Singapore wishes to establish itself as a ‘responsible’ hub for crypto activities. In a bid to achieve this goal, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has called for very strict verification and licencing processes for entities dealing with virtual digital assets wishing to set up shop in the southeast Asian sovereign island city-state. Singapore’s central bank has also joined MAS in suggesting a tough screening process for the businesses that expose people to high-risk assets and could potentially cause major financial damage if left unsupervised.
“The licensing process is stringent. And it needs to be because we want to be a responsible global crypto hub with innovative players, but also with strong risk management capabilities,” said Ravi Menon, the managing director of the MAS, while addressing the subject.
The statements were made by Menon during the Financial Times Crypto and Digital Asset Summit on April 27, Bitcoin.com reported.
The MAS chief noted that cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets do pose the threat of being misused for illicit activities such as terror financing and money laundering among others.
“I think many global regulators share similar concerns about retail exposure to cryptocurrencies,” he added.
In Singapore, Menon said, the track record of licence applicants is thoroughly analysed to see if strong corporate governance structures are in place or not.
Singapore also takes a tough approach on retail investors pouring money on cryptocurrencies in order to curb the risk of big losses.
A recent report has revealed that the total crypto-related crime in 2020 has amounted to around $10.52 billion (roughly Rs. 79,194 crore).
The same report also highlighted that scams and frauds are a major problem, which made for 67.8 percent of the total cryptocurrency crime in 2020.
In January this year, the MAS had published its “Guidelines to Discourage Cryptocurrency Trading by General Public”. The document warns innocent investors against making ignorant decisions.
As of January, over 100 companies applying for licences to operate in Singapore’s virtual assets industry were denied permits. Over 170 firms had reportedly applied at the time.
The island authorities, however, do not wish to ban the crypto sector.
In fact, in March, the Singaporean regulators had advised other nations also to enter the cryptocurrency space.
As per a report by research firm TripleA, over 550,000 Singaporeans — making up 9.4 percent of the country’s total population — are crypto-owners.
The country’s biggest bank DBS Group has also created a platform to facilitate digital token transactions.
Sony has reportedly told developers to create free timed trials of their games for its upcoming highest tier of the new subscription, PlayStation Plus Premium (PlayStation Plus Deluxe in India). These free trials are purportedly required to be at least two-hour long. This policy is expected to only apply to games that will have a wholesale cost of over $34 (roughly Rs. 2,600). Furthermore, developers are expected to release free game trials only for upcoming titles. Already released games and PlayStation VR titles are believed to be exempted from this new policy.
The report from Game Developer suggests that developers would be given up to three months to release these trials from the date of the launch of their game on the PlayStation Store. They would have to keep these free trials live for at least 12 months for PlayStation Plus Deluxe and Premium users. Sony is said to be even open to custom game demos. Developers are supposedly still allowed to release games for free weekends and other promotional offers outside the PlayStation Plus Deluxe / Premium tier.
Ethan Gack from Kotaku suggests that these free game trials could be developed by the PlayStation Store team, which might prevent relatively smaller studios from getting overburdened with extra work. Still, concerns remain over these timed trials negatively impacting game sales. Also, Sony is believed to be not offering any extra perks to developers for releasing these free trials.
The all-new PlayStation Plus gaming subscription service has been confirmed to arrive in India on June 22. This three-tier service is divided into the PS Plus Essential, PS Plus Extra, and PS Plus Deluxe in India. Globally, the regions that support cloud streaming will receive the slightly expensive PS Plus Premium as the top subscription tier, instead of PS Plus Deluxe.
Twitter on Thursday reported revenue and advertisement sales that fell short of expectations and were depressed by the ongoing war in Ukraine, laying out the challenges billionaire Elon Musk will face if he takes over the social media company.
The company also reported 12 million new users in the quarter, its highest rise in users since the height of the pandemic, and the mixed news left the shares up 0.6 percent in late morning trade.
The report could be Twitter’s last as a public company, although the stock price, which is at an 11 percent discount to Musk’s offer price, indicates substantial doubts that Musk will go through with the deal.
