Global Apps in March丨AI continued to win popularity and writing assistant app tried something new

With the aid of its App Intelligence and other modules, SocialPeta sorted out the top 20 global mobile apps (non-game) by advertising, revenue, and download in March 2023, hoping to be of assistance to more people in the mobile app industry who try to understand the changing trends of global mobile market.

The overall performance of global mobile apps in March:

• The grammar checker [Grammarly] increased its advertising effort, preparing for the release of its new AI product;
• Ramadan drove an increase in downloads and revenue of the Arabic VOD service [Shahid];
• As the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship began, [F1TV] doubled its revenue, with most of its revenue from India;
• The proxy servers [Q proxy] and [FlyProxy] increased their advertising effort and achieved greatly increased downloads;

Top 20 by Advertising

The proofreading tool [Grammarly] reported an increase of 96% MoM in ad creatives in March. It's a spelling and grammar checker that detects grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice, and style mistakes.

Released in August 2019, [Grammarly] has been considered the best English writing assistant app. In middle of March, the app's parent company announced the launch of [GrammarlyGo], a new generative AI that takes into account your context, preferences, and goals to instantly generate high-quality drafts when you need them. The increased advertising effort was preparation for the release of its new product. According to SocialPeta's Advertiser Analysis, the app's advertising in March is as follows:

• It advertised in Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK, with relatively balanced percentages of creatives in the four regions;
• Its creatives were released on medical, word, board, and racing media, each accounting for around 19%;
• The words "free", "mistake", and "reports" were the most frequently used in its advertising copies;
• The creatives that delivered better advertising effects mostly focused on writing at work. For example, check for spelling mistakes in an email, then show how the app can help you deal with problems in many scenarios.

Released in October 2022, the mobile phone cleaning tool [Phone Doctor] reported an increase of 44% MoM in ad creatives in March. Besides cleaning files, the app also specially advertised that it could safely clean away the enormous useless files produced during chatting on [WhatsApp]. According to SocialPeta's Advertiser Analysis, the app's advertising in March is as follows: 

• Its advertising covers many countries in Southeast Asia, North America, and Middle East, with each country accounting for a percentage ranging from 1.4% to 1.9%. Obviously the app was still looking for its target markets;
• Its creatives were mainly released on tools media, accounting for about 21%; followed by puzzle and food & beverage media, each accounting for about 12%;
• FB News Feed was its main advertising platform, accounting for about 40%, followed by Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger, each accounting for about 20%;
• Recently, [Monster job Search]'s more effective ad creatives fell into the following two groups: one was a generally 2D animated display of cleaning phones; the other one was about its capabilities to disguise, for example, AI image conversion, video chatting, and photo editing.

Top 20 by Revenue

There was almost no change in the top apps by revenue. Let's check apps that reported relatively high increase in revenue but were not on the revenue chart:

Apple Store

• As People's demand for entertainment rose during Ramadan, the Arabic VOD service [Shahid] reported an increase of 64% MoM in downloads in March, which led to its revenue increase of 51%, making it the No.36 highest-grossing app on the App Store globally.
• The family location-sharing app [Life360] reported a revenue growth of 27% MoM in March. The app features real-time location sharing among family members and allows users to create group chats. Most of its revenue was from the US, accounting for 60%.

Google Play

• The 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship began in early March, attracting much attention to its official streaming app [F1TV], which directly resulted in the app's revenue growth of 208% MoM. Most of its revenue was from India, accounting for 55%.

• [Strava], a social media and fitness-tracking app, recorded a revenue growth of 69% MoM, ranking No.45 on the global revenue chart on Google Play. Most of its revenue was contributed by India, Brazil, and Indonesia, accounting for 21%, 15%, and 9%, respectively.

Top 20 by Download

Also, let's check apps that reported a relatively high increase in downloads but were not among the top 20 apps by download:

App Store

• [Amazon Prime Video], a streaming video app released globally by Amazon, ranked No.40 on the global downloads chart on the App Store, with its downloads increasing by 41% MoM. Most of its downloads were from the US, accounting for 31%, followed by Japan, accounting for 23%.
• In early March, the Bank of Brazil offered "redemption" options, leading to record-high views on [gov.br], the digital service platform of the Brazilian government. [gov.br]'s downloads grew by 57% MoM in March, making it the No.56 on the global downloads chart on the App Store.

Google Play

• Released in November 2022, [FlyProxy] is an app for unblocking websites, Wi-Fi security and privacy protection. The app's downloads increased by 110% MoM in March, with 76% of its downloads from India. The high increase in downloads was not surprising at all because the app had as many as 28K deduplicated creatives on Android in March.
• [Q proxy] is a web accelerator app released by PRIME DIGITAL in February 2023. The app's downloads grew by 1195% MoM in March. Most of its downloads were from India, accounting for 58%, followed by Pakistan, accounting for 24%.