Moloco report: Dating and dining apps to see 200-450% jump in engagement when lockdowns lift, travel apps to rebound more slowly

Moloco has found that dating and dining apps will be among the fastest to bounce back once COVID-19-related restrictions are lifted. These and other insights are included in Moloco's newly announced “Mobile Life After Lockdown” report, which analyzes data from the open programmatic advertising ecosystem to predict the category-specific impact of lifted restrictions on mobile applications. The report’s analysis concluded that:

• Out-of-home dining apps can expect an increase in engagement of more than 450 percent as mobile users return to their favorite restaurants
• Dating apps will likely see a roughly 235 percent increase in engagement levels as app users seek to socialize after a long and sometimes lonely quarantine
• Gaming apps, which saw 200-400 percent increases in engagement during lockdown, will retain the players they acquired even as restrictions are lifted
• Travel apps will be the slowest to bounce back even as local restrictions end.

“2020 was a one-of-a-kind year for mobile app marketers,” said Ikkjin Ahn, CEO of Moloco. “It changed the trajectory of many mobile app businesses, but not always for the better. Most dating, dining, and travel apps saw significant declines in engagement as lockdowns limited how people were allowed to interact. Fortunately, programmatic ad data suggests that this won’t last forever. This report provides actionable predictions that app marketers can use to strategize their return to business as usual and plan to take advantage of the many opportunities coming their way.”

To understand how the events of 2020 continue to shape the mobile landscape and what they can teach marketers about the months ahead, Moloco analyzed 100+ million bid requests across multiple countries and app categories between January 1, 2020 and January 31, 2021. The report focuses primarily on data from Australia thanks to its well-defined COVID timeline and similarity to major markets like the US and Canada in terms of market behavior.

All data in the “Mobile Life After Lockdown” report was gathered from the open programmatic advertising ecosystem via the Moloco Cloud automated mobile ad buying platform. By connecting mobile marketers to the world of programmatic supply through the industry’s leading exchanges, Moloco Cloud provides complete control over programmatic advertising operations while leveraging proprietary machine learning algorithms to maximize campaign performance.

The full report can be downloaded at https://www.moloco.com/mobile-life-after-lockdown.