By Felicia Nwosu

A new annual report by a mobile analytics company, Data.ai, has shown that mobile apps market witnessed a leap in consumption as consumer spending moved up by 3% year-over-year on the just out-gone year of 2023.

Data.ai stated that the increase is expected to reach $171 billion across the App Store, Google Play, and third-party Android app stores in China.

It observed that the new growth was also stimulated with the rise in of AI as it flourished, which accelerated the amount of time spent on mobile apps to increase by 6% compared to 2022, while ad spend is set to climb due to the popularity of video-sharing apps.

According to the report, consumer spending on non-game apps grew 11% year-over-year in 2023 to reach $64 billion. Social apps and the creator economy drove this growth with TikTok leading the way.

It pointed out that overtime, that the surge in digital activities and deeper internet penetration has help to fast-track the height of growth, making the mobile app economy to witness a rise thereby becoming a half-a-trillion-dollar market, with approximately $1.5 billion being spent every day in 2023 on app store purchases and mobile advertising.

The result also revealed that in 2023, TikTok garnered over $6.2 billion in consumer spending, as well as an additional $3.8 throughout the past 11 months, marking a 61% growth.

It particularly noted that this does not include consumer spending across third-party Android app stores in China, meaning that the ByteDance-owned company likely earned more than $10 billion, mentioning that before the launch of    TikTok, the only other mobile apps to reach $10 billion in consumer spending were all focused on games, including Activision Blizzard’s “Candy Crush,” Tencent’s “Honor of Kings,” Supercell’s “Clash of Clans” and XFLAG/Mixi’s “Monster Strike.”

In terms of social platforms, it indicated that Tinder and YouTube coming closest to TikTok’s achievement, but still lagging by comparison in consumer spend by $2 and $3 billion, respectively. It added that with its massive global user base, TikTok coins are what sets the app apart in consumer spending.

TikTok said that its bundle of 1,321 coins for $19.99 made up about a quarter of its in-app purchase (IAP) revenue in 2023.

Due to TikTok’s recent addition of in-app advertising and expanded e-commerce strategy, data.ai predicts the app will reach $15 billion in consumer spend in 2024 — more than 50% of its current cumulative sum.