The Ever-Evolving World of Mobile Apps

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, a TechCrunch series dedicated to recapping the latest developments in mobile operating systems, applications, and the broader app economy.

The app industry continues to thrive, having experienced a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spending in 2020.

Mobile Usage Statistics

In 2020, consumers devoted an astounding 3.5 trillion minutes to using apps on Android devices alone. Furthermore, app usage in the U.S. surpassed the time spent watching live television.

Currently, the average American dedicates 3.7 hours daily to live TV, but now spends four hours per day engaging with mobile devices.

The Business of Apps

Apps are not merely a source of entertainment; they represent a significant business opportunity. Mobile-first companies achieved a combined valuation of $544 billion in 2019, a figure 6.5 times greater than those without a mobile focus.

Investors channeled $73 billion into mobile companies in 2020, marking a 27% year-over-year increase.

This Week’s Highlights

This week’s coverage includes an examination of the Bumble IPO, app store subscription revenue trends, and an interview with a developer actively combating fake ratings on the App Store. We will also provide an update on the delayed Google privacy labels, accompanied by a comprehensive spreadsheet detailing 100 apps.

Stay tuned! This Week in Apps will soon be available as a newsletter. Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters.

Top Stories

Bumble IPO: A New Era for Dating Apps

Bumble, a dating app positioned as a key competitor to Tinder, commenced trading on public markets on Thursday. The company priced its shares at $43, exceeding its initial target range of $37 to $39.

Upon launch, BMBL’s stock price surged nearly 77% to $76 per share on Nasdaq, culminating in a closing market capitalization of $7.7 billion and a stock price of $70.55.

Founded in 2014 by Whitney Wolfe Herd, a former Tinder executive, Bumble is notable for being led by the youngest woman founder to take a U.S. company public. The IPO also propelled Wolfe Herd to become the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, according to Fortune.

Wolfe Herd successfully leveraged her understanding of the online dating landscape and positioned Bumble to appeal specifically to women.

Bumble differentiates itself through features like requiring women to initiate conversations, and consistently promotes updates designed to enhance safety and protect women from harmful interactions. However, much of Bumble’s appeal lies in its marketing and branding, built upon a foundation similar to the Tinder model.

Like other dating apps, Bumble employs a swipeable interface for connecting potential matches, primarily based on visual profiles. The app also generates revenue through premium features that enhance user experience and increase matching opportunities.

The success of Bumble is rooted in the perception that it offers a different, higher-quality experience than Tinder, which has increasingly embraced a reputation as a platform for casual encounters.

The IPO’s positive reception signals investor confidence in the rebound of in-person dating following the pandemic, and the potential for early investment in the next major dating app.

Developer Battles Scammy Subscription Apps

Developer Kosta Eleftheriou, a co-founder of Fleskly, has launched a campaign against fraudulent and spammy apps proliferating on the App Store, and Apple’s perceived lack of action.

Earlier this month, Eleftheriou expressed concern that copycat apps were undermining his current business, specifically his Apple Watch keyboard app, FlickType. These deceptive clones utilized fake ratings and reviews to attract users, then locked them into exorbitant subscriptions, generating substantial revenue for the scammers.

Eleftheriou believes the core issue isn’t simply the existence of clones, but Apple’s failure to address fake reviews, which artificially inflate their perceived quality.

Although Apple removed many of the fraudulent competitors after his concerns gained media attention, he remains frustrated by the systemic flaws that allowed the problem to persist.

This week, Eleftheriou continued his campaign, highlighting multimillion-dollar scams disguised as Roku remote control apps. One app, “Roku Remote Control – Roki,” boasted a 4.5-star rating based on over 15,000 reviews. However, it immediately attempts to enroll users in a $4.99/week subscription or a $19.99 lifetime payment, despite offering a “buggy, ad-infested, poorly designed” experience, according to Eleftheriou.

By analyzing only reviews with accompanying text using AppFigures, Eleftheriou revealed that “Roki” actually had a 1.7-star rating based on genuine user feedback.

