Growth of livestreaming to push spending on apps

Livestreaming has evolved during the pandemic. A report by App Annie titled ‘The Evolution of Social Media’ found that US$78-billion is expected to be spent in social apps through to 2025. Consumers are anticipated to spend US$6.78-billion via social apps this year, rising to US$17.7-billion in annual spend in 2025. This amounts to a five-year compounded annual growth rate of 29%.

This growth comes from livestreaming features such as real-time chats, multi-guest rooms and virtual ‘gifting’. According to the report, livestreaming apps increased market share of consumer spend by 24 percentage points from 2018. This forms 76.24% of consumer spend now compared to chat apps (18.81%) and photo and video apps (4.95%). 

Meanwhile, social apps that offer livestreaming as a prominent feature accounted for US$3 of every US$4 spent in top 25 social apps in the first half of this year.

Livestreaming is the new frontier 

The total time spent on the top five social apps with an emphasis on livestreaming are predicted to surpass half a trillion hours on Android phones alone. 

The US, Japan and China accounted for 60% of consumer spend in social apps during the first half of the year. The US, in particular, emerged as the top market for consumer spend in social apps, with a spend of 1.7 times more than second-placed Japan. 

Globally, YouTube emerged as the top app with the most consumer spend, followed by TikTok, Disney+, Tencent Video, Bigo Live, Twitch, HBO Max, iQIYI, Netflix and QQ Music.

Source: Marketing Interactive