“Elon Musk is buying Twitter at a time when the company is struggling to attract new users following the pandemic-driven surge,” said Haris Anwar, senior analyst at Investing.com.
To put Twitter’s user growth in perspective, since the height of the pandemic, sequential quarterly increases have ranged between 1 million and 7 million, after growing by 20 million daily active users in the second quarter of 2020.
The company would need to add at least 12 million users every quarter until the end of next year to achieve the ambitious 2023 goals it set for itself, which Twitter has now disavowed because of the deal.
“We think macro issues will take (Twitter) further away from its previously-stated 2023 goals,” said Angelo Zino, analyst at CFRA Research. “We believe results along with ongoing ad related industry headwinds solidify the Board’s decision to approve the Musk offer, as we see little reason to believe (Twitter) could extract greater shareholder value remaining public.”
Twitter has long faced criticism for its sluggish pace of product launches. Musk has tweeted suggestions ranging from releasing a widely-demanded edit button to making the Twitter algorithm open-source.
When Musk closes the deal, he will be overseeing a company that has had long-standing struggles with internal dysfunction, indecision and lack of accountability, Reuters previously reported according to eight current and former Twitter employees.
Daily active users on Twitter rose to 229 million in the first quarter ended March 31, from 199 million a year earlier. The average analyst expectation was 226.8 million.
Facebook-owner Meta Platforms also reported a return to user growth on Wednesday, which helped propel social media stocks higher.
Twitter said an internal error resulted in the company overstating quarterly user numbers by about 1.5 million between the fourth quarter of 2020 to the end of 2021. The company said it also overstated the figures in 2019, but was unable to provide data.
Given the pending acquisition, Twitter said it would not provide any forward looking guidance and was withdrawing all previous goals and outlook. The company last year announced it aimed to double annual revenue and grow to 315 million users by 2023, as former CEO Jack Dorsey aimed to signal a reset on years of product stagnation.
Total revenue in the first quarter was $1.2 billion (roughly Rs. 9,190 crore), compared with analysts’ average estimate of $1.23 billion (roughly Rs. 9,420), according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
The war in Ukraine affected revenue growth, Twitter said in a press release.
The company earns the majority of its revenue from selling digital ads on the website and app. Twitter paused ads in Ukraine and Russia in February amid the ongoing invasion, which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation.”
“The macro environment is becoming hostile with advertisers curbing their spending as they deal with inflation, which is running at a four-decade high,” Anwar said.
Musk has said that Twitter should not serve advertising, which would allow the platform to have more control over its content policies. Advertisers generally prefer strong content moderation, to help prevent their brand from appearing next to unsuitable content.
Its net income rose to $513.3 million (roughly Rs. 3,930 crore), or 61 cents (roughly Rs. 46) per share, from $68 million (roughly Rs. 520 crore), 8 cents (roughly Rs. 6) per share, a year earlier.
Apart from revealing the number of new users added and a total revenue of $1.2 billion (roughly Rs. 9,190 crore) in the first quarter, Twitter also said that it had miscounted the number of daily users for the last three years. In the official Twitter earnings report, the social media company said that it counted multiple accounts linked to a single user. This resulted in a pumped up global daily usage number from Q1 2019 to Q4 2021. In the previous Q4 2021 earnings report, there was a 1.9 million difference between the reported daily active users and the corrected users that it published in the latest Q1 2022 report.
Snapchat now reaches more than 600 million monthly users and has over 332 million daily active users around the world, Snap announced at its annual Snap Partner Summit on Thursday. The camera app is also claimed to have over half a million partners, creators, and developers that help build new solutions on the platform. In addition to the insights, Snap announced its new features and experiences that are aimed to bolster the growth of Snapchat in the market. The company also introduced tools including Director Mode to help enhance the experience for content creators on the app.
At the virtual summit, Snap revealed that Snapchat users — aka Snapchatters — have shared content from its partner apps like songs from Spotify and tweets from Twitter over six billion times over the past year. The Santa Monica, California-based company also underlined that more than a billion Bitmoji avatars have been created by its users across the globe. Additionally, it pointed out that its developers around the world have built over 2.5 million AR Lenses that have been viewed over five trillion times.
