US social app spending grows to 5 times its pre-pandemic level

For more insights and key statistics on the biggest trends in today’s most disruptive industries, subscribe to our Chart of the Day newsletter.

US consumers spent $2.17 billion on social media apps in 2022, nearly half a billion more than the year before, according to data.ai. Worldwide, social app spend hit $7.28 billion last year, up from $6.32 billion in 2021.

Beyond the chart: The US accounts for nearly 30% of social app spend worldwide. The biggest driver of this spend is TikTok, where higher-priced purchases within the app are pushing up revenues.

The challenge for competitors like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat is not just to convince users to buy within the app, but to make expensive purchases there as well.

More like this:

• More brands are now testing TikTok’s Shop feature in the US
• Momentum builds in Congress to crack down on TikTok
• Instagram offers another sign that livestream shopping isn’t ready for primetime in the US
• 5 things to know about the buzzy Chinese shopping app Temu
• Yesterday’s Chart of the Day: Life of the third party

Methodology: Data is from a January 2023 Data.ai report titled "State of Mobile 2023." App engagement estimates were generated via the Data.ai Intelligence global consumer panel of millions of active users. Spending data represents gross consumer spend on the Apple App Store and Google Play from paid downloads and in-app purchases, before the app stores take their fee. In-app advertising revenues are excluded. App publishers may occasionally shift an existing app from one category to another; in these cases, that app based on its categorization at the time of this report's writing. Push notifications are not considered active use and do not count towards estimates of users, sessions, or session time. Data.ai is a mobile data and analytics platform.