This Week in Apps

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 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.
Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that’s up 27% year-over-year.
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 and games to try, too.
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⭐️ Google lowers its Play Store commissions. In a significant move, Google announced it would lower commissions on subscription-based apps to 15% from day one, instead of 30% for the first year, which then drops to 15% in year two and beyond (like Apple offers). It also announced that apps participating in its new Play Media Experience Program could see their commissions adjusted to as low as 10%. This program includes apps where the content costs account for the majority of sales, including video streaming, music and e-books apps. Google also competes in some of these areas with its own services and is under increased threat of regulation globally, as well as engaged in lawsuits over app store fees, including one in the U.S. with Epic Games. The new fees will kick in on January 1, 2022 and follow Google’s previously announced reduction of commissions from 30% to 15% on the first $1 million of developer earnings. Google says 99% of developers will qualify for a service fee of 15% or less. Sensor Tower data indicates Google Play saw $38.8 billion in overall consumer spending in 2020, earning it $11.6 billion in in-app purchases.
⭐️ Apple introduced a new set of App Store Guidelines which include three key changes, including those to anti-steering rules. One of the changes is the result of a previously announced settlement agreement with a class of U.S. app developers. It clarifies that developers are allowed to communicate with their customers about other payment methods available outside their app. Related to this, another new guideline explains that apps may request customer information like name and email, but the request must be optional for the user and shouldn’t prevent them from using the app. The third guideline is unrelated to legal action, and simply details how developers can use a new App Store feature, called in-app events, which rolls out next week.
⭐️ Trump announced his plans to launch a new social networking app, which of course he’s calling Truth Social. The former president was banned from major social platforms following the January 6 attack on the Capitol, for using his account to incite violence. According to a press release this week, Trump Media and Technology Group will merge with a SPAC called Digital World Acquisition Group to launch Truth. But before you go thinking Trump has built his own Twitter, it turns out the new network is actually just a fork of the open-source Mastodon codebase. Mastodon is released under the AGPLv3 license, which requires the code and its modifications to be made public. Truth has not done so, even though screenshots and investigations clearly reference Mastodon. Instead, the Truth website falsely claims all its source code is proprietary. This means Truth is in violation of the Mastodon licensing agreement, and the organization is now seeking legal counsel. Ironically, Truth is starting off with a lie. Who would have guessed it!
⭐️ Android apps arrive on Windows 11. Microsoft this week began testing Android apps on Windows. The company brought around 50 Android apps to the Windows 11 Insider Program, allowing users to try apps including the Amazon Kindle app, The Washington Post app, Clash of Kings, Coin Master and Lego Duplo World, among others. The apps will run on both AMD and Intel devices with the apps running on the Windows Subsystem for Android (powered by Intel Bridge Technology). PCs will need to have virtualization enabled, run Windows 11 and you’ll need an Amazon account to access the Amazon Appstore. Now that the apps can run, next comes the real question: will anyone care to use them?

Image Credits: Google
⭐️ Google introduced new Pixel 6 smartphones and rolled out Android 12 to the public. Android 12 is a major update in terms of the look-and-feel of Android, as it introduces a themeable, personalized design language called Material You, which lets you quickly and easily change the entire look of your phone across the lock screen, settings, notifications, widgets, apps and more. It also adds better accessibility and privacy features, new widgets, improved enterprise features and other tools.

Image Credits: Apple

Image Credits: Apple

Image Credits: Google

Image Credits: WhatsApp

Image Credits: Snap
Facebook launched its digital wallet app Novi into a pilot program that enables users to start trading the Paxos Dollar (USDP), a stablecoin tied to USD created by Paxos. Coinbase will provide custody services for the program which will first be available in the U.S. and Guatemala to enable cross-border money transfers. However, Novi won’t initially take advantage of the Diem Association’s stablecoin Diem, as Facebook says it’s awaiting regulatory approval. The app is available on iOS and Android.