“We now reach more than 75 percent of 13–35-year-olds in over 20 countries. And our global community continues to grow, with three consecutive years of accelerating year-over-year daily active user growth,” said Snap CEO Evan Spiegel at the event.
Snap claimed that since January last year, more than 250 million Snapchatters have engaged with AR shopping Lenses on the platform. AR shopping Lenses were first launched on Snapchat in 2018. The company is aiming to expand the usage of AR shopping Lenses on its platform by bringing technologies including Snap 3D Asset Manager. This will allow brands to request, manage, and optimise 3D models for their products in the catalogue, without requiring them to pick a third-party source.
Snapchat is also getting a new shopping Lens to let users try on outfits virtually, using Snap’s in-house AR Image Processing technology.
In addition to the new lens, Snapchat is getting a feature called Dress Up that will work as a standalone destination to let you look at all the AR fashion and try-ons from creators, retailers, and fashion brands. It will be available under the Lens Explorer. Snap will also soon bring it one tap away from the Camera in the AR Bar.
Snap announced that it is introducing a new Camera Kit for AR Shopping to let businesses use its proprietary AR try-on tech within their apps and websites. The new Kit will work across Android and iOS devices and will soon work on websites as well, the company said.
Puma is Snap’s first global brand partner to use the Camera Kit for AR Shopping technology to let its customers digitally try-on sneakers using their phones.
Snapchat is enabling brands to deploy its AR-based tech for virtual try-on experiences Photo Credit: Snap
Companies including Amazon did try to enter the space of allowing consumers to get the right fit of their clothing by 3D scanning their bodies. Similarly, many startups are working on that for some time. However, accuracy in judging cloth sizes correctly all the time, with all kinds of body shapes and sizes, is something that is yet to be achieved to a large scale.
At the summit, Snap revealed its multi-year partnership with US entertainment company Live Nation. It will bring immersive AR experiences to connect artists and fans on the Snapchat app, the company said.
Alongside the new AR experiences, Snap is enhancing Lens Studio with a feature called Ray Tracing. It is claimed to help make AR elements look truer to life on the app. The company also announced Lens Cloud as its collection of backend services to help developers build new AR experiences on the platform. It will offer storage, location, and multi-user services to advance interactive experiences.
Snap already has its Camera Kit in place that it offered to brands including Samsung, Disney, and Microsoft in the past. The company said that Samsung’s customers have played with AR Lenses developed using Camera Kit over one billion times. The company is also bringing the AR Lenses
Aside from its camera advancements, Snap at the summit announced the launch of a feature called Minis Private Components System. It will allow developers to add social experiences to Minis — bite-sized utilities and games that are built with HTML5. The feature will let developers add elements including ratings, reviews, and recommendations to their Minis on the platform.
Snap has announced Minis Private Components System for developers to add social elements to their Minis Photo Credit: Snap
Snap introduced Minis in 2020 to let developers build small games and utility experiences within Snapchat. The company claimed that so far, more than 20 Minis have been built from developers and partners including HBO Max, Poshmark, Headspace, and Ticketmaster, among others.
For creators, Snap at the summit announced Director Mode editing tools that will help users polish their content. It will allow creators to use a new Dual Camera capability to capture content from both front and rear cameras of their devices simultaneously to offer a 360-degree view of their content. There will also be a Green Screen mode to help creators work on a chroma key compositing-like experience and transform back. Further, Snapchat will also get a Quick Edit feature as a part of the Director Mode tools to let creators take and edit multiple shots.
Director Mode will initially roll out to iOS, followed by Android later this year. Users will be able to access it from the Director Mode icon in the camera toolbar or by tapping the Create button in Spotlight.
Snap also shared growth of creators building content for its Spotlight feature — which essentially works like TikTok and allows users to watch short-video content of 60-second each one after another. The company said that more than 25 Spotlight creators have syndicated shows on Discover, which were collectively watched by over 155 million Snapchatters in the second half of last year. It also noted that creators like Mia Finney was able to reach an audience of over 40 million Snapchat users on Spotlight in three months, generating six figures income from the app last year. This growth story is, though, not applicable to all creators on the platform as there would be many who are still struggling to get famous.
