Bitmoji? That’s correct — at least according to a new report from comScore comparing app’s percent change in unique monthly visitors over the past 2 years and obviously not including games.
The custom emoji app increased their users over 5,000% since 2015, but there’s a big ol’ asterisk next to that number. As you may remember, Snapchat bought their parent company, Bitstrips, for $100m back in March 2016.
That acquisition helped them go from 1.2m to 15m downloads in a year. Turns out having one of the hottest social media apps pushing your product is a great way to get new users. Shocker.
Second and third place weren’t even close
The e-commerce marketplaces, OfferUp and letgo grew by 1,213% and 1,085%, respectively.
Compare that to the mainstays like Venmo (677%), Uber (443%), and Tinder (166%), and it’s pretty clear who the new up-and-comers are in the app game, even if they still have a long way to go for total lifetime downloads.
But the app gold rush might be coming to an end
The big takeaway of comScore’s 2016 U.S. Mobile App Report: The average smartphone user downloads zero, maybe 1 app a month.
Which makes sense when you think about it — when was the last time you added a totally new app to your regular rotation?
As companies go more and more niche, the name of the game now is who can best improve “real-world engagements” like, say, hailing a cab, going on a date, and buying a lightly-used sectional.
Or cartoon caricatures of yourself doing weird stuff.