Sub-Saharan Africa registers 55% growth in application downloads

Africa sub-saharan registered a 55% increase in the total number of applications downloaded during 2020 compared to 2019, higher than the global increase of 33% in the same period. This is according to data released by AppsFlyer, a mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform, which analyzed more than 48 billion installations of over 30 thousand applications, with a minimum of 5 installations per month.The global pandemic COVID-19 was one of the main drivers of this increase, as more people than ever were forced to be on their mobile devices this year, with apps that allowed users to shop, play, stay fit, access networks social, and proving vital during the prolonged period of the blockade.

AppsFlyer's mobile marketing analytics provided crucial data for app marketers around the world. Here is a summary of the main trends:

In sub-Saharan Africa, major application trends throughout 2020 include:

• South Africa saw a 93% growth in app purchases between April and May 2020. This compares to a 43% increase between September and November 2019

• Nigeria saw a 57% increase in organic application installations (and a 44% jump in non-organic application installations) in 2020.

• The average number of purchases per user in South Africa in general retail applications increased by about 20% between March and April

• An analysis of 27 billion app installs across 495 media networks and 14 apps revealed that Google was the best platform to boost the performance of app marketers in Africa, while Facebook was the best platform for remarketing across Africa and the Middle East.

• A platform crash showed that Google dominated Android thanks to its leap in developing countries where the operating system dominates, while Facebook controls much of iOS.