WhatsApp unveiled multi-device support for Android and iOS users last month. This allows people to use their WhatsApp accounts on up to four devices and one phone simultaneously without an active internet connection. Now, the Meta owned instant messaging platform is reportedly working on a new feature that will allow users to add a secondary device as a companion for their primary phone with WhatsApp on it. With this, users can link their WhatsApp account to use it on another phone. This feature was reportedly spotted on the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.22.10.13 update.
As per a report by WhatsApp features tracker WABetaInfo, the messaging service is expanding its multi-device support to secondary smartphones and tablets. The functionality will allow users to operate a single WhatsApp account on multiple devices. As mentioned, the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.22.10.13 update includes the reference for the second version of the multi-device feature. The report includes a screenshot that shows up the interface while opening WhatsApp on a secondary mobile device. The screenshot includes a “Register Device as Companion” section, giving users an idea of what the feature might look like when it goes live.
Users may need to scan the QR code with the primary WhatsApp device to complete the linking of the messaging service to a secondary device or an Android tablet. However, the report also mentioned that this feature is under development. The feature may get updated before the final release.
Last month, WhatsApp announced multi-device support for all users. This allows both Android and iOS users to open their WhatsApp accounts on different devices to send and receive messages on the app simultaneously, even when their phones don’t have active Internet access. Users are not required to keep their phones connected to the Internet to access this functionality. However, the linked devices will get disconnected if the phone remains inactive for more than 14 days.
Netflix may not be earning huge profits, but the streaming service is already experimenting ways to increase user traffic on its gaming service, which it launched last year. Back in November 2021, the OTT platform introduced 5 gaming titles, including Stranger Things, to its Games catalogue. The Netflix Games catalogue allows subscribers to download and play select games, on Android and iOS, for free. Just six months after the launch of the service, Netflix already has 18 games on its catalogue. Now, by the end of 2022, the platform is planning to expand the list of games to over 50, reports The Washington Post.
The report has not revealed the names of any of the games that will be added in the list. The upcoming titles are said to be still under wraps, with buzz around the possible names. However, the streaming service made an announcement a few days back to confirm the development around a mobile game and a TV show based on the Exploding Kittens board game. The game is all set to feature on the platform next month, while the adult animated comedy series will release in 2023.
The news around Netflix‘s expansion of its Games catalogue comes at a time when the streaming giant reported the loss of 200,000 subscribers in its first quarter. The Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted in Netflix losing 700,000 members due to suspension of services.
To cope up with the loss, the OTT platform is offering lower-priced subscription fee with advertising, quite similar to its rivals HBO Max and Disney+. Amid tough competition and password sharing issues, Netflix has now also fixed its eyes on the gaming service to earn huge profits in the market and increase its share value.
Netflix’s current gaming catalogue includes titles like Into the Dead 2: Unleashed, Asphalt Xtreme, Card Blast, Dungeon Dwarves, Knittens, Stranger Things 3: The Game, and Stranger Things: 1984 among others.
Apart from these, it also hosts a daily trivia show called Trivia Quest that tests its viewer’s knowledge through a new quiz every day with 24 questions.
Samsung has been reportedly working to introduce a new entry-level smartphone, which will be a successor to the Samsung Galaxy A03s. The upcoming model, called Samsung Galaxy A04s, may still take a few months to be announced. However, we may have already got a sneak-peak into the phone’s design and specification, as some CAD renders of the smartphone have been leaked online by tipster Steve Hemmerstoffer, aka Onleaks. The high-resolution renders suggest that there is no stark difference in design as compared to its predecessor.
Given the fact that the Samsung Galaxy A04s will be a pocket-friendly phone, not much is expected from it in terms of features. The leaked renders hint at a flat display, which is expected to be around 6.5-inch, and is said to sport a V-shaped notch at the top. The display will reportedly come with an HD+ resolution panel.
