Just like the rest of the world, online audiences in Europe have increasingly been turning to their mobile devices to access the internet. This progressively widespread behavior has brought mobile apps to occupy a significant position in consumers’ digital lives, as well as driving the digital market in the region. In 2022, with the normalization of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the slowing growth in the global digital markets, mobile app usage trends have started normalizing, with users in several key European countries spending between five and 10 percent more time on apps than in 2020.
Mobile-first social media apps could also count considerable audiences in the regions’ markets. In 2022, social media and video messaging app Snapchat was particularly popular in the United Kingdom and Germany, with around 18.5 million users and 13.6 million users, respectively. In the same year, social video app TikTok had 227 million users in Europe and was projected to reach almost 282 million users in the region by 2027. Newcomer BeReal – a photo sharing app launched in 2020 in France – counted 1.68 million downloads in the country as of May 2022, as well as 1.5 million downloads in the United Kingdom and over 730 thousand downloads in Spain in the same period.
Mobile apps that facilitated social interactions and communications occupied a relevant place for European users. WhatsApp was used by over nine in 10 consumers in Spain and Italy as of the end of 2021, as well as by 98 percent of the consumers in Romania and Portugal. In the United Kingdom, WhatsApp presented a reach of almost 84 percent, while Facebook Messenger was used by approximately 67.5 percent of the country’s smartphone users as of September 2022.
App downloads and revenues overview
During the third quarter of 2021, users in Europe have amassed approximately 6.4 billion downloads from Google Play and the Apple App Store, confirming the trend observed the previous year while the region was still recovering from the first waves of COVID-19 infections. Despite downloads remaining largely unvaried, in the third quarter of 2021, consumer spending on mobile apps in Europe increased by 21.6 percent compared to the corresponding quarter of 2020, reaching 4.5 billion U.S. dollars. In 2022, the app market in the region is estimated to have reached 43.6 billion U.S. dollars in revenues between in-app spending, mobile ads, and paid app downloads. The revenue per download (RPD) among European consumers is estimated to average 1.65 U.S. dollars in 2022, with spending on lifestyle apps such as dating apps reaching approximately 3.5 U.S. dollars.Social media and communication apps top the usage rankings
Given the increase in social media app usage and the growth in the time users in Europe spent on social networks during the first outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic, it does not come as a surprise that social media apps in Europe were used for around 65 minutes per day on average in 2021. As of the second quarter of 2022, 38 percent of EMEA smartphone users engaged with social media apps for around 30 minutes per day or less, while 51 percent reported spending the same amount of time on communication apps.Mobile-first social media apps could also count considerable audiences in the regions’ markets. In 2022, social media and video messaging app Snapchat was particularly popular in the United Kingdom and Germany, with around 18.5 million users and 13.6 million users, respectively. In the same year, social video app TikTok had 227 million users in Europe and was projected to reach almost 282 million users in the region by 2027. Newcomer BeReal – a photo sharing app launched in 2020 in France – counted 1.68 million downloads in the country as of May 2022, as well as 1.5 million downloads in the United Kingdom and over 730 thousand downloads in Spain in the same period.
Mobile apps that facilitated social interactions and communications occupied a relevant place for European users. WhatsApp was used by over nine in 10 consumers in Spain and Italy as of the end of 2021, as well as by 98 percent of the consumers in Romania and Portugal. In the United Kingdom, WhatsApp presented a reach of almost 84 percent, while Facebook Messenger was used by approximately 67.5 percent of the country’s smartphone users as of September 2022.
