“While there was already plenty of commerce-related activity on social media before 2020, it was mostly upper-funnel. “As the pandemic elevated ecommerce adoption—and temporarily slowed social ad spending—Facebook, Instagram, and others quickly expanded their social commerce offerings to help drive conversions within their apps,” she said.

It now offers a credit-checking app and financial offers based on users’ credit files. Here’s how it works:. Shawbrook will integrate open banking data from ClearScore with its decision-making technology. This lets it collect income and spending data at the point of application in real time.

Trading apps like Revolut and eToro, which added crypto offerings years ago, have also seen a rise in trading activity in 2020, with more fintechs looking to add crypto trading options. Meanwhile, financial incumbents, like Fidelity, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs, are also getting in on the action to better serve institutions. Next stage: Crypto proliferates to more financial services.

Social audio is a term used to describe a new breed of apps and social network features that combine aspects of social media, digital audio, virtual events, and one-to-one or small group conversations. Here’s a closer look at the four activities that underpin social audio. Social media: Social audio mimics many of the activities that take place on social networks.

In November 2020, Amazon introduced Care Hub, which links Alexa voice assistant users' accounts with those of aging relatives to better keep tabs on seniors from afar via Alexa's mobile app. A caregiver can send alerts to seniors and view their activity feed—giving them insights into how they are faring at home.

This is further amplified by tech companies' slick digital apps and dashboards pushing consumers to expect services being one click away. The pandemic only amplified this trend. According to a November 2020 survey from FactSet in association with global professional services firm Aon, 54% of HNW clients’ wealth management activities worldwide took place online during the height of the pandemic.

WeChat Pay was reportedly also found to have allowed transactions related to gambling and other illicit activities. The Chinese government has been cracking down on major internet and financial providers, including Ant Group-operated mobile wallet Alipay.

Activity in the field has continued, including US-based fintech Square’s pending acquisition of buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Afterpay, which in turn is entering neobanking with a savings app.

But while Stories may indeed be a popular feature for many Instagram users, engaging with them is not their primary activity. In the eMarketer/Bizrate study, 68% of Instagram users said browsing the feed was their main or primary activity on the app. Only 18% chose Stories. And on Facebook, 68% also said they considered browsing the feed their primary activity, compared with 13% selecting Stories.

It works with Alexa to report on a user’s “health summary,” activity score, sleep quality, and more. Amazon addressed the privacy issue at Halo’s introduction, assuring consumers that their health data is encrypted in both transit and the AWS cloud; additionally, it can be downloaded or deleted directly from the app. Body scan images are automatically deleted from the cloud after processing.

The combination of new mobile gamer growth and increased activity from current gamers caused time spent with mobile gaming to rise significantly during the pandemic. We estimate that US adults spent an average of 27.3 minutes with mobile gaming apps per day in 2020, up 16.8% from 2019. Time spent with mobile gaming apps will decrease by 2.2% this year, falling to an average of 26.7 minutes per day.

They might also focus specifically on converting into a permanent base the subset of customers who use mobile banking apps but only adopted mobile P2P during the pandemic and might not maintain their habits. Gains in overall mobile banking usage will trickle down to P2P since it is housed within these apps.

(Outside the US and UK, this definition also includes such activities on other nonmobile devices.). Mobile time spent: Includes all internet and non-internet activities* on all mobile devices except for voice calls on the cellular network. Calls through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or video chat apps, such as Skype, are included.

The BNPL space is already seeing a flurry of activity, and as new entrants crowd into the market, it will become ripe for a shake-up.

Infrastructure and Connectivity Are Improving. 5G will add lower latency and more reliable connections for data-rich applications. 5G’s fast, reliable connectivity will be imperative for the connected car ecosystem’s success as well as pave the way for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) applications and data-rich services, including autonomous driving.

Setting alerts for unusual activity was the most in-demand feature in this year’s study, with 56.4% of respondents rating it “extremely valuable,” yet none of the FIs explicitly offered it. Alerts for international debit card transactions will regain importance as travel picks up.

It also has an app management feature that lets merchants upload and access third-party business apps for things like inventory management, loyalty programs, and returns. Why it’s worth watching: mPOS tech offers distinct advantages for both small and large businesses compared with traditional POS terminals. Small merchants get a cost-effective digital payment and business management tool.

For now, insurance companies can look to connected medical devices to help improve their members’ fitness and activity levels. Other areas include medication adherence tracking, which is vital for key RPM user groups, such as seniors and chronic disease patients.