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July 31, 2015, 10:58 a.m.
Mobile & Apps
LINK: operamediaworks.com  ➚   |   Posted by: Madeline Welsh   |   July 31, 2015

When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first app you open? Is it a social media app? If so, you’re in good company.

According to the latest quarterly State of Mobile Advertising report from Opera Mediaworks, which bills itself as the “first mobile ad platform built for brands,” the majority of smartphone users in the United States start their day with a social media app and end their day with an app from the entertainment section of the app store.

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That’s according to data based on the Opera Mediaworks platform, which the company says reaches 800 million consumers. Its publishing customers include Wired, Vanity Fair, and CBS.

While seeing this might make some editors want to tear out their hair, hold off because not all is lost for news producers. Among users who have downloaded apps classified as News & Information, news apps hold the honor of being the apps to which users are most loyal. According to the study: “This category had the most consistent first and last app of the day usage across the entire month. It also had the smallest relative change in its audience size between morning and evening.”

night_and_day

For app developers wondering how to find an audience, or where they would be able to best monetize their app, the results are split. In the first quarter of 2015, Android overtook iOS for the first time in percentage of revenue earned (47.66 percent of all revenue generated, to accompany its 63.72 percent share of all traffic across apps). Despite this, iOS (which makes up 47.16 percent of all revenue earned and 21.74 percent of all traffic) maintains its lead in monetization potential, or the ratio between impressions and revenue. In this, the iPad continues to be a leader — its share of revenue is 4.5× its share of impressions.

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Journalists fight digital decay
“Physical deterioration, outdated formats, publications disappearing, and the relentless advance of technology leave archives vulnerable.”
A generation of journalists moves on
“Instead of rewarding these things with fair pay, job security and moral support, journalism as an industry exploits their love of the craft.”
Prediction markets go mainstream
“If all of this sounds like a libertarian fever dream, I hear you. But as these markets rise, legacy media will continue to slide into irrelevance.”