Downloads for business apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams rose 132% in Europe during 2020 to 705.8 million, according to new data from Sensor Tower.
It’s not difficult to see why, as more people were confined to work from home during the early months of the year, following government lockdowns.
App installs climbed 17.3% year-on-year in 2020 to 28.4 billion while user spend rose to $14.8 billion.
Zoom was the most downloaded app in the business category jumping 2670% from 2019. Microsoft Teams ranked second at 60.4 million downloads followed by Google Meet with 38.4 million.
Medical apps like the NHS COvid-19 tracing app ranked as the second fastest growing category with downloads hitting an increase of close to 85%.
Four categories saw notable declines during 2020, including Sports, Music, Navigation and Travel.
Travel dropped 20.5% in installs.
The Games category remained strong with downloads up 18.8% to 12.5 billion. Utilities ranked second highest for downloads with installs rising 9.3% and Photo & Video ranked third with downloads up 10.5%.
The report also notes that the business category saw some of the highest user spending with revenues jumping 116% to $137 million.
It was followed by Health and Fitness (up 70%) and Photo and Video (up around 60%).
Game player spending increased by 28.5% to $8.6 billion, while more people spent money on Entertainment apps (up almost 50%) and Social Networking (up 23.3%).
