During the coronavirus pandemic, people not only spend more time at home but also on their smartphones. They download more new apps than ever before and spend more money on them. This comes from statistics from the market analysis company App Annie.

According to this, users last year 218 Billions of new mobile apps downloaded, seven percent more than 2019. Mobile phone users in the app stores from Apple, Google and the Android derivatives in China have a total of 143 billion US Dollars (about 125 million euros after the annual mean exchange rate), an increase of 20 percent. The average mobile phone time around the world is 4 hours by the same percentage and 10 Minutes increased daily.

Mobile phone usage in Europe below average Users in Europe spend less time on Cell phone than the global average. In Germany, for example, it was only a little over two and a half hours a day. But that’s ten minutes more than 2019.

According to the Statistics last year 2.2 billion new apps downloaded and in the app stores of Apple and Google 3, 12 billion dollars (2, 45 billion euros) spent. In Austria it was 400 millions of new apps and 230 million dollars (202 Million Euros). Although Switzerland has fewer inhabitants, users there 610 downloaded millions of new apps and 240 million dollars (210 million euros) spent. German users were on average significantly more generous than Austrians for new apps, and much more generous than Swiss.

Mobile phone usage is not only increasing among younger users in Germany. Generation Z at the age of 16 to 24 recorded a year-on-year increase of 11 Percent increased usage time, the greatest increase. Generation X 45 also spent seven percent more time on the smartphone than in the previous year. Millenials aged 25 to 44 years have only increased their cell phone usage time by three percent.

Social networks, video streaming and delivery services Mobile phone users spend a lot of their time on social networks. TikTok is the big winner. The video portal with its short amateur clips was 2019 behind WhatsApp and Facebook in terms of usage times in Germany. 2020 TikTok was able to reduce its usage times to an average of 19 more than double hours per month. That is significantly more than WhatsApp (less than 11 hours per month) or Facebook (eleven and a half hours per month).

Video streaming on smartphones stopped last year at 40 percent increased. However, the use of YouTube has decreased in Germany, from almost 13 hours to around 12, 5 hours a month. It looks similar with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Users who are more at home can use larger screens such as TV, PC or laptop more often. Apps like the game streaming service Twitch and the Joyn Mediathek from ProSiebenSat.1 were able to grow last year.

Delivery services for food or recipe information were further winners for the most popular mobile apps in times of the pandemic. The usage times of delivery services in Germany have increased by more than half over the last year. According to the market researchers from App Annie, the coronavirus pandemic and the exit restrictions have led to cell phone use rising as much within one year as it did in three years.

(fds)