This Week in Apps: Mobile gaming’s market share hit, web3 app growth, Niantic’s new AR tools

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS, Google Play and third-party Android app stores in China grew 19% in 2021 to reach $170 billion. Downloads of apps also grew by 5%, reaching 230 billion in 2021, and mobile ad spend grew 23% year over year to reach $295 billion.

Today’s consumers now spend more time in apps than ever before — even topping the time they spend watching TV, in some cases. The average American watches 3.1 hours of TV per day, for example, but in 2021, they spent 4.1 hours on their mobile device. And they’re not even the world’s heaviest mobile users. In markets like Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea, users surpassed five hours per day in mobile apps in 2021.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours, either. They can grow to become huge businesses. In 2021, 233 apps and games generated over $100 million in consumer spend, and 13 topped $1 billion in revenue. This was up 20% from 2020, when 193 apps and games topped $100 million in annual consumer spend, and just eight apps topped $1 billion.

This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place, with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps to try, too.

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Top Stories

Web3 apps are growing

Image Credits: Apptopia

A report from Apptopia has found the number of mobile applications describing themselves as “web3” apps has continued to grow from 2020 through 2022. So far this year, the number of web3 apps available for download is growing nearly 5x faster compared with 2021, and year-to-date, the number of apps available for download is up by 88%.

The firm analyzed data across the App Store and Google play, looking for any apps with “web3” in the title, subtitle or app description. Many of these apps — around 46% — were those in the finance space. This has to do with the large number of mobile wallets, NFT apps and the like now crowding the app stores. Much smaller percentages were found in apps in the social, tools/utilities, business and gaming categories.

However, despite the growth in the availability of web3 apps, the number of downloads the apps are seeing seems to ebb and flow, Apptopia noted. In addition, it found that NFT marketplace apps OpenSea and Veve were down 90%+ off their highs, and the top 50 crypto apps have seen downloads fall 64% since November. Meanwhile, web3 apps …read more

https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/28/this-week-in-apps-mobile-gamings-marketshare-hit-web3-app-growth-niantics-new-ar-tools/

Footnotes on Sequoia’s startup memo

Pitch Deck Teardown

Our own

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

Sequoia takes things seriously. The storied venture firm is known to react to macro-economic events with grand memos aimed at portfolio companies, and sometimes the entrepreneurship scene at large. Most recently, Sequoia created a 52-slide deck, first reported by The Information, titled Adapting to Endure; the document reads like a follow-up course to its infamously ill-timed “Coronavirus: The Black Swan of 2020” memo of March 2020.

The firm is not always right in its prognostications — which is maybe why it stuck to internal musings instead of a Medium post this time — but it does do a service in providing a snapshot of how one of the most weathered, and successful, firms of all time thinks about a looming downturn.

“Our intention in gathering today is not to be a beacon of gloom,” the deck reads. “But we also believe that winning in the years ahead is going to depend on making hard, decisive choices confronting uncomfortable challenges that may have been masked during the exuberance and distortions of free capital over the past two years.”

Sequoia’s advice largely followed the same script that other venture firms have been using: extend runway, focus on sustainable growth and recognize that an economic recovery may be a ways away. There were, however, some tidbits that stood out, such as a subtweet I’m guessing is for Tiger Global and a precise explanation of how founders should define fluff these days.

For my full take on this topic, read my TechCrunch+ column, “Sequoia is the latest VC firm that wants you to take the downturn seriously.” In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll bring in a founder’s perspective on this moment in tech, a pitch deck teardown and a deal that may have flown under your radar this week. As always, you can support me by forwarding this newsletter to a friend or following me on Twitter or subscribing to my blog.

Let’s have a Heart to Heart

On Equity this week, Heart to Heart CEO Josh Ogundu joined us to talk about his perspective on the market for early-stage founders. Ogundu told us what he’s rethinking, the importance of honesty and what to do before considering a layoff. It’s not too often that we have guests on the show, so when we do, you know it’s going to be a good one.

Here’s why it’s important: So much of the advice, as this newsletter’s intro shows, has come from investors. Yet, founders are the ones living the change and making the hard decisions, so consider this episode an overdue reality check.

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Pitch Deck Teardown

Our own Haje Jan Kamps has started a weekly series in which he reviews a startup’s pitch deck in …read more

https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/28/footnotes-on-sequoias-startup-memo/

The TechCrunch Podcast: Why do people keep giving Adam Neumann money?

Welcome to the second episode of The TechCrunch Podcast, our weekly news show bringing you all the top stories in tech. This week, we sat down with TC writers Natasha Mascarenhas, Anita Ramaswamy and Devin Coldewey to talk about the continued, troubling trend of layoffs in tech; Adam Neumann’s new crypto carbon credit startup (?!); and the one-upmanship among AI image generation technologies happening between OpenAI and Google.

Listen below, and subscribe in iTunes or Spotify to get new episodes delivered weekly on Saturdays!

Articles from the episode:

Other news from the week:

Extras:

 

…read more

https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/28/the-techcrunch-podcast-why-do-people-keep-giving-adam-neumann-money/

In India’s Mobile-Payments Boom, Even Beggars Get QR Codes

Walmart’s Flipkart, Google dominate the world’s busiest digital-transaction market, but profits prove elusive.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-indias-mobile-payments-boom-even-beggars-get-qr-codes-11653653383?mod=rss_Technology

China Excels in Google Rankings on Xinjiang and Covid-19 Searches

China’s global campaign to expand the reach of its political positions is helping it secure a coveted piece of online real estate: first-page search results on Google and other major Western portals.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-excels-in-google-rankings-on-xinjiang-and-covid-19-searches-11653645601?mod=rss_Technology

DNA of Pompeii Man Yields Secrets 2,000 Years Later

For the first time, scientists have identified the entire genetic makeup of a victim of the deadly Mount Vesuvius eruption nearly 2,000 years ago.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/dna-of-pompeii-man-killed-during-vesuvius-eruption-yields-its-secrets-almost-2-000-years-later-11653577200?mod=rss_Technology

Fed Official Says Digital Dollar Could Coexist With Stablecoins

Lael Brainard testified before a House committee on the benefits and risks of a central bank digital currency.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/feds-brainard-to-tell-panel-digital-dollar-could-coexist-with-stablecoins-11653570037?mod=rss_Technology

Refurbished Gear From Phones to Drills: It’s Cheap, But What’s the Catch?

Thanks in part to startups like Back Market and Decluttr, carefully renewed tech and appliances are easier to buy than ever. A guide to overcoming hesitations.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/refurbished-tech-phones-vacuums-guide-11653510485?mod=rss_Technology

Alibaba, Hit by Covid in China, Posts Slowest Revenue Growth Since IPO

The e-commerce company posted a larger net loss compared with a year before.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/alibaba-hit-by-covid-in-china-posts-slowest-revenue-growth-since-ipo-11653566223?mod=rss_Technology

Broadcom to Buy VMware for $61 Billion

The cash-and-stock deal marks the biggest bet yet that the boom in enterprise software demand will endure despite the economic tumult.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/broadcom-to-buy-vmware-for-61-billion-11653563847?mod=rss_Technology