Eleftheriou argues that even when Apple removes a fraudulent app, the developer may continue to operate other, even more profitable scams.

He initiated this campaign to raise awareness about the underlying flaw in the App Store that enables these scams to thrive, a problem he believes has been ignored for years.

Eleftheriou stated that while Apple responded to his concerns, he fears the company is hoping the issue will subside.

“The way Apple tried to communicate with me also didn’t help ease my concern — they either don’t get it, or are actively trying to let the story fizzle out through some token gestures. But what they need to do first and foremost, is acknowledge the issue and protect their customers,” Eleftheriou told TechCrunch.

He suggests that Apple’s financial benefit from successful subscription scams may diminish its motivation to address the issues within the App Store. However, he believes the lack of action isn’t malicious, but rather a result of neglecting the problem of fake reviews.

Since launching his campaign, Eleftheriou has received numerous reports from other developers detailing similar scams.

“I will just keep exposing them until Apple acknowledges the problem,” he affirmed.

Subscription App Revenue Surges

Apps experienced record downloads and consumer spending in 2020, with global revenue reaching approximately $111 billion to $112 billion. A growing portion of this revenue is derived from subscription payments, as indicated by a report from Sensor Tower.

In 2020, global subscription app revenue from the top 100 subscription apps (excluding games) climbed 34% year-over-year to $13 billion, up from $9.7 billion in 2019.

The App Store accounted for a significant share of this subscription revenue, historically outpacing the Play Store in consumer spending. In 2020, the top 100 subscription apps generated $10.3 billion on the App Store, a 32% increase from 2019, compared to $2.7 billion on Google Play, which grew 42% from $1.9 billion in 2019.

Google’s Delayed Privacy Labels

Google announced it would update its iOS apps with privacy labels weeks ago. While some updates have been implemented, key apps like Google Search, Google Pay, Google Assistant, Google One, Google Meet, Google Photos, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google News, Google Drive, and Gmail remain without the required labels.

The majority of Google’s apps currently lack privacy labels, raising concerns about transparency and user privacy.

Google’s delay is particularly notable given its recent notification to users that their iOS apps were “out of date,” a mistake that was quickly corrected. This situation presents unfavorable optics for a company already facing trust issues, and benefits Apple in the process.

Weekly News

Platforms: Apple

• Apple may soon allow users to set a different default music service. The company has already enabled users to choose alternative default browsers and email apps, and a new feature in the iOS 14.5 beta suggests the possibility of setting another service, like Spotify, as the default for music playback.
• Apple Maps will gain Waze-like features for reporting accidents, hazards, and speed traps. A new feature in the iOS 14.5 beta will allow drivers to report road issues using Siri on their iPhone or through CarPlay.
• Apple is testing a new advertising slot on the App Store. Users of the iOS 14.5 beta have reported seeing a sponsored ad slot on the Search tab, labeled “Ad” and visually distinct from search results.
• The App Store announces price changes for Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Germany and the Republic of Korea.
• Apple alerts developers to a Push Notification service server certificate update, taking place on March 29, 2021.

Platforms: Google

Alleged Android 12 screenshots reveal Google may be adopting features from Apple’s iOS. These include colored dots in the status bar to indicate camera or microphone access, and the ability to toggle access entirely.

Google banned data broker Predicio for selling user data collected from a Muslim prayer app to Venntel, a government contractor.

Google updated its instructor-led curriculum for Android Development with Kotlin, a major update for course materials.

Google briefly notified users that their iOS apps were “out of date” – an embarrassing error that was quickly corrected.

Augmented Reality

Apple released a new iOS app, For All Mankind: Time Capsule, to promote its Apple TV+ series. Built using Apple’s ARKit framework, the app offers a narrative experience in AR format.

E-commerce

• TikTok is expanding its e-commerce efforts. The company plans to push livestreamed e-commerce and allow creators to share affiliate links.
• The Single Day Shopping festival drove high mobile usage. Consumers spent 2.3 billion hours in Android shopping apps during the week of November 8-15, 2020.