The dimensions of the smartphone, as suggested by the OnLeak renders shared in collaboration with Giznext, are said to be 164.5 x 76.5 x 9.18mm.
Samsung Galaxy A04s seen from the sides Photo Credit: Giznext/ OnLeaks
On the processor front, it is yet to be confirmed if Samsung chooses to go with MediaTek, Qualcomm or Unisoc series of SoC. The details on battery front are not out yet, but just like its predecessor Samsung Galaxy A03s, the upcoming Samsung Galaxy A04s could be available with a 5,000mAh battery that offers 15W charging.
As per the leaked renders, the right side of the phone appears to have control buttons for adjusting volume. Just like other Samsung smartphones, the power button is also provided on the right-side panel and may also include an integrated fingerprint scanner. The rear panel, as per the renders, shows a vertical triple camera setup, the details for which are yet awaited. Unlike the Samsung Galaxy A03s, there appears to be no camera bump in the upcoming Samsung Galaxy A04s. However, the lenses stick out from the back – similar to the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The leaked renders also show a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom, a USB Type-C port for charging, and speaker grilles. The left side of the phone appears to have a SIM + microSD slot.
Samsung Galaxy A03s specifications
As the upcoming Samsung Galaxy A04s is expected to be similar to the Samsung Galaxy A03s, we can take a look at the predecessors’ specifications to understand what to expect from the next offering. The smartphone is offered in market with a 6.50-inch HD+LCD display, and is equipped with a Unisoc T606 processor. It comes packed with a 5,000mAh battery and runs on Android 11 OS. Along with a rear camera support of 48-megapixel + 2-megapixel, Samsung Galaxy A03s provides a 5-megapixel front camera for selfies. The phone is available in a single variant that offers 4GB RAM + 64GB storage.
Are the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 still made for enthusiasts — or are they good enough for everyone? We discussed this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
OnePlus Nord Buds were launched in India on Thursday. The new audio offerings were unveiled alongside the OnePlus 10R 5G and Nord CE 2 Lite 5G smartphones. The latest addition to the brand’s earbuds portfolio comes with an ergonomic design and feature 12.4mm titanium drivers. OnePlus Nord Buds feature active noise cancellation (ANC). The earbuds have Bluetooth v5.2 for connectivity and are IP55 rated for sweat and water resistance. OnePlus claims that its new TWS earbuds can offer a total of up to 30 hours of playback time along with the charging case.
OnePlus Nord Buds price in India, availability
The new OnePlus Nord Buds are priced at Rs. 2,799. They are offered in Black Slate and White Marble colour options. The new OnePlus earbuds will go on sale starting 12pm IST on May 10 in India via the company website, Amazon India, Flipkart, and OnePlus Exclusive Stores.
OnePlus Nord Buds specifications
On the specifications front, OnePlus Nord Buds are powered by 12.4mm Titanium drivers that have a frequency response range of 20Hz–20,000Hz and a driver sensitivity of 102dB for better bass and sound quality. The earbuds have an IP55-rated body that is dust- and water-resistant and have a lightweight ergonomic design.
The new OnePlus Nord Buds feature Bluetooth v5.2 connectivity with a maximum operating distance of 10 meters. The earbuds can deliver a latency rate of up to 94 milliseconds with select OnePlus smartphones with gaming pro mode enabled. Further, the earbuds feature four microphones
They can be paired with both Android and iOS devices. Like OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2, the new earbuds support company’s fast pairing technology that claims to connect the earbuds with a paired OnePlus smartphone as soon as the charging case is opened.
OnePlus says the OnePlus Nord Buds alone can provide up to seven hours of playback on a single charge. The earbuds are accompanied by an oval-shaped charging case and their combination is said to deliver up to 30 hours of playtime. Further, OnePlus Nord Buds claim to offer five hours of playback time with just a 10-minute charge. There is a 41mAh battery inside each earbud and a 480mAh battery inside the charging case. The case can be charged via the bundled USB Type-C cable.
