Boredom Boom: How Mobile Tamed Our Restlessness
Download the full report on H1 2020 app engagement.
What do we do when a global pandemic takes away mostly every in-person activity that fills our idle time — even those Sunday errands we’d rather not do? Sink more time (and money) into our phones, apparently.
The mundane actually offered convenience and comfort that had been sorely missed during the pandemic. From banks to bars, restaurants to shopping malls, these brick-and-mortar distractions have been replaced with virtual ones. As 88% of consumers drift into “appnostic” behaviors — aimlessly browsing our phones to pass the time — COVID has further driven our social, retail, and dining escapism onto the app market.
Doubling Down on Social Time
Our pursuit of connection simply cannot be stopped. Social networking app downloads were up by 11.4% in March on iOS, with many of the top social media apps smashing their records for time spent in-app. Across the globe, social apps had stable installs, sessions, and revenue from February to June.
In the U.S., social app installs had their peaks at the end-of-March and mid-April, and revenue peaked in March before leveling out. Total revenue generally increased then dipped at the end of May. Despite this, total sessions and revenue growth have stayed higher than pre-Coronavirus days.
Houseparty stood out with some of the largest growth in March. When we’re all socializing via video chats (and maybe having a few drinks together), Houseparty’s integrated group games make an ideal way to stay entertained. Amid strict lockdowns, Spain and Italy took a massive liking to the app — seeing Houseparty downloads tower above the competition at 423 and 2360 times previous quarter averages respectively.
The Thrills of Online Retail
Shopping has been a standby in times of boredom, and the mobile app market seems to have attracted our idle habits. Just by following the money, we can see that shopping consumer spend rose 50% overall since the start of lockdown. Atop this, it’s gone up 8% in the past month, even as marketing activity in shopping apps has seen an 11% drop. That said, marketing still remains 15% higher than pre-COVID trends.
In the U.S., as COVID-19 cases climbed upward, shopping app installs, sessions, and revenue moved up with them. Latin American shopping app markets clearly climbed as well, with Mexico specifically seeing shopping app installs, sessions, and revenue increase since February.
Riding the wave of this growth, Walmart and Lululemon shined among the pack. Walmart’s U.S. app saw 11% more DAUs & MAUs since Jan 4, with total time in-app up an average of 10% on both Android and iOS through June.
Lululemon caught 31% more DAUs across the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Even downloads were up by 15.6% from January to June. Hypermarkets and athleisure fashion brands leading the way actually makes sense as people seek at-home comfort and one-stop access to goods during lockdown.
Feeding Ourselves for Fun?
In the boredom trifecta, we’d be remiss if we didn’t include food in the mix. A survey conducted by Self found that 67% of people are experimenting more with cooking, while 1 in 3 was binge-eating junk food throughout lockdown. Either way, the growth of food apps speaks volumes.
The largest food app market growth was seen in the U.S. (15%), France (15%), and Spain (25%) during the first week of March. Domino’s in the U.S. stood tall, with a sharp download spike of 54.5K on March 30 that was accompanied by a simultaneous hike in DAUs. Domino’s DAUs still haven’t fallen to pre-March levels, riding high on the lockdown growth.
Grubhub (U.S.) saw an impressive 11% growth in downloads since January, reaching 8.7M. Its DAUs were up 11.6% during this time as well. Average order sizes have grown 20% year-over-year as well, which GrubHub noted in their end-of-July shareholder letter.
Stocking up on Groceries
Of course, food includes grocery options as much as takeout. And takeout bills weren’t the only ones growing. Self also found that in mid-April, American consumers reported their average grocery trip spend had climbed to $155 each week in a stellar rise from the previous average of $69.
With limited in-person grocery shopping, apps like InstaCart grocery delivery took the industry by storm. InstaCart specifically saw 105% growth over the course of one week in early March. Meanwhile, Walmart Grocery shattered another record for its all-time high downloads on Apr 6, reaching 460% growth compared to its usual January average.
Somehow, the U.S. seems to have missed an opportunity in this vertical. U.S. food & beverage organic installs peaked mid-March, again in late May, and non-organic installs peaked mid-April and have yet to return. Especially as sessions have leveled off, we can’t help but wonder if delivery apps like Domino’s and Grubhub grabbed the U.S. market purely on brand name, or if they had some engagement techniques that their competitors didn’t.
These verticals that are primed for boredom will be compelling to watch. U.S. markets could see especially strong, ongoing food and retail growth from the convenience, while the social space ebbs in trend with the rocky reopenings and gradual return to social gathering. As the pandemic continues to change the globe, so too will the ways in which we keep from losing our minds to monotony.
Originally written by Dane White. He writes about finance and technology. Learn more about him at: bydanewhite.com.
