The pandemic has driven demand for online solutions across financial services business lines
Investment app usage in 2020 has risen sharply amid the global pandemic.
As part of an overall rise in fintech app usage, there was an 88% increase in average sessions per day for investing solutions between January and June 2020.
Globally, investment apps are the second-fastest growing vertical tracked by Adjust in 2020, beating out other hot verticals such as casual and hyper-casual games.
Research from app marketing platform Adjust and app intelligence provider Apptopia found that payment apps have also seen exponential growth this year; rising 49% across the countries included in the global report.
"The impact the pandemic has had on banking and the acceleration in mobile digital services should not be underestimated," said Paul H. Müller, co-founder and CTO of Adjust. "While the banking sector has been adapting to digital disruption for several years, COVID-19 is accelerating the transformation, opening up access and opportunity to millions of un- and under-banked consumers around the world."
Gains for banking apps
As people looked for solutions to help them manage their finances while navigating lockdowns and social distancing, banking apps saw significant uptake.
Users are also spending longer on these apps. In the first half of 2019, they were spending an average of 7.7 minutes per session in banking and payment apps, but by 2020 that rose to 8.35 minutes, an increase of 8.9%.
But while Japan led the way in banking app downloads, some other developed economies have seen install numbers fall.
"While broader economic trends suggest it will be a difficult time for top banking apps in general in advanced economies, emerging markets provide an opportunity for international finance apps to continue growth," noted Adam Blacker, VP of Insights at Apptopia. "Countries such as Turkey, Ukraine and Brazil are where banking is showing the strongest gains."
