Facebook Is King Of Mobile Apps: comScore

Facebook is the top mobile app in terms of audience size and share of time spent across a variety of demographic segments, according to comScore’s latest U.S. Mobile App Report

For June 2014, Facebook generated 115.3 million unique visitors for June 2014, followed by YouTube (83.39 million), Google Play (72.24 million), Google Search (70.16 million), and Pandora Radio (69 million).

Among other notables in the top 25: The Weather Channel (29.99 million), good for the 15th spot, Netflix (27.61 million, 17th), and Shazam (18.37 million, 23rd).

Facebook was also tops in share of mobile app time spent across all age demographics measured by comScore. In the 18-24 age bracket, Facebook held 14.8% of that share, followed by Pandora (9.1%), Instagram (6.6%), YouTube (5.2%), Snapchat (3.4%) and Twitter (2.9%).

Given Facebook’s lofty position, it’s no surprise that social networking held the most share in terms of mobile app time spent at a category level (25%), followed by games (16%), and radio (8%).

comScore noted that the U.S. became a “multi-platform majority” last year, meaning that the majority of digital consumers used both desktop and mobile devices every month. This year, the U.S. also reached “app majority” status, as most of consumer digital media time was spent on mobile apps.

Drilled down further, roughly 52% of “digital media time” occurred on mobile apps, while total mobile activity, including mobile browser usage, has eclipsed 60%, with desktop usage accounting for the remaining 40%.

Among other findings, comScore said total U.S. digital media time spent has jumped 24% in the past year, driven by a 52% surge in mobile app usage. Despite the rise in mobile app usage, desktop computer usage still managed to eke out 1% growth.

comScore added that one-third of all U.S. smartphone owners download at least one app per month, with the average user in this group downloading three apps per month.

But comScore also found that consumers tend to gravitate to a small batch of apps, 42% of all app time spent on smartphones occurred on the user’s most-used app, while three out of every four minutes of app usage happens on one of the user’s top four apps.