The OnePlus Nord Buds measure 67.9x 35.5x 28.68mm with the case. Each earbud weighs 4.8 grams and earbuds combined with their charging case weighs 41.7 grams.
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Google has revealed that it blocked as many as 1.2 million apps from being published on Google Play in 2021 as they were violating its policies. The company said that it introduced privacy-focussed features and enhancements to protect users against bad apps and developers, and improved data safety that all helped bring improvements for Android consumers. In addition to its ongoing efforts, Google has the Google Play Protect pre-installed malware protection that is claimed to scan billions of installed apps each day across billions of devices to limit malicious and unwanted software from Android phones.
In a blog post, Google’s Android security and Privacy team said that by blocking 1.2 million policy-violating apps from being published on Google Play, it prevented billions of harmful installations. The Android maker also noted that it banned 190,000 bad developer accounts to reduce malicious and spammy developers. It also closed around 500,000 developer accounts that were inactive or abandoned.
“Providing a safe experience to billions of users continues to be one of the highest priorities for Google Play,” the team said.
In May, Google announced its Data safety section, which essentially works similar to Apple’s privacy ‘nutrition labels’, and lets developers give users the information about the privacy and security of their apps directly through their app listings on Google Play. It rolled out to users earlier this week, and developers are required to complete the information required in this section for their apps by July 20.
The Data safety section is one of the moves by Google to help make users aware of what data they are sharing with app developers and for what purposes. However, since the onus of sharing data access information is on developers, there could be some instances of misleading details. Google, though, said that apps that don’t become compliant will be subject to policy enforcement.
Google has features including the Policy and Programs section on Google Play Console. It also worked with system development kit (SDK) developers to improve the safety of its SDKs. As a result of all these initiatives, Google said that as much as 98 percent of apps migrating to Android 11 or higher have reduced their access to sensitive APIs and user data. It also claimed to have significantly reduced “the unnecessary, dangerous, or disallowed use of Accessibility APIs in apps migrating to Android 12, while preserving the functionality of legitimate use cases.”
Specifically for Google Pixel users, Google said that its in-house devices now use new machine learning models that help improve the detection of malware through Google Play Protect.
“The detection runs on your Pixel, and uses a privacy preserving technology called federated analytics to discover bad apps,” the team said.
TikTok has surpassed Instagram and become the world’s top downloaded app in the first quarter of 2022, according to a report by app market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The short-video app, which is banned in India, managed to continue to be one of the top-five top downloaded apps worldwide. However, Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — retained its dominance in the app market globally, with Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp as the three top downloaded apps worldwide after TikTok.
Sensor Tower reports that no app has had more downloads than TikTok since the start of 2018. Since the beginning of 2022, the app has been downloaded more than 175 million times, according to the report.
TikTok was the top app worldwide in Q1 2022 Photo Credit: Sensor Tower
TikTok surpassed 70 million downloads on the App Store worldwide for the third time in the first quarter. It was driven by 11 percent quarter-over-quarter growth in Asia. CapCut, a video editing app from TikTok’s publisher ByteDance, also had the last quarter as its best to date with more than 30 million downloads. It has ranked among the top 10 App Store apps each of the past five quarters, Sensor Tower said in its 75-page report.
Alongside the worldwide growth, TikTok has emerged as the top downloaded app on both the App Store and Google Play in the US and on Google Play in Europe. The ban in India also didn’t impact much in Asia as TikTok continued to be the top-downloaded app on the App Store in the region. It also moved to the third top downloaded app position on Google Play from the fourth one in the quarter earlier.
However, on Google Play worldwide, Instagram and Facebook managed to continue to fight TikTok and retain their leadership on the top-two positions.
In addition to TikTok, YouTube emerged as one of the top-two apps on the US App Store each quarter since the first quarter of 2021, per the report.
Sensor Tower said that while TikTok has surpassed 10 million downloads each of the past nine quarters, YouTube has overtaken this threshold for eight straight quarters.
But nonetheless, TikTok continued to gain momentum in the US. Sensor Tower noted that it was the top app on Google Play for the third straight quarter, with installs up 19 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.
