Monetization within the social app category has grown exponentially in the last year, rising into the third-highest download category in the App Store. And all of those downloads mean potentially big money for social app developers, with revenue increasing by over 87 percent since 2012.
According to App Annie (via The Next Web), revenue for social networking apps rose 87 percent year-over-year in January. And taking the third-highest downloaded category is a fairly massive jump, considering social network apps were in the 12th place spot in the same month last year.
As it stands, social networking apps are only behind games and productivity apps in terms of revenue for January 2013. The largest region of growth was seen in Japan, where revenues increased by ten times over January 2012. App Annie attributes this boom to the popularity of messaging app, Line.
Amazingly enough, Facebook's standalone Messenger app has overtaken the primary Facebook app, in regards to downloads.
"A year ago in January, the main Facebook app was the most downloaded social networking app worldwide on iOS for that month," said App Annie. "A year later, it’s Facebook Messenger. Building its user base on mobile around a group of apps (now Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and Poke) is the necessary fuel for its advertising monetization fire."
Also of note: Google was the top iOS publisher for January, pushing Apple down to the second place spot. But that said, Apple's Find My Friends app appears to be on the rise. Be sure to check out all the stats over at App Annie.
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