One of the possible ways of dealing with the overwhelming world is meditation, i.e. focusing on yourself, your breath, for a short time, trying to establish a good relationship with yourself. For several years we have been observing business development in this area – a lot of services have appeared on the market, which help us look after our emotions and mental condition, and are available to everyone.
Applications that help in meditation are the most popular in the category of self-care, and their revenue in 2019 increased by 52% compared to the previous year. Recent months (pandemic and related burdens, including emotional ones) have further increased their popularity.
AppAnnie (a company analysing the mobile app market) reports that at the end of March this year the number of mindfulness app downloads amounted to over 750,000, which was 25% more than the average in the January and February weeks. Users of applications on Android phones spent 85% more time with such applications than usual. This may also be related to the fact that major apps such as Calm, Headspace, Breethe, Simple Habbit were making their resources available for free to medical workers, teachers, the unemployed or other groups that could be more affected by the pandemic.
The growing importance of the trend is also evidenced by the fact that the leaders of this market are going beyond application platforms with their services.
HBO Max recently announced that it wants to help its users to relax, and has established cooperation with Calm (category leader) application developers. Together they will create a series based on the application’s popular Sleep Stories series – in half-hour episodes, mesmerizing images combined with content read by: Mahershal Ali, Idris Elba, Oscar Isaac, Nicole Kidman, Zoë Kravitz, Lucy Liu, Cillian Murphy and Keanu Reeves will help viewers achieve peace of mind.
A few days ago Snapchat presented the effects of cooperation with Headspace (vice-category leader) – Headspace Mini, i.e. short content that can help young users cope with stress, fears and emotionally difficult situations, will appear in the social application. In addition to customized graphics or stickers, users will also receive several meditation exercises that they can do alone or with friends.
The challenging times make it necessary to find new ways to adapt. It seems that looking at oneself as beings that consist not only of the body but also of emotions will grow in strength. You can also see that the media and brands see it, and they are beginning to explore this area as another one where you can build experiences for your consumers and users.
Sources:
https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/30/top-10-meditation-apps-pulled-in-195m-in-2019-up-52-from-2018/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/calm-app-become-hbo-max-series-1303446
https://www.wsj.com/articles/breathe-relax-check-in-on-friends-headspace-comes-to-snapchat-11595276332