The ongoing trend of connecting people over virtual calls — despite the revival of physical meetings — has apparently helped Zoom to grow in the market in which entertainment-focussed apps including TikTok and Facebook parent Meta are writing new growth stories.
Sensor Tower said that Zoom had positive quarter-on-quarter growth for the first time in a year by reaching the number six position on Google Play in the US with more than three million downloads. It was the top app on Google Play as recently as the first quarter of 2021, the report said.
Apps including Telegram and WhatsApp have a tough fight in Europe. While WhatsApp managed to take the second position in the list of top downloaded apps in the continent, Telegram also had its second-best quarter in the region in the first quarter of 2022, trailing the nearly 28 million installs it had in the same quarter of 2021, according to Sensor Tower.
WhatsApp was also the top app particularly on the App Store in Europe for the seventh straight quarter in the first quarter. Sensor Tower said that it was also WhatsApp’s best first quarter of the year since 2018.
In Asia, Instagram continued to come as the top app for the third straight quarter in the first quarter, followed by Facebook. Instagram was also the top app in India where it accounted for more than 60 percent of Instagram’s installs in the country, Sensor Tower said.
Instagram was also the top app on Google Play in Asia — ahead of Facebook and Shopee. Sensor Tower noted that the photo-sharing app accounted for 29 percent of Meta’s Google Play installs in Asia in the first quarter, up from 26 percent in the same quarter last year and 18 percent in the same quarter of 2020.
Shopping apps are also seen getting bigger in Asia — at least on Google Play. Sensor Tower said that shopping app installs on Google Play in Asia grew 63 percent year-on-year in the first quarter. Top apps include Shopee, Meesho, and Flipkart’s Shopsy.
On the App Store, Subway Surfers, Wordle, and Coloring Match were the top-three games worldwide in the last quarter. Garena Free Fire, Subway Surfers, and Merge Master were, however, the top-three games worldwide on Google Play.
Wordle — which is named after New York Times’ word game Wordle — was also the top game in the US, with more than nine million downloads. It was also the top game on the App Store in the country and had the top US App Store downloads since Among Us in the fourth quarter of 2020. Wordus and Word Guess were the other two games with Wordle-style gameplay that ranked among the top 20 games in the country, the report mentioned.
However, Sensor Tower said Roblox managed to continue ranking among the top-five games each quarter since the fourth quarter of 2020. In Asia, the list of top-three games in the first quarter was the same as the previous quarter, with Garena Fire Fire leading the chart, followed by Ludo King and Subway Surfers.
“Garena Free Fire and Ludo King have been in a tight race since the start of 2019, with Garena Free Fire’s 468 million installs edging Ludo King’s 461 million since that time,” Sensor Tower said.
PUBG Mobile also returned to the top-five list in Asia in the last quarter. It took the top spot on the App Store in the continent, with 37 percent quarter-on-quarter growth. However, Garena Free Fire emerged as the top game on Google Play in Asia. Garena Free Fire Max also managed to get more than 60 percent of its Google Play downloads in Asia in the last quarter, whereas the original title took the other 39 percent, the report shows.
In terms of demographics, India has continued to be the largest market for app downloads in the world in the first quarter. It was followed by the US, Brazil, and Indonesia, per the report.
India continued to lead in the top app markets worldwide in Q1 2022 Photo Credit: Sensor Tower
Sensor Tower also noted that Meta emerged as the top publisher across the globe for the first time since the first quarter of 2020. Google and ByteDance were, though, the two other top publishers in the app market globally.
Overall, worldwide downloads of apps grew 1.4 percent in the first quarter to 36.9 billion from the 36.4 billion downloads reported for the first quarter last year. Downloads from the App Store globally increased to 8.6 billion from 8.4 billion last year, while Google Play downloads reached 28.3 billion from 28 billion, Sensor Tower’s report shows.
The report is based on App Store and Google Play download estimates between January 1 and March 31. Download estimates are on a per-user basis and don’t count re-installs and updates of the same app by the same user. Also, Android app download estimates represent downloads from Google Play only and don’t consider download estimates from third-party Android stores.
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