This Week in Apps is a weekly series on the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.
According to the latest year-end reports, the number of downloads and consumer spending in the app stores combined will be a new record in 2021. The annual report from App Annie will show global spending on Apple's mobile devices is up to $135 billion in 2021, and it will likely be higher when it is released next year. Consumers downloaded 10 billion more apps this year than they did in 2020.
The apps are a big business. Mobile-first companies had a combined valuation of $544 billion, which was 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. The amount of capital poured into mobile companies in 2020 was up 27% from the previous year.
This Week in Apps gives a place to keep up with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps and games to try.
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This week's update is briefer than usual because this week is taking a vacation.
The top story.
The image is from Sensor Tower.
The number of publishers that will see their first $1 million in annual net income in 2021 has nearly doubled since 2016 according to Sensor Tower. More than 900 publishers will reach this milestone this year, up from 475 who did so in the previous year. It notes that this 900+ is broken down to 581 and 325 on the mobile devices.
Mobile game publishers have a 32% share of the total, with the largest percentage of apps that hit the $1 million milestone. Entertainment, Health & Fitness and Productivity apps had a share of 7%, 7% and 6%, respectively. More of the milestone-achieving apps were accounted for by games, with a 43% share.
The decline in the number of publishers who hit their first net $1 million in global revenue is attributed to a change in consumer behavior after the swine flu hit. The report noted that consumers in the year 2021, did not experiment with as many new apps.
The image is from Sensor Tower.
China has laws that affect the number of available apps.
The South China Morning Post reported on how China is cracking down on tech companies. New data laws and other clean-up campaigns have caused the number of available mobile apps to fall over the past three years. In December of last year, Chinese app stores had 4.52 million apps, but as of October of this year, they had just 2.78 million. Beijing further cracked down on big tech with its new data privacy laws, as the biggest declines took place over the course of this year.
The Netherlands wants Apple to allow dating apps to accept alternative payments.
The Netherlands is the latest country looking to regulate the app stores with a new ruling, that says Apple has violated the country's competition laws via its in-app purchase policies. The case in this market is unique because it only applies to a segment of the app store. Match has been an Apple critic and has been pushing for new payment policies in the U.S. and abroad. Apple has until January 15 to make changes to the App Store. The company could be fined up to 50 million if it fails to comply. Apple appealed the ruling.
There is weekly news.
A French site claims that the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will not be supported by the new operating system.
There will be no more downgrading options available now that Apple has stopped signing iOS.
The number of users engaging with apps on Chrome OS grew over the course of a year.
The broken Amazon Appstore on the devices had been preventing users from using it for over a month.
You can narrow down searches by devices on the Play Store.
Insider Intelligence is a image.
A forecast shows that TikTok will have 755 million users next year. This estimate comes from Insider Intelligence, which uses its own system for counting MAU to be more consistent across companies.
In March, TikTok will launch a delivery-only restaurant business to promote some of the most popular food dishes on its app. The company is not going into the food business, but is partnering with other companies on a promotion.
There is a message.
Meta is the image credit.
The holiday features on Facebook Messenger include new augmented reality effects from beauty experts, a holiday-themed word effects, and various seasonal soundmojis. Messenger Kids is launching a Santa chat experience.
A new interface for voice calls and other features is under development.
Streaming and entertainment.
The Live Studio Windows app is accused of violating open source licenses. The app is using code from other open-source projects without following the licensing terms.
The Verge wants to know what happened to Hifi. The high-end version of the streaming service was supposed to launch this year, but never did. What is happening?
Government and policy.
Funding and M&A.
The Continuity Fund led the $100 million Series C funding for Zepto, a 10-minute grocery delivery app. The app's valuation has more than doubled since the round, rising from $225 million to $570 million.
Truebill is a personal finance app that helps consumers manage their bills, subscriptions and budgets. Truebill's final private valuation was $530 million, but the deal was for $1.275 billion.
Playtomic raised 56 million in Series C funding led by GP Bullhound after its monthly bookings surpassed 1 million in November, up nearly 3x from a year ago. The app has 1 million users in 34 countries.
Taptap Send raised $65 million in Series B funding led by Spark Capital to further grow its cross-border remittances app, which now covers 20 countries, including those in less developed markets.
Lapse, a Dispo-like app that lets users take photos that develop in 24 hours, raised $11 million in seed funding.
The company has grown its user base from 2 million in March to 37 million, and is valued at $3.5 billion.
The Whooshkaa tech will be integrated with the Megaphone.
MoMo, a super app that offers money transfers, insurance, investments, donations and more, raised $200 million in Series E funding. The round values the business at $2 billion.
Raine Group and VNV Global led the $115 million Series D funding for Voi, an app that offers e-scooter and e-bike rentals. The company, which has scooters in 80 European cities, will be preparing for an IPO.
Triller, a live events app, and SeaChange, an adtech company, are planning to go public.
The IPO seeks to raise $165 million. In India, the company competes with Amazon and Flipkart and has shifted its focus in recent years to serve consumers in smaller towns and cities.
Downloads.
Wombo dream.
Wombo is an image.
Wombo is known for its lip-syncing app, but it is also using artificial intelligence to create art. Read the review byNatasha Lomas here. Dream will make a finished composition if you choose a style like vibrant, pastel, dark fantasy, steampunk, etc. The process can be repeated until you like it. Over 10 million images have been created by users and the app has been downloaded over 1 million times.
