Mobile Monday is the weekly roundup of the latest news, trends, and developments in mobile apps, tech, and advertising. Digital Turbine, AdColony, and Fyber have partnered up to cover news and insights in apps and games. This week we touch AppLovin’s acquisition of MoPub, predictions for the holiday shopping season, and which apps prospered during Facebook’s outage.
What’s In a Consolidation?
The landscape of mobile advertising had another seismic shift last week when AppLovin acquired mobile ad firm MoPub from Twitter. While AppLovin spun the purchase as a move that is positive for publishers and advertisers, other reactions, as profiled in VentureBeat, were more mixed. The biggest concern was that the move would remove “another independent player from the avenues advertisers can take to reach consumers”.
AppLovin’s investments into the Mobile Game space have made it so that they already are competing with many of their game customers. The reality of this acquisition remains to be seen. But vertical integration could potentially make what already isn’t a transparent attribution process even more blurred. For developers who are seeking top-line results from their campaigns, vertical integrations will likely bring questions of trust when competitors are the ones responsible for the mediation and attribution of their ad spend.
Holiday Season Expected to Draw More than 900 Million Hours on Shopping Apps
Mobile shopping saw a huge boost last year as many avoided going to stores and turned to e-commerce channels. With these consumer habits fully formed, we can expect to see a record-breaking holiday season in terms of time and consumer spend on mobile shopping apps. App Annie predicts that shoppers in the United States will spend more than 900 million hours in shopping apps in Q4 2021 — a 20% jump year-over-year. Additionally, the U.S. Census Bureau has previously reported that Q2 2021 brought in almost $225 Billion in online sales. With no signs of slowing down, experts believe eCommerce sales $250 Billion in Q4 due to holiday shopping. This aligns with AdColony’s research findings that 81% will shop online this holiday season, over curbside pickup or in-store shopping.
App Annie also points out that the U.S. will not be the only market to see a boost during the holidays. The United Kingdom is expected to spend over 145 million hours in shopping apps this season — a significant increase from 138 million hours last year. While more people are expected to shop in person this year, App Annie still estimates a 45% increase in time spent in shopping apps vs. Q4 2019 among European consumers. Even when consumers are shopping in-store, mobile apps can play a crucial part in the buying process. According to AdColony’s research, the majority of shoppers say it’s important to have a mobile device while shopping in-store and will use their mobile to look up product reviews and research competitor prices. Additionally, app-exclusive deals like discounts or loyalty programs will further drive time spent in shopping apps.
Rival Apps Rise as Winners from Facebook’s Outage
What happens when Facebook and its family of apps – some of the most used apps across the world – go down for nearly six hours? Users turn to the next best thing. Without wasting any time, users began seeking out alternatives to connect back to their networks, social media, and messaging apps.
On the social media front, SensorTower reports that Snapchat led in growth, and saw the biggest increase in average time spent by existing users climbed 23% W/W during the outage. Twitter – jokingly tweeted “hello literally everyone” – climbed 11% and TikTok saw a 2% uptick as users flocked for entertainment elsewhere. While the outage affected more than just social networking, messaging app rivals saw some gains too. Signal and Telegram both saw time spent climb by 15 and 18 percent respectively.
From a gaming perspective, this outage also had a notable impact on the video games industry, the most obvious being Facebook’s Oculus and any mobile game that requires a Facebook account, such as Pokémon GO and FIFA Mobile.
About Mobile Mondays
Mobile Monday examines the latest news, trends, and developments in mobile apps, tech, and advertising. Do you have a story to share for the next Mobile Monday?
About Digital Turbine
Digital Turbine is the leading independent mobile growth platform and levels up the landscape for advertisers, publishers, carriers, and OEMs. By integrating a full ad stack with proprietary technology built into devices by wireless operators and OEMs, Digital Turbine supercharges advertising and monetization. Looking to supercharge your mobile advertising? Check out their blog to start!
About Fyber
Fyber, part of Digital Turbine’s independent Mobile Growth Platform, develops innovative ad monetization solutions trusted by top mobile game and app publishers. Fyber’s product suite offers publishers a trusted, unconflicted alternative that drives superior results by creating an optimal connection between mobile audiences, top global brands, and mobile-first advertisers across over 40Bn daily ad opportunities. Fyber’s FairBid mediation, Fyber Marketplace, and Offer Wall Edge are all built with performance, scale, and transparency in mind. To dive deeper into how their monetization solutions put app developers first, check out their blog.
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