Google overtakes Facebook as top driver of app installs, study says

Brief:

Google for the first time surpassed Facebook to become the biggest driver of mobile app installations worldwide in the first half of the year. Google increased its share of the app install market eightfold in the past five years, per a study that mobile attribution and marketing analytics firm AppsFlyer shared with Mobile Marketer.
Despite Google's surge, Facebook is still No. 1 in the AppsFlyer Performance Index for delivering "high-quality users in most regions and categories." The social network is dominant among iOS devices, driving the most non-organic installs from Apple's App Store, per AppsFlyer.
TikTok Ads, which sells ad inserts on social video app TikTok and news app TopBuzz — both of which are run by Chinese tech giant ByteDance — showed the fastest growth in driving app installs during the first half, ahead of Jetfuel Ads, Mintegral, Liftoff, Moloco Ads and GlobalWide Media, per AppsFlyer. TikTok Ads ranked No. 9 overall, ahead of Snapchat (No. 10) and Twitter (No. 13) among social media apps.

Insight:

Google's rise to the No. 1 driver of mobile app installs is attributed to the dominance of its Android operating system, according to AppsFlyer. Android powers 76% of the world's mobile devices, ahead of iOS's market share of 22%, although Apple doesn't license its operating system to other device makers. Google's growth in the reach of video and display advertisements for apps was fastest in Latin America, where it jumped 18%, and in Southeast Asia, where it climbed 8%.

Competition among app developers has driven growth in advertising on Google Play and the App Store, the dominant sources of mobile apps worldwide. Apple Search Ads (ASA) saw an 82% jump in the global app install market as the company expanded its app marketing platform among 42 countries and regions in the first half, AppsFlyer said. Apple also improved its quality rankings among all categories of apps that AppsFlyer studied, including shopping, utilities, lifestyle and culture and four groups within gaming.

The surge in TikTok Ads to the No. 9 spot shows that its platform has rapidly gained traction as an app marketing platform. TikTok Ads saw a tenfold surge in market share that included growth in Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

"The platform’s burgeoning marketing capabilities look set to go from strength to strength in future Indexes," AppsFlyer said.