Global spend on mobile apps jumps 75% as Irish shoppers buy more with phones

Consumers spent $101 billion (€88.6 billion) in mobile app stores last year, a 75 per cent increase on 2016, according to a new study.

The spend includes paid downloads and in-app purchases and subscriptions but doesn’t include transactions processed outside of the key app stores or from in-app advertising.

Overall, global app downloads across iOS, Android and third-party stores in China, reached 194 billion last year, up 35 per cent on 2016.

The figures compiled by App Annie show China accounted for nearly 40 per cent of total consumer spend last year and for close to 50 per cent of all downloads.

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Games accounted for 74 per cent of consumer spend last year, while the fastest growing categories in terms of market share were video players and editors, entertainment, photography, tools and finance.

Top app publisher

China’s Tencent was ranked the top app publisher globally in terms of revenues, followed by another Chinese company, NetEast. Playrix, a Russian games company headquartered in Dublin was number nine on the list of top publishers.

Separately, a new study shows that just over half of online shoppers in Ireland now buy goods and services using a mobile phone.

The DPD surveyed reveals the percentage of people buying goods via their phones jumped from just 11 per cent in 2016 to 53 per cent last year.

In addition, Irish shoppers were found to purchase a higher amount of goods online from outside of their home country than their European counterparts, with only Croatia rating higher.

Key marketplace

Europe remains the key marketplace for Irish eshoppers with 85 per cent of survey respondents saying they had bought goods from websites headquartered on the continent. Some 66 per cent of European sales were from the UK with a further 25 per cent from Germany.

In addition to Europe, 47 per cent of shoppers said they had made purchases from websites headquartered in the US with a further 26 per cent doing the same in China.