Social

TikTok’s sale of its U.S. operations to Oracle and Walmart is on hold. The Biden administration is reviewing the previous administration’s efforts to address security concerns.

Facebook is reportedly building a Clubhouse rival. Mark Zuckerberg’s recent appearance on Clubhouse suggests reconnaissance for a competing platform.

Microsoft reportedly approached Pinterest about an acquisition, but talks have ceased.

TikTok partnered with recipe app Whisk to allow users to save recipes from TikTok videos.

Mark Cuban is co-founding a new podcast app, Fireside. The app will allow users to export live conversations as podcasts.

TikTok expands its Universal Music Group deal.

Indian firm ShareChat will integrate Snapchat’s Camera Kit technology into its Moj app.

Instagram will impose stricter penalties against abusive messages and develop new controls to reduce abuse in DMs.

Instagram won’t promote Reels featuring TikTok watermarks.

Photos

Google Photos for Android adds previously Pixel-exclusive features, but requires a Google One subscription. The app also received a new video editor on iOS with an Android update planned.

Adobe adds collaboration and asynchronous editing to Photoshop, Illustrator and Fresco.

Streaming and Entertainment

• Waze adds Audible to its list of in-app audio players.
• HBO Max is expanding internationally to 39 Latin American and Caribbean territories.
• Picture-in-picture mode returned to YouTube on iOS with the launch of the iOS 14.5 beta.

Messaging

Facebook Messenger added new features to block and mass-delete Message Requests.

The Biden administration paused the Trump ban on WeChat.

Health & Fitness

NHS Covid-tracing app has prevented 600,000 infections in England and Wales, researchers estimated.

Fintech

The Robinhood backlash hasn’t stopped the downloads. Despite negative feedback following its trading halt, the app continues to attract new users.

Government & Policy

The Chinese government blocked Clubhouse.

A new North Dakota Senate bill proposes to ban app stores from requiring exclusive distribution.

The Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) announced Meghan DiMuzio as its first executive director.

Security & Privacy

• The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce asked Apple to improve App Store privacy labels.
• Apple will begin to proxy Google’s “Safe Browsing” service through its own servers.
• A malicious app disguised as a “Barcode Scanner” infected over 10 million Android devices.
• Google Chrome’s iOS app is testing Face ID/Touch ID lock for Incognito tabs.
• Google Fi VPN for Android is now available on iPhone.
• Twitter said the iOS 14 privacy update will have a “modest impact” on its revenue.

Funding and M&A

• 💰 Quilt, a self-care app, raised $3.5 million seed round.
• 🤝 Match Group will buy Hyperconnect for $1.73 billion.
• 🤝 Electronic Arts acquired Glu Mobile for $2.4 billion.
• 💰 French startup Powder raised $12 million for its social app for sharing game clips.
• 💰 Reddit’s valuation doubled to $6 billion after raising $250 million.
• 💰 SplashLearn raised $18 million for its game-based edtech platform.
• 💰 Goody raised $4 million for its gift-sending app.
• 💰 VerSe Innovation raised over $100 million in a Series H round.
• 💰 Tickr, a fintech app, raised $3.4 million.
• 📈 Huuuge Inc. raised $445 million in its IPO.
• 💰 Uptime, an educational app, raised $16 million.
• 💰 Scalarr raised $7.5 million to fight mobile ad fraud.
• 💰 Dublin-based food ordering app Flipdish raised €40 million.
• 💰 Jackpocket, a lottery ticket app, raised $50 million Series C.

Downloads

Insight’s iOS web browser supports “extensions”

A new startup called Insight is bringing web browser extensions to the iPhone, aiming to improve the browsing experience by blocking ads and trackers, flagging fake reviews, and more.

The app is available as a free download on iOS.

App Annie Pulse

App Annie’s new app Pulse provides a high-level overview of the app ecosystem, offering access to top charts, tracking tools, and a news feed highlighting recent trends.

The app is currently available for iOS.