Four of the top US streaming services spent a record-smashing total of $11.15 billion on original content in 2021 as each platform vied to draw—and keep—subscribers. Netflix laid out $6.08 billion, more than the other three services combined. Amazon Prime Video grew its spending the fastest, by 105%, in a play for Netflix’s title as the leading subscription video streamer.
Of the 10 biggest digital retailers in the US, Carvana will see by far the fastest ecommerce sales growth this year. The online car dealer is poised to increase sales by 50.0% to hit $19.11 billion in 2022. This speedy growth will blow past Target’s 22.3% bump and Apple’s 22.0% boost.
Spotify overtook Apple Podcasts as the biggest US podcast platform in 2021, when the Swedish company drew 28.3 million monthly US podcast listeners, about 200,000 more than its rival did. Come 2025, Spotify’s lead will widen to 13.2 million, while Apple’s growth in the sector will all but stagnate.
TikTok and Instagram were once again the top US social networking apps of 2021, downloaded 94.0 million and 64.0 million times that year, respectively. Snapchat took third place with a 10% jump in downloads, leapfrogging Facebook, whose downloads fell by 11%.
The vast majority of US banks have no plans to offer some basic cryptocurrency-related services. For even the most widely adopted service—crypto investing or trading—only 1% currently offer it, and 78% have no plans to support it.
Since Facebook rebranded itself as Meta, mobile apps have been scrambling to stake a claim in the metaverse—on paper at least. In November, the month after the rebrand, 29 apps worldwide added “metaverse” to their name or description, more than double the number in October. This trend hasn’t wavered: In the three months since Meta emerged, 86 more apps have featured the buzzword in their name or description.
Among US social video viewers, YouTube is the top platform for watching short-form content, with 77.9% of those ages 16 and older going there to stream videos less than 10 minutes long. The No. 2 spot goes to Facebook, which captures a 60.8% share, while TikTok takes third with 53.9%.
Apple’s 2021 privacy updates have advertisers approaching iOS with caution and accelerating their investment in Android. Last May, soon after the changes rolled out, US Meta ad spending rose at about the same pace on both types of devices. By the end of December, growth on iOS had slowed to 3% year over year, while Android’s soared to 101%.
Third-party identifiers, upon which programmatic digital display was built, have been under fire for years. Regulatory scrutiny has heightened and consumer sentiment around privacy has grown in favor of increased transparency into, and control over, where and how companies use personal data.
It should come as little surprise that Amazon was the top US shopping app in 2021, downloaded 40.0 million times that year. More remarkable is Shein’s leap to the No. 2 spot, up from seventh place in 2020. The Chinese fashion giant had 32.0 million US downloads under its belt in 2021, 68% more than the year prior.
Netflix is the top US streaming service when it comes to original content, with 38% of the country’s adults agreeing the platform offers the best selection of original shows and movies. Amazon Prime Video comes in second, trailing by a sizable margin with 11%, while Hulu and HBO Max rank third and fourth.
Across almost all product categories, US luxury shoppers are far more likely to make purchases in-store than online. Physical retail had the widest lead in the food and beverage category, followed by watches and jewelry. Digital got the upper hand in only fashion and travel, suggesting that for many tangible luxury goods, shoppers prefer to see and feel them before spending big bucks.
DoorDash was once again the most downloaded US food and drink app in 2021, racking up 37.0 million downloads, 5% fewer than in 2020. McDonald’s jumped to second on the list with 24.0 million downloads, 33% more than the year prior. Meanwhile, Uber Eats dropped to third place with 21.0 million downloads.
Among US social video viewers, YouTube is the most popular place to watch live content, with 52.0% tuning in on the platform. Facebook ranks as their second app of choice, used by 42.6% for live video, while Instagram and TikTok tie for third with 33.4%.
Chime was the most downloaded US mobile banking app in 2021, with 12.8 million downloads, up 16% from 2020. Other neobanks had a huge year as well: Current posted 67% growth in downloads, and Varo skyrocketed to 10th place with a 529% increase. That said, traditional banks took the rest of the top five positions.
In 2021, 233 mobile apps crossed the $100 million mark in consumer spending worldwide, and just under 75% of them were games. That’s down from about 82% in 2020, as more nongaming apps passed that milestone than their gaming counterparts. Still, games continue to drive much of the consumer spending in the multibillion-dollar mobile ecosystem.
Cyber Week was the biggest ecommerce week of the US holiday season in 2021, accounting for 23% of the online gross merchandise value (GMV) from that period. The week of December 12 was the second biggest, contributing a much smaller share, with 13% of ecommerce GMV.
TikTok was the No. 1 mobile app in the US last year, with 94.0 million downloads, a 6% increase over 2020. Runners-up Instagram and Snapchat reached 64.0 million downloads and 56.0 million downloads, respectively, meaning the three most downloaded apps in the US were all photo- and video-sharing platforms.
Worldwide, digital health companies struck 990 investment deals collectively in 2021, up about a quarter from 2020. While this flurry of deal-making is notable, what’s astounding is the $44.0 billion these firms raised, double what they took in the previous year.
The Philippines and India will lead the world in retail ecommerce sales growth this year, with respective increases of 25.9% and 25.5%. Countries in Latin America and Southeast Asia will make up most of the top 10 list, while the last spot will go to the US, the only advanced economy to slide into the rankings, with 15.9% growth.
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