App Annie: By 2025, live video streaming will power a $78 billion creator economy

live streaming applications are surpassing social chat, photo, and video applications; this year, consumers will watch 548 billion hours of live streaming in popular social applications

In the first half of 2021, social media application downloads reached 4.7 billion times, and the total number of life cycles reached 74 billion times

Spending on social apps users this year will reach US$6.78 billion-by 2025 it will increase to US$17.2 billion per year

App Annie released the report "The Evolution of Social Media Applications: Live Broadcasting, the New Frontier of Social Media". The report analyzes social, communication, photos and videos, and entertainment application categories. According to App Annie Intelligence analysis, as consumers are attracted by the real and fascinating experience of live video streaming, some apps with live streaming capabilities have jumped to the top 10 in the world.

The report data shows that live video streaming is driving user growth, engagement and consumer spending growth in social applications. It is estimated that by 2025, user spending on social applications will reach 78 billion U.S. dollars, thanks to consumers` in-app spending and the model of directly paying for the work of content creators.

Drive the creator economy

Live chat, multi-person connections, and virtual "gifts" and other live broadcast features have paved the way for creators, promoted the continuous growth of engagement in social applications, and in turn contributed to the growth of user spending. The report estimates that this year's social application user spending will reach 6.78 billion US dollars-by 2025 will increase to 17.7 billion US dollars per year-a five-year compound annual growth rate of 29%.

"Live streaming is the new frontier of social media and it is creating real economic value," said Lexi Sydow, Head of Marketing Insights at App Annie. "Our report shows that although heavyweight social media applications still occupy a considerable market share, video, New trends such as live streaming and creator economy will change the industry forever. Live streaming is a new social language that can promote real connections with communities and provide real experiences. We see that live broadcasts promote the prosperity and development of the social media field in the future There is huge growth potential within five years."

The key to the monetization strategy lies in the emergence of the creator economy-users can purchase virtual goods or "gifts" to reward their favorite creators and express their support in this form. Two regions dominate this economic form; in the first half of 2021, user spending on social apps in the United States and Japan exceeded $1.5 billion.

The report also shows that, according to data in the first half of 2021, social applications that use live streaming as an important function contributed three-quarters of user expenditures. Compared with 2018, the market share of live broadcasts driving user expenditures has increased by 24%.

Bigo Live is a popular live broadcast application that has made a huge contribution to the growth of creators' economy. The application is still a popular social application today-ranked 5th in the first half of 2021, up two places compared to 2020. The results of the report show that Bigo Live ranks among the top 10 in Australia, Germany, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.

"In the past few years, the live broadcast industry has achieved tremendous growth. Social live broadcast apps such as Bigo Live provide people with an alternative platform to turn their talents and passions into full-time jobs. Our main goal is to let ordinary people start live broadcasts anytime, anywhere. To connect them to the world." said Mike Ong, Vice President of BIGO.

In the past year, more than 500 Bigo Live podcast anchors have grown into superstars, and they have more than one million fans worldwide.

Live streaming apps are used longer than chat, photo and video social apps

In the past three years, the use time of social applications has maintained a steady growth. In the first half of 2021, the usage time of social applications was 740 billion hours, equivalent to 44% of the total usage time of mobile devices, of which 60% of global social application usage time came from the Asia-Pacific region.

Live streaming has promoted the growth of engagement in social applications, which laid the foundation for the growth of user spending. In 2021, with the exception of China, the total usage time of the top 5 social applications focusing on live broadcasting will exceed 500 billion hours (Android phones only). The results of the report show that the 3-year compound annual growth rate is 25%, while the compound annual growth rate of chat, photo and video applications is 15%. For example, across all devices, the Twitch community will watch over 1 trillion minutes in 2020.