Image Credits: Pinterest

Image Credits: Instagram
? A report by Bloomberg that Pinterest could be acquired by PayPal for $39 billion drove Pinterest stock up 19%. Investors liked the idea of turning the inspirational shopping platform into a payments pipeline, it seems.
? Twitter acquired London-based group chat app Sphere. The app was founded by Tomas Halgas and Nick D’Aloisio — who previously founded news summary app Summly, which he sold to Yahoo at the age of 17 for a reported $30 million. Deal terms were not disclosed, but Sphere’s team of 20 will join Twitter and the app will be shut down.
? Pear Sports acquired the popular workout app Aaptiv, which has 13 million downloads and has seen more than 36 million classes taken. The app will continue to operate and Pear says it will further invest in the product by integrating it with Pear Training Intelligence and bringing it to employers. Deal terms weren’t shared.
? Customer engagement platform Batch raised $23 million in its first-ever round led by Expedition Growth Capital with Orange Ventures participating after years of bootstrapping. Batch comes from the same team behind AppGratis, and began as managed push notification platform for iOS, Android and the web. It then expanded to become a martech platform that works with existing data sources, including CRM, CDP and analytics products. The company now counts 300 enterprise clients as customers.
? Indian social media app Lokal raised $12 million in a Series A funding led by Tencent, according to a source. The hyperlocal app helps users connect, find jobs, keep up with local information and more.
? Venezuelan delivery super app Yummy raised $18 million in Series A funding led by Anthos Capital. The app combines food delivery and ridesharing, and now has over 200,000 registered users.
? Indian fintech CRED, which helps users improve their credit by paying their credit cards on time, raised $251 million in Series E funding. The round was led by existing investors Tiger Global and Falcon Edge. Marshall Wace, Steadfast DST Global, Insight Partners, Coatue, Sofina, RTP and Dragoneer Capital also participated. The round values the business at $4.01 billion.
? Neobank Zopa raised $300 million in what it calls a pre-IPO round led by SoftBank that values the business at $1 billion. The bank offers a savings account along with credit and loan products, and counts some 500,000 users in the U.K. The company’s current run rate is £85 million ($116 million), and expects to be profitable this year.
? Neobank N26 raised $900 million in Series E funding for its digital banking service that reaches 7 million clients in 25 countries. The round values the fintech startup at $9 billion.
? South Korean travel tech startup Yanolja acquired a 70% stake in a listed South Korean e-commerce company, Interpark, for about $250 million. Yanolja is hoping to compete with foreign travel tech platforms by building a “super app” that will include more lifestyle services along with hotel, car, tickets and other travel booking services. 
? Mobile wallet provider Citcon raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Norwest Venture Partners and Cota Capital. The company allows merchants to accept payments online, in-store or inside apps — the latter of which also includes chat integration and support for WeChat Pay, WhatsApp and others.
? Mobile data intelligence startup Embrace raised $45 million in Series B funding led by NEA. The company’s Data Intelligence product helps organizations make their mobile data accessible and actionable by their business intelligence and data science teams so that other departments can use the data when making decisions about new products and marketing campaigns.
? Kakao Pay, South Korea’s largest payments app, raised 1.53 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in its IPO after pricing shares at the top of a marketed range. The company sold its shares at 90,000 won apiece, after originally marketing 17 million shares for 60,000 to 90,000 won each.
?  Mobile games company Scopely announced it’s acquiring GSN Games, a division of Game Show Network, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment, for approximately $1 billion. The deal is being paid half in cash and half in preferred equity. GSN Games operates a portfolio of free-to-play mobile and online games, including Solitaire TriPeaks, Bingo Bash and others. It has 400 employees worldwide.
? Game development studio Kazoo Games, which focuses on casual and midcore mobile games, closed on $12 million in Series A funding led by Garena. The funds will be used to advance development, hire new talent and prepare for the release of future titles for iOS and Google Play.

Image Credits: Artiphon
Artiphon debuted an app called Orbacam that allows you to create “Musical Selfies.” The app is meant to serve as a companion to the Orba, a music sequencer device aimed at amateur music makers. With the new app, users can sing or beatbox along with the music they’re creating, import videos and photos from their camera roll and add visual effects to their videos, which can then be shared across social media platforms, like TikTok. The iOS app itself is free to use but the Orba is $100. (Read the full review on TechCrunch)

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