Latin American users have a high demand for e-commerce and videogame apps. Four of the five fastest-growing countries in this category of Mobile applications are from the region.
In the case of video games, this category is the one that registers the highest demand in the application market for Latin America, according to the Mobile Growth Map launched by Adjust, one of the leading firms for mobile measurement, fraud prevention, and cybersecurity.
One in three applications downloaded by Latin American users is video games. Also, Latin Americans spend one in ten minutes of their time on the cell phone to play. This category also leads the advertising investment in mobile phones, to the point of representing 74% of the investment.
Mobile phones continue to rise in Latin America
Latin America also represents the second-fastest-growing region in mobile applications, second only to the Asia-Pacific region. As countries, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar maintain steady growth and expect that this trend will continue in the coming years. Brazil and Colombia succeed the Asian countries, forming among them the top 5.
Countries in the Asia-Pacific region also maintain leadership in service and entertainment applications. According to the Adjust report, these types of applications are rapidly gaining ground. Vietnam, Russia, and Thailand lead the ranking in growth rate.
The analysis firm believes that the growth of entertainment applications is due to the growing popularity of streaming video applications. It is expected that this trend will continue to rise and even see a more significant increase in the coming years, with the entry of large competitors such as Disney.
Indonesia is the fastest growing country in all categories of Mobile, highlighting service applications. The market in this country is a nerve center, thanks to the popularity of video and streaming applications. This fact fits with the conclusions of the App Trends Report 2019, published last May by Adjust, which designates Indonesia as “the fastest-growing market.” Together with entertainment and video games, services are another category of rapid growth in this country, mainly driven by the use of weather applications.
A new way to measure the popularity of applications
In addition to the Growth Rate, Adjust has developed its parameter to measure the impact of retention: the “Retention Factor.” This factor is calculated by dividing the organic withholding payment, which indicates the real proportion between the two types of users.
Video games have the highest retention of all categories, with an average of 34% on the first day and 15% on the seventh day. However, between the first and the seventh day, the games lose 19% of their users, the most pronounced fall of all categories. Although this decline seems very drastic, it may be related to the impact of “hypercasual” games. This successful subcategory represents a significant part of the downloads, but so far, it does not achieve lasting user loyalty. Interestingly, the highest retention occurs among American players, who show the highest rate on the first day.
«Increasing the user base of an application is an essential factor in the growth formula. However, in a market where most applications are history just 24 hours after downloading, marketing professionals should focus more on engaging and retaining users, ”said Paul H. Müller, co-founder and CTO of Adjust. «To encourage commitment and increase the life cycle of the application, marketers must be able to reach the users most likely to leave the app at the most critical moment before retention rates begin their inevitable decline, ”he explained.
Methodology
The Adjust’s Growth Mobile Map is based on data from almost 3,500 applications published on the App Store and Google Play in 2018, in 31 countries and belonging to four categories. The Growth Map collects critical parameters that include growth, retention and payment, and organic traffic. Also, it contains a crucial new metric, the “Withholding Factor,” developed by Adjust to measure the differences between the withholding payment and the organic one, which allows a better calculation of the performance of the different marketing channels. The report shows application advertisers the growth potential of global markets to help them expand their presence and ensure they grow successfully.
Based on the data offered by the Growth Map, application marketing professionals can create effective retention strategies and, more importantly, they can observe the behavior of their users to identify the most valuable and thus optimize advertising spend.