WATERLOO, Ont. – There has been rapid growth in “heavy app users”, according to Waterloo-based network intelligence solutions provider Sandvine, which earlier this week released its 2022 Global Internet Phenomena Report.
The report “aggregates data from more than 160 Tier 1 and Tier 2 fixed and mobile networks worldwide to reveal unprecedented trends,” a press release announcing the release of the report explains.
Among the findings, is that there has been an increase in people who use over 1 Terabyte (TB) per month, with the heaviest users of fixed wireless data spending time on XBOX Live Video, Microsoft Outlook 365, Netflix, PS4 Games downloads, Discord, Twitch and BitTorrent, according to the full report.
“As a result of surging applications, it’s no surprise that our data show a sharp increase in power users,” the report reads.
“Global internet bandwidth usage spiked 34% from 2019 to 2020 and a further 29% in 2021 to 786 Terabits per Second (Tbps). We expect the average household to use as much as 650 – 750 Gigabytes (GB) per month by the end of 2021 driven by rapid growth in the digital economy, continued work-from-home trends, and more bandwidth-intensive applications that are fueling our digital lifestyles.”
Sandvine’s report also indicates streaming video was the largest contributor to bandwidth traffic.
“Our data show in the first half of 2021 bandwidth traffic was dominated by streaming video, accounting for 53.72% of overall traffic, with YouTube, Netflix, and Facebook video in the top three,” says the report. (See charts above.)
“In 2021, the top categories in descending order were video, social, web, gaming, and messaging, whereas in 2019, top categories were: video, web, gaming, social and file sharing. Social and messaging have moved up the ranks as more people turned to social networking and messaging to engage with their communities and work and learn from home.”
The report says standalone video and video as an embedded part of app mashups are both even more significant this year compared to last year.
“Video helped push social to the number-two spot, after a two-year climb from #4 in 2019, and #3 in 2020. With Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram growth, we expect usage for this category to ascend further in 2022,” the report says. “The combination of embedded video and cross-app usage (e.g. Twitter embedding YouTube videos, Facebook integrated with Messenger and Instagram) is contributing to this growth.”
Another key finding highlighted in the report is that app performance is more important to users than the underlying networks.
“This makes it crucial that 5G and Cloud service providers understand, at a granular level, the application quality of experience they are delivering to customers,” said Samir Marwaha, chief strategy officer at Sandvine, in the press release.
“That’s going to have the greatest impact on their brands and their ability to generate revenue streams within new business models.”
To download the full report, please click here.
Charts borrowed from Sandvine’s report.
