Popular Mobile Apps in The Pandemic Era: A Glimpse at Privacy and Competition

COVID-19 changed work and leisure, including more time spent on mobile apps. While this presents an opportunity for new apps to compete with established apps, it is also challenging for new apps to grow and survive, given potentially heightened privacy concerns and ongoing government efforts to tackle data issues. We present descriptive findings from a large database of mobile apps, and discuss how pandemic-amplified demand reshaped app entry and market competition among popular apps. We find th