worth having a wider view of consumer trends and consider how people are looking to use apps to connect, in many ways, over the last few years.
Once you understand these trends, you may have a clearer idea of what people want to know about your brand – and this is where the latest report of App Annie, an app analytics platform.
The “Evolution of Social Media Apps” report analyses how consuming trends of digital media evolved over the last decade, highlighting the increase in live streaming, the growing focus on social commerce, TikTok and Snapchat growth and more.
To help you understand this report better, we made a compilation of the most important information about it! Check it out below.
Spending on Digital Media
The bigger highlight of the report is probably the increase of consumer spending inside social apps, $3.2 billion in the first half of 2021 – an increase of 50% year over year.
If you are wondering why the most popular apps are looking to implement in-app purchase, this is why. The data point to significant opportunities for those platforms that can expand user engagement in direct spending and buying behaviors, facilitating new revenue potential for platforms and new opportunities for brands.
If you haven’t connected your product catalog to Facebook and Instagram store, or aren’t tracking TikTok’s evolving e-commerce plans, maybe it is time to consider it.
The report also analyses how exactly users are looking to spend money inside social media apps, and live broadcasts are leading the way in many aspects.
According to the report:
“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 CAGR of 25% compared to 15% for Chat and Photo & Video apps.”
This is a very interesting change – between 2014 and 2018, the focus has shifted away from social media platforms and the public broadcast of their thoughts and opinions, and went towards private messages and groups, with Facebook in particular putting a lot of effort into groups as a means of maximizing their engagement in the app.
Keep an eye on live streams
Now it seems that live broadcasts are getting stronger again. Which, of course, was amplified by the pandemic, with live streaming often providing the best social interaction for those in confinement. Regardless, in fact it looks like live broadcasts are in a great moment. And when you consider the extension of this connection and socialization in the digital world, it seems likely that this trend will continue, even in the post COVID era.
But it’s not only watching live broadcasts, it is also about spending on them:
“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.”
In fact, Facebook is now testing live shopping broadcasts (on Facebook and Instagram), while TikTok also organized a variety of live shopping collaborations with major brands and platform stars.
It remains to be seen whether this becomes a larger trend in Western markets, but the opportunity is there and, as noted, it also aligns with wider usage changes.
TikTok’s incredible growth
The report also analyses TikTok’s growth that, according to App Annie’s data, has now exceeded Youtube in USA and UK in terms of average monthly time spent on the app, per user.
It has been amazing to watch TikTok’s growth, and now it’s hard to see it not converting this popularity into a sustainable business, to the company and for its star creators. The main difficulty is an effective monetization with short videos offering less potential for ads and, therefore, less income potential for the creators. YouTube and Facebook may offer better revenue opportunities, but TikTok is working to establish a more direct link between brands and creators, while also experimenting with longer form videos to facilitate more ad opportunities.
From a general standpoint, TikTok is clearly a big winner and continues to gain traction in the social space.
This also reflects in this graphic, analysing app’s downloads over the last decade.
Facebook’s power is absolutely clear, but it’s also interesting to note other trends, such as the rise of TikTok, the fall of Twitter and the resurgence of Snapchat.
After all, we can name the 3 most important trends to consider: in-app purchase, live broadcasts and TikTok!
We saw datas that led us to believe that the path to be taken must be in line with these rising trends and now it’s time to get down to business!
Do you need any help? Contact our team!
