Mobile Mindfulness and Carrier Billing

The mental health and meditation app industry is projected to be worth $2 billion by 2022. A cultural shift towards wellness and growth in consumer spending indicates that people across the world are seeing the value in meditation, with many apps now entering the ‘most searched’ and ‘most downloaded’ lists.

More than 2,500 meditation apps have been launched since 2015 with searches increasing in this category by 65% YoY. Apps can provide quick and easy stress-relieving solutions for busy on-the-go consumers, so could carrier billing add another level of convenience?

Top Meditation Apps

Strong adoption of meditation apps is most evident in North America, with Asia Pacific another promising region in the mindfulness meditation apps market.

According to Statista the most downloaded apps worldwide in the yoga and meditation category in 2020 were Calm with 5.26 million downloads on Google Play, Headspace (2.08 million downloads) and Meditopia (1.89 million).

While Calm and Headspace hold about 70% market share other popular apps include:

• Buddhify – Gives recommendations focused on what you might need in the moment, matching your situation with a meditation – whether it’s going to sleep, walking or travelling.
• Portal – Escape Into Nature – Instead of guided meditations, the app transports users to places around the world such as the Scottish Highlands or Slovenian Alps, helping you relax with the assistance of some of nature’s most relaxing sounds.
• Ten Percent Happier – More than 500 guided meditations including sessions and packages centred on how to be, for example, ‘10% nicer’.
• Waking Up – Created by neuroscientist, Sam Harris, Waking Up promises to relieve stress levels and increase reactiveness.
• Simple Habit – With nearly 4.5 million members Simple Habit offers audio meditations as short as five minutes to help reduce stress and calm the mind.
• MyLife Meditation – Prompts you to pause for a moment, check in with how you’re feeling and explore mindfulness.

The Impact of Covid-19

With the pandemic impacting everyone in different ways, obtaining peace of mind, living more fully in the moment and winding down from stressful days has become even more important to our everyday lives.

• App Annie reported mindfulness apps unsurprisingly saw a huge surge in demand, with downloads up 25% at the start of the pandemic.
• According to a report from Sensor Tower, the world’s 10 largest English-language mental wellness apps saw a combined 2 million more downloads during April 2020 compared with January, nearing 10 million total downloads for the month.
• In March 2020, meditation app Meditopia broke into the health and fitness top 10 app chart ranking at #10.
• Meditation and mindfulness app Headspace has a total of 65 million downloads and saw 90% increase in the time spent on iPhones in the US during the first week of March 2020.

How Apps Have Responded

• Headspace offered free premium services to all U.S. health care professionals working in public health through 2020, hoping to address the rising levels of stress and burnout faced by healthcare workers.
• Personalised meditation app Balance, gave away free one-year subscriptions throughout the month, Tweeting that anyone who wanted to use the service was eligible.
• Simple Habit offered free premium memberships to “all people who are financially impacted by this difficult time and can no longer afford to pay.”
• Sanvello, a digital care delivery platform with more than 3.2 million users, also offered free premium access.

Opportunities for Mobile Payments

As consumers search for ways to cope with anxiety and stress, especially during this unprecedented time, the popularity of meditation and mindfulness is growing. Many are turning to mobile to find peace of mind and meditation apps could be the go-to tools for busy lifestyles well into 2021.

Carrier billing offers simple and convenient payments, with subscription or in-app purchases billed directly to your mobile bill. Offering more ways to pay could be the key to enhancing the mobile experience and driving new revenues for 2021.