Photo and Video: Fastest Growing Mobile App Category

According to recent numbers released by Flurry, photo and video apps make up the fastest growing app category by time per active user. The company also notes the rise of smaller competitors to YouTube in the mobile video category.

Photo & Video was the fastest growing app category from October-March, with 89 percent growth in minutes spent per active user during that time span. Music boasted 72 percent growth, followed by Productivity with 66 percent growth, Social Networking with 54 percent growth and Entertainment with 40 percent growth.

“Beyond the topical Instagram success story, chances are that future hits are among these categories,” Flurry noted. “Some apps with momentum today include Path, Skout, Viddy, SocialCam, Evernote, Spotify and more.”

Flurry also looked at the monthly minutes spent per active user on Photo & Video apps, from July 2011 through March 2012. It found that in March, 231 minutes were spent with these apps per active user. This reflected a 166 percent surge from the 87 minutes observed back in July 2011.

Video-sharing apps were given credit for this increase in time spent with these apps: “Video sharing apps offer a compelling benefit to consumers, allowing them to conveniently capture, edit and share videos on-the-fly using the powerful mobile computing devices in their pockets.”

Flurry noted that the likes of Viddy and SocialCam are the “cool kids” threatening the strong grip YouTube has on the mobile video market. Those smaller competitors are part of a new wave of companies that are focusing on mobile as their primary platform.

Still, Google Sites (led by YouTube) on the traditional desktop-based Internet occupied 425 minutes per active user in March, well above the 231-minute mark for iOS and Android video apps. This was, however, a smaller gap than the 472-152 distance seen in December.

A separate report from comScore found that smartphone apps accounted for 4 in every 5 mobile media minutes in March.

While Web properties such as Google Sites, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Sites, Amazon Sites and eBay saw most of their consumption happen via apps, The Weather Channel, Microsoft Sites and ESPN saw most of its consumption happen via mobile browsers.

Wikimedia Foundation Sites saw all its consumption happen via mobile browsers in March, while Apple, Cooliris and Zynga saw virtually all their consumption happen via apps.

Sources:

http://blog.flurry.com/bid/84831/Mobile-App-Growth-Led-by-Video-Sharing-YouTube-in-the-Crosshairs

http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2012/05/apps-account-for-4-in-every-5-us-mobile-media-minutes/